TIMELINE: 1999

January 28, 1999

Switzerland releases contents of Schreiber's bank accounts to German authorities. In it they found a series of coded sub-accounts for various Canadian and German politicians and businessmen.

February 22, 1999

National Post runs article quoting former Transport Minister John Crosbie who says if the RCMP ever closes the Airbus investigation,

"They'll be giving the final proof of the incompetence, and the errors, and mistakes they've made in their handling of the investigation, and even of starting it in the first place.''

March 3, 1999

Peter MacKay raises Airbus affair during Question Period. (read the Hansard)

March 8, 1999

Peter MacKay states in the House during Question Period:

"Brian Mulroney is innocent of all wrongdoings and yet the Liberal government will not cease and desist the RCMP investigation. The Liberal government has a vendetta against the former prime minister which stems from the Liberals' days in opposition. There are growing concerns that the current Prime Minister's legacy might pale by comparison. The Liberals' plot for revenge is continuing to cost the taxpayers significant dollars, $4 million and counting."

April 1, 1999

The National Post reports that Ottawa refuses to withdraw the letter sent to the Swiss. The article quotes Justice Department spokesperson Pierre Gratton who says,

"We have informed the Swiss on three occasions that [the letter contained] allegations only and we have apologized for the language used in the letter… If the RCMP were to request that the letter be withdrawn we would comply.''

April 2, 1999

National Post runs editorial attacking RCMP Airbus investigation stating,

"Mr. Mulroney was not the only victim of the Canadian government's slander. Karlheinz Schreiber, the financier, was also tarred as a crook in the infamous letter."

April 3, 1999

National Post publishes an interview with Frank Moores who alleges the RCMP is dragging out the Airbus investigation as revenge for having to apologize to Brian Mulroney in its settlement with him. Moores told the Post,

"I just can't understand it. But if you ask them, they say there is still an ongoing investigation...It is total madness as far as I am concerned. It is unbelievable.''

April 5, 1999

National Post runs an article saying Ottawa's withholding of information from Swiss authorities in the Airbus probe could harm relations between the countries.

May 6, 1999

Thyssen managers Jurgen Massmann and Winfried Haastert are arrested for tax evasion on money given to them by Karlheinz Schreiber.

May 7, 1999

German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung breaks story of Schreiber's paying millions of German marks to high ranking members of the CDU as well as the arrest of two Thyssen executives who worked closely with Schreiber.

May 7, 1999

Elmer MacKay flies to Switzerland and provides a ticket to Schreiber to fly to Canada. MacKay will tell reporters at Schreiber's first bail hearing that Schreiber's flight and the arrests of the Thyssen executives was coincidental.

May 8, 1999

MacKay and Schreiber fly to Toronto. The next day, Schreiber and MacKay fly to Nova Scotia.

May 14, 1999

Peter MacKay raises the Airbus issue during Question period:

"Mr. Speaker, the last time I checked the RCMP was under the ministry of the solicitor general. Canadians are tired of excuses and want action. It is a fact that the RCMP is suffering from a severe lack of funding due to Liberal budget cuts, yet as Bre-X gets swept under the rug the partisan obsession against Brian Mulroney continues to cost millions.

The National Post described it perfectly. It said that the government was intent on finding something to do with someone about a crime yet to be established in order to prove that it was not entirely wrong headed in its pursuit of Airbus rumours in the first place. Letting this case fester and bumble on is not an option. The solicitor general should tell Canadians when he will put an end to this futile investigation."

May 28, 1999

Peter MacKay gets into a heated debate with Jacques Saada, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General and Deputy Prime Minister Herb Gray.

Peter MacKay: The atrocious Airbus investigation makes the Canadian justice system the laughing stock of the international community. The government continues to waste millions of taxpayers dollars on an investigation where the supposed prime suspect has not even been interviewed. The Liberals continue to find money for this investigation by cutting the RCMP, limiting the fight against organized crime and importation of drugs. How can the Liberal government call itself accountable as it sits back and allows a foreign country to embark on an unlawful exercise of search and seizure when it knows full well that the exercise is not permitted under Canadian law?

