Myriam Bedard
The ongoing saga of ms bedard is rapidly becoming a top notch thriller in canadian politic circles. reporters are tittilated with the outrageous accusations, rumours and confessions of the former olympic gold medalist. on the other side, usually rabidly aggressive politicians are throwing ms. bedard softball questions and going easy on her, because of the journalists' (and other politicians') over-the-top defence of the olympian after jean pelletiers recent rant against her.so, with the politicians playing nice and the fawning reporters looking on with awe at their new media sensation, ms bedard delivered what has to be one of the most unbelievable testimony at Parliamentry Committee.

ms bedard's most overlooked, underreported and most outrageous claim was that jean chretien did not join the attack on iraq because her husband convinced him not to. Nima Mazhari, an artist, apparently was to be thanked by all Canadians because of his conversation with the PM which was the decisive factor in the decision not to attack Iraq. From the Star:

"Ladies and gentlemen, if Canada is not involved in war, it's because Nima Mazhari gave the prime minister a lot of advice."


this claim by itself should be enough to signal to the hacks in the audience that ms bedard has made her motives clear:

"She is using this proceeding as a personal platform. Disregard all that she says from here on in!"that should be the message that the journalists are receiving at this point. Politicians, too. But alas, people are fallible. On ms bedard went with her un-corroborrated story of how Groupaction was involved in drug dealing. As quoted from the Star:

"Mr. LeFrançois told me Groupaction is building a huge empire and they are not doing things the right way, they are involved in drug trafficking, and we left it at that," she told the Commons public accounts committee.

She also testified that, incidently, Jacques Villeaneuve was paid $12M to wear the "Canada" logo on his jacket.

The responses to these allegations were unforgettable:

"outrageous."

"It is totally false and unfounded. It is so injurious and offensive to me, my family, Groupaction and all those who have worked and are still working there as to require an unequivocal and immediate response. I reiterate: The allegation is totally unfounded and made without a scintilla of proof or an iota of truth."

"I have asked legal counsel to look into this matter and, if appropriate, action will be taken against those responsible."

But denials, denials. What do they mean when you have our stellar crop of Liberal MP's on the case:

"When I was listening to her, I was mesmerized," said Liberal MP Dennis Mills. "I thought that she was as straight, as sincere, as honest a person as I've ever listened to."

The point of this little rant is to show that the liberals, the rest of the politicians, and the media have been taken for a ride. ms bedard is off her rocker, and is contributing little but heresay to this proceeding. there is no doubt that the liberals were up to some unethical chicanery in quebec, but this 'evidence' and testimony should be thrown out. her original thoughts on groupaction and via should be disregarded.

let's get back to the subject of investigating the misdeeds in the sponsorship file and stop wasting our time with ms bedard, a former canadian icon turned media whore.