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New push for separate Quebec
PM escapes blame, but opponents call for him to resign
Tuesday, November 1, 2005 Posted: 2158 GMT (0558 HKT)
OTTAWA, Ontario (Reuters) -- One of Quebec's top politicians said Tuesday that separatists in the French-speaking province would launch a new referendum on independence from Canada after the next provincial election.
The leader of the Bloc Quebecois, the separatist party in the federal Parliament, which fields candidates only in Quebec, was speaking after an inquiry reported that senior members of the Quebec branch of the ruling federal Liberal Party had engaged in kickbacks and illegal campaign financing.
Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe told reporters the best argument the federalists seemed to have for keeping Quebec in Canada was to buy their votes.
Asked if Tuesday's report would hasten the next referendum, Duceppe said: "I'm pretty sure we'll win the next federal election, the Parti Quebecois will win ... the election in Quebec, and then we'll go for a referendum."
The next federal election, where the Bloc will try to maintain its two-thirds share of Quebec seats, has been promised for early 2006.
The Parti Quebecois is the Bloc's provincial cousin. Only when it is in power in Quebec City can it call a referendum. A provincial election does not have to be called until 2008 but is widely expected in 2007.
Quebec's current Liberal government, under Premier Jean Charest, who opposes separation, is far behind in the polls.
The separatists lost a referendum in 1980 by 20 percentage points but came within one point of winning a similar poll in 1995.
Tuesday's official report found Canada's former prime minister, Jean Chretien, shared the blame for a government scandal laced by greed, incompetence, carelessness and venality.
But Prime Minister Paul Martin, a fellow Liberal, was off the hook, the inquiry said.
The report into a deeply flawed government advertising program to promote Canadian unity also said senior Liberal officials in French-speaking Quebec had engaged in an elaborate kickback scheme and in illegal campaign financing.
In all, about C$100 million ($85 million) was funneled from the program to pro-Liberal advertising firms.
Opposition politicians responded to the report with outrage, and Martin, whose government has only a minority in Parliament, immediately asked police to investigate.
Martin could face a confidence vote in Parliament as early as November 14, but opposition parties expressed some reluctance about the idea, saying that if they win the vote it would trigger an election campaign during the December holiday season.
Immediate threat
Even if Martin does survive the immediate threat, he still faces an election next year in which he will find it hard to win back enough Liberal seats in Quebec to give him a majority government. The party's fortunes in the province plummeted last year after the scandal broke.
Stephen Harper, leader of the official opposition Conservatives, said Martin -- who was finance minister at the time of the scandal -- had no option but to resign.
"I can't think of any other parliamentary democracy where a scandal of this magnitude and of this nature ... could pass without the fall of the government," he said.
The inquiry head, Judge John Gomery, found that advertising firms in Quebec had received lucrative federal contracts and then knowingly kicked some of the money back to the Liberal Party's Quebec wing, enabling it to sidestep electoral financing laws.
The scandal has dominated Canadian politics for the past 18 months and public anger cost the Liberals their majority in a June 2004 election.
Martin has promised to call an election within 30 days of Gomery's second and final report, due on February 1.
The wrongdoing centers on a sponsorship program set up in 1996 after the referendum on sovereignty for Quebec failed narrowly. The program paid for Canadian flags and posters at Quebec events and aimed to boost the cause of federalism.
But Gomery, who has spent the last year investigating the affair, said the program had backfired amid "a blatant abuse of public funds" and he lashed out at "carelessness and incompetence ... (and) greed and venality".
Praise for scrapping program
He apportioned some blame to Chretien, who ordered the program to be established and ran it from his office. Gomery also fingered former Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano, several senior aides and bureaucrats and the heads of the advertising agencies involved.
"Since Mr. Chretien chose to run the program from his own office, and to have his staff take charge of its direction, he is accountable for the defective manner in which the sponsorship program and initiatives were implemented," he said.
Chretien's lawyers said they were considering whether to launch a court case in a bid to restore his reputation.
Gomery spared Martin on the grounds that he had not known what was going on.
"Mr. Martin ... is entitled, like other ministers in the Quebec caucus, to be exonerated from any blame for carelessness or misconduct," Gomery concluded.
Gomery praised Martin's government for scrapping the program once Martin took over from Chretien in December 2003, and said the original goal of keeping Canada together was no excuse for the wrongdoings.
The two largest opposition parties, the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois, failed in May to topple the Liberals after Martin reached a deal with the left-leaning New Democratic Party.
Martin is being kept in power by the minority New Democrats, whose leader Jack Layton said he would decide soon whether to join with other parties to try to defeat Martin.