Mr. Jacques Saada: Mr. Speaker, the only cases that I am aware of where the legislative branch tells the judicial branch what to do are in banana republics. I do not think Canada qualifies as a banana re public.

Mr. Peter MacKay: Mr. Speaker, this debacle continues and the Department of Justice continues its attempts to cover its tracks in what could go down in history as the biggest political witch hunt of all time. It is an international embarrassment. While the astronomical costs of this ridiculous, ill-founded investigation and litigation continue to mount, the Minister of Justice sits idly by, as did her predecessor. When will the government cease and desist in its malicious and vindictive obsession to besmirch a former prime minister, from whom it plagiarized most of his policy initiatives?

Hon. Herb Gray: Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party may have interfered with police investigations. That may have been its approach. I do not know if it was, but in any event it is not our approach. We do not intend to have political interference with arm's length police investigations.

June 2, 1999

Mulroney gives an interview to CBC's Brian Stewart. He tells Stewart that the RCMP can investigate until the cows come home, "they won't find a single, solitary thing because nothing, as far as I'm concerned, was ever done wrong." (watch the interview)

June 11, 1999

Peter MacKay has a spirited exchange during Question Period with Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General Jacques Saada and Deputy Prime Minister Herb Gray.

Mr. Peter MacKay: Mr. Speaker, serious allegations of wrongdoing involving private holdings, campaign donations and questionable use of taxpayer money continues to plague the Prime Minister. As evidence mounts and the plot thickens, the grey fog rolls in to present the Liberal spin to cloak the facts and cover the tracks.

Now that the shoe is on the other foot, when will the government withdraw this spurious letter of baseless allegations against Mr. Mulroney sent to Swiss authorities and call an end to the ill-founded Airbus investigation?

Mr. Jacques Saada: Mr. Speaker, my colleague opposite has a hard time understanding the answers we give day after day to his questions, which are always the same. I will repeat for the 51st or 52nd time the same answer: the federal government has no intention of meddling in the decisions of the RCMP, of conducting an inquiry or of stopping an inquiry. It is not our role. Ours is a legislative role. The RCMP's is an investigative role.

We have no business meddling, especially since this investigation was recognized in the agreement reached with Mr. Mulroney at the time. I really do not understand why my colleague opposite cannot comprehend that.

Mr. Peter MacKay: Mr. Speaker, Canadians have come to expect stonewalling and delay every time they come in conflict with the Liberal government. When issues arise citizens face a barrage of government lawyers intent on foot dragging and legal manoeuvring.

A second named party in the Airbus debacle now has a $50 million lawsuit pending against the Canadian government. My question is for the architect of Airbus, the Deputy Prime Minister. Does the Liberal government intend to settle this matter the way it did with Mr. Mulroney, or does it intend to be dragged kicking and screaming through the courts before facing a final costly, humiliating verdict?

Hon. Herb Gray: Mr. Speaker, the lawsuit to which the hon. member referred that was settled involved Mr. Mulroney absolutely dropping his claim for damages. Second, what was paid was simply the legal costs.

In the written minutes of settlement signed on behalf of Mr. Mulroney, he recognized that the RCMP had a perfect right to begin the investigation and to carry it out. The hon. member ought to read the minutes of settlement and pass on to some other matters of real concern to Canadians.

August 19, 1999

Peter MacKay complains the RCMP is stepping up its "politically motivated" investigation. He tells the Toronto Star,

"I think the Prime Minister is battling shadows and it is a narcissist chasing his nemesis. He is very, very concerned that Mr. Mulroney has rehabilitated his reputation almost entirely and is going to continue to do so."

August 20, 1999

The National Post reports that Brian Mulroney has asked Schreiber to release his confidential banking records to clear the air.  Author Phil Mathias writes,  

"This week, Mr.  Mulroney telephoned his former chief of staff, Fred Doucet, from South Africa, where the former prime minister is vacationing with his family, and asked him to organize another approach to Mr. Schreiber.

