INDEPTH: SPONSORSHIP SCANDAL
Jean Brault's testimony
CBC News Online | March 2, 2006
Advertising executive, Jean Brault (CP file photo)
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They were startling revelations from a former ad executive involved in the sponsorship scandal. Jean Brault's long-awaited testimony before the Gomery inquiry detailed a scheme to funnel taxpayer dollars to the Liberal Party of Canada in the 1993, 1997 and 2000 federal election campaigns.
Overwhelmed and at times emotional, Jean Brault, the former head of Groupaction Marketing, recalled how he was repeatedly asked to give cash donations to the party – or put election workers on his payroll in exchange for lucrative sponsorship contracts. The practice, he suggested, was ongoing and continued as recently as 2002.
All this, Brault said, was at the request of three high-ranking federal Liberals: Jacques Corriveau, head of Pluridesign and a personal friend of former prime minister Jean Chrétien, Alain Renaud who worked at the party's Quebec offices in Montreal and Benoît Corbeil, a senior official at the party's offices at the time.
Jacques Corriveau
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Alain Renaud
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Benoît Corbeil
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Brault's more than five days of testimony tells a tale of secret meetings, hushed-up deals and cash donations to the Liberals in exchange for huge government contracts to Groupaction. At one point, in 1997, Brault claims he was asked to donate $100,000 in cash to the Liberals.
Brault claims that $50,000 also found its way to Jean Charest's provincial election campaign in 1998.
Brault revealed that he cut a deal with Corriveau in the spring of 1998 to return to the Liberal party 10 per cent of the 12 per cent commission fees he charged on sponsorship contracts. These "IOUs," he said, were masked through false invoices.
The publication ban on Brault's testimony was lifted on April 7, 2005, a day after a Quebec judge agreed to postpone Brault's trial until June 6, 2005. Brault and Chuck Guité, the former bureaucrat who ran the sponsorship program, are facing fraud charges related to the sponsorship program. They had asked that their trial, which was scheduled to begin on May 2, 2005, be delayed until September, arguing that it would have been difficult to find unbiased jurors because of the intense publicity surrounding the Gomery inquiry.
Brault's testimony, which started appearing on U.S. web blogs on April 2, 2005, sent shock waves through Parliament Hill. Prime Minister Paul Martin called on the RCMP to investigate whether the Liberal Party of Canada had been a "victim of fraud."
According to Brault, the scheme was put to the test on a large scale in the 1997 federal election campaign in Quebec.
Brault also admitted asking his employees to donate money to the federal Liberals and reimbursing them with large bonuses so they wouldn't have to cover the expense.
Brault also described practices, which he said were designed to funnel money to the Liberal Party.
Fictitious invoices and creative accounting were used in an attempt to make the transactions untraceable. But with the help of forensic experts who sifted through bank accounts and Groupaction's books, the inquiry was able to trace invoices and cancelled cheques.
Remarking that Brault had a "good memory for dates," Gomery appeared riveted to his seat, saying at one point that he couldn't wait to hear how the story would unfold.
Under relentless questioning from lead counsel Bernard Roy, the process took its toll on Brault who cracked under pressure. He broke down and cried after describing how he felt pressured to put a well-connected Liberal, Alain Renaud, back on his payroll, or risk losing Via Rail as a client.
Tony Mignacca
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Renaud had been paid $1.1 million by Groupaction over a five-year period starting in 1996, the inquiry was told. Renaud left Groupaction in September 2000, but soon expressed a desire to return. Brault refused. But he told the inquiry that he received a call from Tony Mignacca, a close aide to former Public Works minister, Alfonso Gagliano. Brault said Mignacca hinted Groupaction's contract with Via Rail might be in jeopardy if Renaud was not hired back.
Brault's first contribution to the Liberals goes back to 1993. He testified that he was asked to give $20,000 to the party and put a Liberal worker on his payroll. Brault also testified that Gaby Chrétien, Jean Chrétien's older brother, asked him to donate $4,000 to the federal Liberals. Brault presumes this money went to a Liberal candidate, Yolande Thibault, in Saint-Lambert, on Montreal's south shore, who was defeated in the 2004 federal election. The inquiry turned up a $4,000 cheque made out to Gaby Chrétien by Groupaction for "professional fees."
Throughout the following years, Brault said he often "wined and dined" with friendly Liberals, attending dinners and playing golf at Gagliano's tournaments. As a member of the select Laurier Club, he attended a cocktail party in 1995 at 24 Sussex Drive, the prime minister's official residence. Brault testified that mingling with politicians and businessmen was a venue for a "rapprochement" with "decision-makers" and "potential clients."
"Two birds with one stone," was the way Brault put it.
In 1996, after a meeting with Corriveau, Brault said he found out that the "magic recipe" to get sponsorship contracts was to "lend a sympathetic ear" to the party's demands.
Brault testified that during a meeting on April 16, 1996, Corriveau asked him to "take under my wing for a period of a year, one person who was well liked" by the party, Serge Gosselin.
Brault testified that Gosselin, a communications expert, never had an office at Groupaction and did little or no work. Nevertheless, Brault agreed to pay him more than $80,000. He was paid a monthly retainer of $7,000, recalled the former head of Groupaction. Gosselin may have used his time to write a book on Gagliano, Brault said.
That prompted a query from Mr. Justice John Gomery.
"But Mr. Brault, let's be clear, you would not have hired him otherwise?"
"That's right," Brault replied.
Gosselin is one of about a dozen election party workers that were put on Groupaction's payroll, the inquiry was told. This included John Welch, recently chief-of-staff to Canadian Heritage minister Liza Frulla.
Brault testified that Alain Renaud, another member of the Laurier Club, was his firm's "meal ticket."
The federal government is trying to recover $30 million from Brault in misspent funds related to the $250-million sponsorship program. Brault pleaded guilty on March 2, 2006 to five of six fraud-related charges and will proceed to trial on only one charge of conspiracy.
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Christina Lawand reports for CBC-TV on Brault's testimony (Runs 3:30)
Gilles Duceppe's response (RealVideo runs 5:59)
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