PM escapes blame, but opponents call for him to resign
Tuesday, November 1, 2005 Posted: 2158 GMT (0558 HKT)
OTTAWA, Ontario (Reuters) -- One of Quebec's top politicians said Tuesday that separatists in the French-speaking province would launch a new referendum on independence from Canada after the next provincial election.
The leader of the Bloc Quebecois, the separatist party in the federal Parliament, which fields candidates only in Quebec, was speaking after an inquiry reported that senior members of the Quebec branch of the ruling federal Liberal Party had engaged in kickbacks and illegal campaign financing.
Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe told reporters the best argument the federalists seemed to have for keeping Quebec in Canada was to buy their votes.
Asked if Tuesday's report would hasten the next referendum, Duceppe said: "I'm pretty sure we'll win the next federal election, the Parti Quebecois will win ... the election in Quebec, and then we'll go for a referendum."
The next federal election, where the Bloc will try to maintain its two-thirds share of Quebec seats, has been promised for early 2006.
The Parti Quebecois is the Bloc's provincial cousin. Only when it is in power in Quebec City can it call a referendum. A provincial election does not have to be called until 2008 but is widely expected in 2007.
Quebec's current Liberal government, under Premier Jean Charest, who opposes separation, is far behind in the polls.
The separatists lost a referendum in 1980 by 20 percentage points but came within one point of winning a similar poll in 1995.
Tuesday's official report found Canada's former prime minister, Jean Chretien, shared the blame for a government scandal laced by greed, incompetence, carelessness and venality.
But Prime Minister Paul Martin, a fellow Liberal, was off the hook, the inquiry said.
The report into a deeply flawed government advertising program to promote Canadian unity also said senior Liberal officials in French-speaking Quebec had engaged in an elaborate kickback scheme and in illegal campaign financing.
In all, about C$100 million ($85 million) was funneled from the program to pro-Liberal advertising firms.
Opposition politicians responded to the report with outrage, and Martin, whose government has only a minority in Parliament, immediately asked police to investigate.
Martin could face a confidence vote in Parliament as early as November 14, but opposition parties expressed some reluctance about the idea, saying that if they win the vote it would trigger an election campaign during the December holiday season.
Immediate threat
Even if Martin does survive the immediate threat, he still faces an election next year in which he will find it hard to win back enough Liberal seats in Quebec to give him a majority government. The party's fortunes in the province plummeted last year after the scandal broke.
Stephen Harper, leader of the official opposition Conservatives, said Martin -- who was finance minister at the time of the scandal -- had no option but to resign.
"I can't think of any other parliamentary democracy where a scandal of this magnitude and of this nature ... could pass without the fall of the government," he said.
The inquiry head, Judge John Gomery, found that advertising firms in Quebec had received lucrative federal contracts and then knowingly kicked some of the money back to the Liberal Party's Quebec wing, enabling it to sidestep electoral financing laws.
The scandal has dominated Canadian politics for the past 18 months and public anger cost the Liberals their majority in a June 2004 election.
Martin has promised to call an election within 30 days of Gomery's second and final report, due on February 1.
The wrongdoing centers on a sponsorship program set up in 1996 after the referendum on sovereignty for Quebec failed narrowly. The program paid for Canadian flags and posters at Quebec events and aimed to boost the cause of federalism.
But Gomery, who has spent the last year investigating the affair, said the program had backfired amid "a blatant abuse of public funds" and he lashed out at "carelessness and incompetence ... (and) greed and venality".
Praise for scrapping program
He apportioned some blame to Chretien, who ordered the program to be established and ran it from his office. Gomery also fingered former Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano, several senior aides and bureaucrats and the heads of the advertising agencies involved.
"Since Mr. Chretien chose to run the program from his own office, and to have his staff take charge of its direction, he is accountable for the defective manner in which the sponsorship program and initiatives were implemented," he said.
Chretien's lawyers said they were considering whether to launch a court case in a bid to restore his reputation.
Gomery spared Martin on the grounds that he had not known what was going on.
"Mr. Martin ... is entitled, like other ministers in the Quebec caucus, to be exonerated from any blame for carelessness or misconduct," Gomery concluded.
Gomery praised Martin's government for scrapping the program once Martin took over from Chretien in December 2003, and said the original goal of keeping Canada together was no excuse for the wrongdoings.
The two largest opposition parties, the Conservatives and the Bloc Quebecois, failed in May to topple the Liberals after Martin reached a deal with the left-leaning New Democratic Party.
Martin is being kept in power by the minority New Democrats, whose leader Jack Layton said he would decide soon whether to join with other parties to try to defeat Martin.
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