Mr. Doucet persuaded a former cabinet minister in Mr. Mulroney's government, a man who knew Mr. Schreiber, to telephone him on Mr. Mulroney's behalf and ask that the documents be released.

Over the last three years, Mr. Mulroney has interceded with Mr. Schreiber several times, both directly in telephone calls, and through intermediaries." 

August 27, 1999

Arrest warrant for Karlheinz Schreiber arrives from Germany to Canada. (see request from German authorities .pdf file)

August 30, 1999

RCMP investigators spot Schreiber in the vicinity of his Yorkville condominium. (see RCMP affidavit .pdf file)

August 31, 1999

Schreiber is arrested in Toronto on a German warrant. He is with National Post journalist Philip Mathias at the time of his arrest. Schreiber is taken to the Metro West Detention Centre. (see the arrest warrant .pdf file)

September 7, 1999

Karlheinz Schreiber is released on bond. Elmer MacKay and Schreiber's lawyer, the former Liberal Finance Minister Marc Lalonde, put up $100,000 each. MacKay testifies that he helped Schreiber come to Canada and "I made no attempt and neither did he (Schreiber) to conceal the fact that he was in Canada."

MacKay further says that Schreiber came to Canada at his request. (watch an interview with Schreiber after his release from jail)

October, 1999

CBC becomes first news source in the world to obtain Schreiber's bank documents. The documents reveal the existence of numerous coded bank accounts, which German authorities will decipher as the names of politicians and businessmen associated with Karlheinz Schreiber. One of the accounts is code-named BRITAN. (see the document .pdf file)

October 8 , 1999

CBC writes a letter to Mulroney asking him for an on camera interview.

Luc Lavoie returns a phone call from fifth estate producer Harvey Cashore beginning a series of taped conversations. Lavoie is told there is in Schreiber's Swiss banking documents a sub-account that might lead people to believe it was intended for Mulroney.

Lavoie asks for more information and tells Cashore,

Luc Lavoie: I can actually give you an undertaking in writing if you want that I won't share it with any other reporter anywhere in the world. So I mean I am not going to spread anything around. It is not my purpose here. My purpose is to get to the bottom of it." (listen to an audio clip of producer Harvey Cashore's interview with Luc Lavoie)

October 9, 1999

Luc Lavoie tells Cashore that if Mulroney's name is mentioned in any way in any bank records, it must be Schreiber using Mulroney's name for his own purposes. He then, off the record, tells Cashore,

Luc Lavoie: Karlheinz Schreiber is the biggest fucking liar the world has ever seen. That is what we believe.

The interview then goes back on the record. He further states,

Luc Lavoie: There never was any money. And to think otherwise is really to not know Mulroney. He is too smart to do something like that. It is just too dummy. It is too damn stupid. He wouldn't do that.

Lavoie asks Cashore if he can provide more information, and if Cashore can call him back as soon as possible,

Luc Lavoie: If only for human reasons, try and see if we can deal with it this weekend ... Nothing is going to happen beyond you and I and he. But I am trying to help his life a little bit here. He is going nuts."

Cashore and Lavoie also discuss what happened to the money that was paid in secret commissions to Schreiber's International Aircraft Leasing.

Harvey Cashore: I would like to inform the public about where that money went.

Luc Lavoie: Yeah, well.

Harvey Cashore: Wherever it went. Wherever it went.

Luc Lavoie: Yeah, okay, it didn't go to Mulroney.

Harvey Cashore: I want to find out where the money went, wherever it went.

Luc Lavoie: Yeah, but it didn't go to him.

Harvey Cashore: You say that, and I've heard you say it.

Luc Lavoie: He said it himself, under oath.

Harvey Cashore: Right.

Luc Lavoie: So it would be major perjury right?

Harvey Cashore: But why does that mean that I can't ask a question about where the money went. Why can't I ask that question?

