On March 30, 2009 the long awaited public inquiry into the dealings between former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and businessman Karlheinz Schreiber will finally begin.
However, the "Commission of Inquiry into Certain Allegations Respecting Business and Financial Dealings Between Karlheinz Schreiber and the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney," or the “Oliphant Commission” as it will become to be known will NOT be dealing with the so-called “Airbus Affair.” the fifth estate reveals how we came to such a limited mandate.
For weeks, it was a daily spectacle that fascinated the country. In November, 2007, a Parliamentary Ethics Committee began to hear testimony that, many believed, would finally unlock the mysteries of what has become known as the Airbus scandal: who received secret commissions from the sale of Airbus planes to Air Canada?
Expectations were high; explosive testimony was anticipated, particularly from the man who has been at the centre of the Airbus scandal for more than two decades, German/Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber. What happened next confounded the Committee and everyone else watching.
Reporter Linden MacIntyre shows how Schreiber’s canny tactics manipulated the drama and the facts. In new documents gained by the fifth estate and in interviews with main players in this political drama, The Chess Master shows how Schreiber devised a gambit to trap the other players in a political checkmate and set the course for the next chapter of this story.
the fifth estate reveals that sworn testimony before a Parliamentary committee contained manipulation and lies.
