Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Harper Knew About Bribe Offer... Dona Cadman Told Him

Whooee! The big kerfuffle in the House o' Comments is all about whether or not Harper knew about the bribe offered to Chuck Cadman. Very few observers are still claiming there was no offer. To make such a claim is to call the Cadman family a bunch of liars. It's hard to rely on Mrs. Cadman's statement regarding Harper's ignorance of the bribery offer and, at the same time, say she and her daughter and son-in-law are lying about the existence of an offer.

Here's something that raises a question. Dona Cadman is now saying she confronted Stephen Harper about the insurance policy 2 1/2 years ago. According to Mrs. Cadman, Harper denied knowing anything about it and she believed him.

In a statement, Dona Cadman said she asked then-Opposition leader Harper more than two years ago if he knew about the alleged life-insurance offer to her husband in exchange for his support in a crucial confidence vote.

"He looked me straight in the eyes and told me he had no knowledge of an insurance policy offer," Dona Cadman said in the statement. "I knew he was telling me the truth; I could see it in his eyes."

She added: "From that point forward ... I didn't regard it as a 'party' initiative, but rather the overzealous indiscretion of a couple of individuals ... whose identity Chuck never revealed to me."

Dona Cadman - now the Tory candidate in her late husband's Surrey North, B.C., riding - did not recant on her characterization of the alleged offer as a bribe.
(Source)

Okay. Fair enough. Let's accept that as fact, shall we? The Con's are all citing Mrs. Cadman's statement as proof Harper didn't know.

But, here's the big question:

After being informed of the insurance policy offer 2 1/2 years ago, what actions did the CPC leader take?

Upon hearing from Mrs. Cadman that an illegal offer was put forward by Finley and Flanagan, did Mr. Harper attempt to delve further into this shocking accusation? Were Finley and Flanagan chastised in any way? Top level CPC operatives had been accused of offering a bribe. The accusation was made directly to Mr. Harper when Mrs. Cadman asked him if he was aware of the offer. Was there an internal party investigation?

The libel chill revolves around a headline on the official LPC website. The headline reads:

"Harper Knew of Conservative Bribery"

Perhaps, as Mr. Harper and Mrs. Cadman agree, Harper didn't know before the offer was made. Not long after that, however, Mrs. Cadman acknowledges that she did, in fact, bring up the offer to Harper. Unless Mr. Harper thought Mrs. Cadman was lying about the offer 2 1/2 years ago, he did know. At least, he knew that Mrs. Cadman believed an illegal offer was made.

We may never know if Harper was privy to the insurance offer prior to Finley and Flanagan making it. We only need to listen to the tape to ascertain that Harper did know about financial considerations. Mrs. Cadman's statements confirm that Harper was informed about the insurance offer shortly after it was made.

Does Harper deny that Mrs. Cadman asked him about the offer 2 1/2 years ago? After that allegation was made, didn't Harper have a legal obligation to follow up and make sure illegal offers were not made in the name of the party?

Mrs. Cadman was able to determine Harper's truthfulness by looking into his eyes. When she raised the spectre of Finley and Flanagan making an illegal offer, did Harper's eyes reveal shock? After all, the widow of a respected MP had just informed him that his top advisers had offered a bribe.

JB

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man, this story has more twist than my intestines and the contents are just as unappealing.

It’s a good time to be Green, Harper is deep in feces, Dion is to scared to allow his MPs to vote on their own amendment, if Canada ever needed a revolution of some kind, it’s now!

Zorpheous said...

Checkmate!

Zorpheous said...

For a Hillbill Jimbobby, you're smart country bumbmkin

Pale said...

That cracks me up....

"I looked into his eyes"
That only works on your kids, IF they are actually worried about getting caught lying....

Zorpheous said...

I like my headline better ;-)

STEPHEN HARPER REQUESTED AN RCMP INVESTIGATION INTO THE ALLEGED BRIBERY ATTEMPT TWO YEARS AGO

Anonymous said...

Hey JimBobby,

You scooped my brain . . . how'd you do that.

I woke up this morning and instantly thought the headline on the liberal site (which had bugged me - the only part that bugged me) was instantly resolved since it essentially states Harper knew, which if anything Dona's statement yesterday reinforced."

So I post my great brainstorm over at FarnNWide only to find you had posted this.

Damn you, you smart bumkin ; ).

JimBobby said...

Whooee! Thankee fer chimin' in and fer the link ups, fellers and gals.

Bumpkin, eh? Well, we got a few turnip trucks round these parts but I never even been on one, much less fallen off.

I planted this angle in the email box of a certain influential Ottawa blogger who write fer a bigass news magazine. I'm hopin' to get some MP to ask Harpoon about what action he took when he was made aware of an allegation of bribery by his two top advisers.

I probbly shoulda emailed a CBC person, noiw that I think about it. They're the ones who can get their questions asked by MP's, right?

Harper's got a whole lotta squirmin' to do if he wants to wriggle outta this catch 22.

JB

Scott in Montreal said...

Indeed, as I posted yesterday, what Mrs. Cadman did not say is perhaps more noteworthy than what she did. She did not say, for example:

...that there was no bribe offered to her late husband by the Conservative Party of Canada.
...that Mr. Harper ever denied the existence of any bribe to her late husband.
...that Mr. Harper assured her he would never condone such a thing.
...that Mr. Harper in any way regretted anything done or offered by his party under his watch in regards to Mr. Cadman.
...that Mr. Harper, the leader of the CPC, intended to censure the individuals or take any other action in regards to getting to the bottom of her concerns.
...what she thinks her late husband might have thought of Mr. Harper's answer.

JimBobby said...

Whooee! Nice to see a little traction on this aspect, Scott. Good questions. Maybe some MP'll ask 'em.

Zorf, I just posted a new one with a killer headline:
"Ezra Levant Implicates Doug Finley in CadScam"

JB

Jay said...

Hey JimBobby
You stumpin for the Greens in Toronto-Centre? Awhile back you mentioned it and was wondering when I can expect you to knock on my door!

Great post. BTW a new polls has put the greens ahead of the ndp here in Ontario where we are quite aware of NDP uselessness.

Great post btw.

Saskboy said...

It's all coming together, isn't it? If Cadscam doesn't do for Harper what Adscam did for the Liberals, then this country is screwed. Maybe more voters will realize that flipping back and forth between these two corruption-enabling parties isn't the way to run our country?

Zorpheous said...

Relax JimBobby, I have it on good authority that the RCMP probe requested by Harper cleared Finley and Flanagan ;-)

JimBobby said...

Whooee! JayBird, I hope to be stumpin' but I might be doin' some phone canvassin' instead. It's greener, fer sure, on accounta I'm a hunnert miles away from Trawna and I got a pretty much unlimited long distance plan.

The gal I adore, Earth Mother Lizzie May, is gonna be stumpin' in TO Centre this week. Friday, I think.

JB

Frank Frink said...

CBC person? Naw, JB, I think your "certain influential Ottawa blogger who write fer a bigass news magazine" was prolly the correct person to pitch.

Of course, I'm assuming this is the same "certain influential Ottawa blogger who write fer a bigass news magazine" to whom I might have sent an e-mail or two. ;-)