Luc Lavoie: Sure, you did, and I told you, I don't know where it went. It didn't go to him. (listen to an audio clip of producer Harvey Cashore's interview with Luc Lavoie)

October 13, 1999

Cashore and Lavoie have third phone conversation. Lavoie says of Mulroney,

Luc Lavoie: His perspective is pretty fucking clear. He never received a p - He never received a penny connected with any of this stuff. (listen to an audio clip of producer Harvey Cashore's interview with Luc Lavoie)

October 16, 1999

Lavoie and Cashore have a last telephone interview before program airs. Cashore is warned that the CBC face the consequences for what it says on the show.

October 17, 1999

Mulroney contacts Schreiber's lawyer Robert Hladun and asks him to ask Schreiber for a written statement indicating that at no time did Mulroney solicit or receive compensation from Karlheinz Schreiber.

Gérald Tremblay phones Robert Hladun and asks for a letter to keep on file from Schreiber, which is not to be disseminated, so that he can send a letter to the CBC which "would in his opinion shut down the airing of the fifth estate story on the "Airbus"—October 20th.

Mulroney contacts Hladun and tells him he has instructed Tremblay to send a letter to the fifth estate "indicating that if there was the slightest implication that Mr. Schreiber, Mr. Moores and Brian Mulroney were involved in any way then there would be terrible consequences. 

He would issue the letter but first wanted an assurance or comfort in writing from Mr. Schreiber saying that he would confirm what he had publicly on many occasions, that at no time did Brian Mulroney solicit or receive of any kind from Schreiber. Mulroney called Hladun again that day, at which time Mulroney was told "I was no sure whether or not a letter would be forthcoming."

October 18, 1999

Mulroney lawyer Gerald Tremblay sends a letter to the chair of the CBC board of directors threatening to sue every board member if the coming fifth estate program is defamatory. ( see the letter .pdf file)

October 20, 1999

National Post publishes story saying the fifth estate will report on the BRITAN account. Journalist Philip Mathias will write that "both (Schreiber) and Mr. Mulroney have denied that any money has ever passed between them." The newspaper, in an editorial, will also accuse the fifth estate of being on a fishing expedition. It says the new information the CBC is preparing to broadcast is "false" and "preposterous."

After the National Post runs its article and editorial speculating about the fifth estate connecting Mulroney to the BRITAN account, the fifth estate decides that the off the record comments by Luc Lavoie were on the record. (see the editorial and the story .pdf file)

the fifth estate decides to run Lavoie's off-the-record comment calling Schreiber "the biggest fucking liar the world has ever seen. That is what we believe."

Schreiber is watching that night. "I could not – my friends, my family said well, is he sick?" Schreiber recalled his reaction to Lavoie's statement to the CBC. "So then my other friends call me, oh Brian is furious. He wasn't aware what Luc Lavoie is saying. But he said we, and all this stuff."

November, 1999

An arrest warrant is issued for former CDU treasurer Walther Leisler Kiep. He admits that he accepted 1 million German marks from Karlheinz Schreiber touching off the biggest post-war scandal in German history.

November 2, 1999

Schreiber notifies Mulroney spokesperson Luc Lavoie that he believes he has been defamed by Lavoie's comments to the fifth estate. (see the statement of claim .pdf file)

December 8, 1999

The RCMP obtains a search warrant to raid the headquarters of Eurocopter in Fort Erie. The police are looking for information about secret commissions paid on the purchase of MBB helicopters for the Canadian Coast Guard.

December 13, 1999

RCMP officers raid Eurocopter facility in Fort Erie.

December 26, 1999

Schreiber goes to Fred Doucet’s home after receiving an unexpected invitation.  He says he tells Doucet "you tell your friend if under what circumstances ever I have to testify, I am not going to commit perjury for him.  Makes this very clear to him." 

December 27, 1999

Doucet calls Schreiber and meets him again.  This time he gives Schreiber a paper and asks him to sign it.  The paper was a Mandate,

"to provide a watching brief to develop economic opportunities for our companies, including traveling abroad to meet with government and private sector leaders to assist in opening new markets for our products and to report regularly to us in this regard. In this context, priority should be given to opportunities relating to Canadian based manufacturing of peace keeping and/ or peace making military equipment in view of Canada’s prominence in this area.  The mandate will be for a period of three years.  The fee to cover services and expenses is set at ____________for the period. 

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