Volpe compares Tories to the Klan for Librano$ joke 
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch Updated 8:00 p.m. May 3, 2005]

Jean Brault, Scott Brison, Benoit Corbeil, Jean Carle, Alfonso Gagliano, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and Chuck Guite are depicted in this image which has Immigration Minister Joe Volpe steamed.

OTTAWA  — The war of words escalated on Parliament Hill Tuesday when Immigration Minister Joe Volpe compared the Conservative party to the Ku Klux Klan after two Tory MPs appeared to compare the Liberals to a television crime family. 

The Conservative Party immediately called for Volpe to retract his comments. 

Two Conservative MPs appeared in a Canadian Press photo that was carried in the Ottawa Sun Tuesday holding a "The Librano$" mock movie poster featuring images of Adscam figures. The Librano$ title is a parody on the popular HBO television show The Sopranos, which follows the exploits of a New Jersey crime syndicate family.

The poster was included in the latest issue of the popular conservative magazine  The Western Standard. 

Volpe held a copy of The Sun in his hand in the foyer of the House of Commons and accused the Conservative MPs - Lee Richardson and Werner Schmidt - of holding improper views about immigrants. 

However, of the eight key Adscam figures whose images appear on the poster only one - former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano - is Italian. 

The other seven are Liberals or public servants who do not appear to be from any ethnic group that could be considered new Canadians. 

The poster features the images of Gagliano, Groupaction president Jean Brault, Public Works Minister Scott Brison, former Quebec Liberal official Benoit Corbeil, former PMO official Jean Carle, former prime minister Jean Chretien, Prime Minister Paul Martin and Chuck Guite, the former director of the sponsorship program. 

"These are the same Conservatives that think that every immigrant is a potential terrorist and criminal and everything else," an agitated Volpe said. 

Volpe momentarily hesitated when a reporter asked him if he was calling the party racist, before launching into an attack on the Tories.

"Am I calling these guys racists? If this guy had your name on that what would you call them? Aside from the fact they're recognizable notwithstanding they don't have their cowl and their cape the Klan looks like it's still very much alive.

"I think these are a couple of find upstanding members of the new Conservative Klan."

Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer called on Volpe to retract the comments, suggesting Volpe has "sunk to a new low."

"Volpe is trivializing the hatred, violence, and murder practiced by the Klan," Jaffer said in a statement. 

"I realize that my political opponents are in the smear game, but they have crossed the line. They have not insulted me or my party; they have insulted all African-Canadians and all other minorities who have been targets of this racist and murderous organization."

Volpe's outburst is the latest example of how heated the debate is getting on Parliament Hill as an election seems likely in a matter of weeks.

Last month, Geoff Norquay, a spokesman for Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, apologized after he called the prime minister "Osama bin Laden Martin" because the prime minister issued a taped message from his Centre Block office for broadcast to the nation. 

"We walked into the meeting ... [and found] Osama bin Laden Martin is mailing his tapes in from the cave and that he's got six minutes in English and six minutes in French," Norquay said after learning the prime minister would not be on the air live like the other opposition leaders. 

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