Brian Mulroney, with Parliament Hill seen in the background, talks to reporters after becoming leader of the Progressive Conservatives in this June 12, 1983 file photo. A meeting he had with Karlheinz Schreiber in the autumn of that year was one focus of the Oliphant inquiry Monday. (Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press)

Brian Mulroney's former appointments secretary while he was leader of the official opposition in 1983 told the Oliphant inquiry Monday that he saw German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber in his boss's office only once.

On that one occasion in the fall of 1983, Schreiber showed up accompanying Maxwell Strauss, the son of former Bavarian premier and Airbus chairman Franz Josef Strauss, Pat MacAdam told the public inquiry looking into business dealings between Schreiber and Mulroney.

MacAdam described his role in Mulroney’s office as that of a "gatekeeper" who determined who got in to see the Progressive Conservative leader, who was later elected prime minister in September 1984. He said Maxwell Strauss had a scheduled appointment with Mulroney.

His former job makes MacAdam a key witness at the inquiry, which last week saw Schreiber face four days of questions about his complicated relationship with Mulroney.

Commission counsel Nancy Brooks asked MacAdam how long Mulroney had known Schreiber before becoming leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party in August 1983.

“I don’t think he knew him from a hole in the ground,” MacAdam replied.

That contradicts previous interviews MacAdam gave to CBC's The Fifth Estate, in which he suggested Mulroney knew Schreiber long before 1983.

'Correspondence' turns into 'newspaper clippings'

Responding to other questions from commission counsel Monday, MacAdam had a hard time recollecting past statements he had made and details of events that happened years ago.

For example, Brooks asked MacAdam about an interview he gave to author William Kaplan in July 2004. At the heart of the interview lay questions about the $300,000 Mulroney allegedly received from Schreiber and what exactly he did in return for it.

Kaplan submitted notes to the inquiry that indicated he felt MacAdam did not know why Mulroney was taking commissions from Schreiber.

Yet in a letter MacAdam sent to Kaplan on July 19, 2004 — just a day after their conversation — MacAdam said he had gone through his "old files, correspondence and emails" and now recalled that Mulroney was hired to help Schreiber sell armoured vehicles from a proposed Canadian manufacturing plant to be operated by Bear Head Industries to Chinese buyers, as well as explore the sales of pasta machines. That is exactly what Mulroney has maintained about his financial relationship with Schreiber.

Schreiber disputes that and claims Mulroney, in fact, did no lobbying for the Bear Head project in return for the $300,000 he says he paid him — leaving major questions about what exactly the former prime minister did do for the money.

When asked on Monday to produce the correspondence that told him Bear Head was at the heart of the Mulroney-Schreiber relationship, given that he had been able to determine that in the space of just one day in 2004, MacAdam replied that there was, in fact, no correspondence but merely newspaper clippings.

He also said he doesn’t know how he found out the information so quickly.

“I can’t explain where I read it," he told the Oliphant commission. "I certainly didn’t learn it from Brian Mulroney, because I didn’t ask him.”

More witnesses to come on Tuesday

Mulroney served as prime minister for two terms, from 1984 to 1993. After he left politics, he received a $2.1-million settlement from the federal government after his name was publicly mentioned in connection with a 1995 investigation into the sale of Airbus jets to Air Canada — a deal in which Schreiber also played a role.

MacAdam was not questioned by other lawyers Monday. Neither Schreiber nor his lawyer attended the Ottawa hearing.

The day wrapped up early after testimony from two representatives from the Privy Council Office who were asked questions about how Schreiber’s letters to current Prime Minister Stephen Harper were processed. That is another issue the inquiry must examine in the days ahead.

Testimony resumes Tuesday, when the inquiry will hear from Greg Alford, the former vice-president of Bear Head; Paul Smith, Mulroney’s former chauffeur; and Harry Swain, a former deputy minister of industry.