The federal justice minister must ensure German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber remains in Canada to appear at a public inquiry into corruption allegations against former prime minister Brian Mulroney, opposition members demanded Friday.

German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber answers questions from reporters in May 2002. Opposition members want Schreiber to remain in Canada.
(Kevin Frayer/Canadian Press)

On Thursday, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed Schreiber's application to stay an extradition order to Germany, where he is wanted on charges of tax evasion, bribery and fraud.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has yet to say whether he will intervene in the case, but Crown attorneys said the government has promised to wait 15 days before executing the extradition order.

Schreiber's lawyers had asked the Appeal Court to give them up to three weeks to decide their next course of action, which could include an appeal to the Supreme Court.  

Meanwhile, a fiery Schreiber told the Globe and Mail on Thursday that he would refuse to give evidence at the inquiry if he's extradited.

"Not one f---ing word would I say," the Globe quoted the 73-year-old Schreiber as saying in a telephone interview from Toronto West Detention Centre, where he is being held. "Why would I care about the country any more?"

'He should first face justice here'

During question period Friday, Irwin Cotler, the former Liberal justice minister who ordered Schreiber's deportation in 2004, told the House of Commons that Nicholson holds the discretionary power to postpone the order.

 

Cotler said Schreiber is certain to be a "crucial witness" in the events being examined at the inquiry and should be given the opportunity to testify under oath.

"He should be available at all times," Cotler said. "Will the minister of justice ensure that Mr. Schreiber will be in Canada to be present at this inquiry, so that the truth can be served and the ends of justice can be served?"

"if Karlheinz Schreiber is deported, we might as well cancel the inquiry," New Democrat MP Pat Martin said.

"He should first face justice here," Bloc Québécois MP Pauline Picard added.

Answering for the government, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day refused to say whether the order would be postponed, saying the justice minister does not comment on specific cases.

But Day also said the government must reconcile "dual competing interests" of the inquiry and Canada's commitment to maintaining its extradition agreements.

"The inquiry will have power of subpoena and require key individuals to testify, wherever they might be," he said.

Schreiber arrested in 1999

Amid intense pressure, Prime Minister Stephen Harper called a public inquiry on Tuesday into allegations against Mulroney following the filing last week of a sworn affidavit by Schreiber that Mulroney failed to live up to a 1993 lobbying deal.

In the affidavit, Schreiber alleges Mulroney agreed to help him with a pasta business and the establishment of a light armoured vehicle factory in exchange for $300,000 in cash in a deal struck two days before Mulroney left office.

Schreiber also alleges that a Mulroney adviser asked Schreiber to transfer money in connection with Air Canada's 1988 purchase of Airbus planes to a Mulroney lawyer based in Switzerland.

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Mulroney said he wants light shone on every aspect of the allegations, because he has nothing to hide.

"It's not easy for my family, my wife, my children and me. But so be it, we shall fight and we shall win again," the former Progressive Conservative prime minister told a Montreal audience on Thursday.

Schreiber was first arrested by the RCMP in 1999 after Germany sought to have him returned to the country to face trial.

Since then, his legal team has fought for him to stay in Canada using a series of complex court motions, which included an unsuccessful constitutional challenge of the extradition law.