Ad Scam Coverup

the conservatives are rightly agree about the shutting down of the committee, but they have to shoulder a lot of the blame for the lack of information received. they did not put their best foot forward, and did not use effective questioning of the witnesses to get relevant testimony.

the lawyers who make up (it seems) 90% of the parliamentarians should have stepped up and gone after these guys. the national post was bleating about this mid way through the inquiry and no action seems to have happened. they got nowhere. this whole thing is bs.

Opposition MPs slam end of ad scam hearings


By DARREN YOURK
Globe and Mail Update

Opposition members of the parliamentary committee investigating the sponsorship program united Wednesday to accuse Prime Minister Paul Martin of committing an "unprecedented" scandal by effectively ending the work of the group on Tuesday.

Conservative MP Jason Kenney, Bloc MP Michel Guimond and NDP MP Pat Martin appeared together in Ottawa to charge the Liberals with trying to cover up damaging testimony with an election call looming.

"Yesterday we saw the Liberal majority finally use their hammer to effectively shut down the only inquiry in town," Mr. Kenney said, noting that his motion to allow continued hearings next week will most likely be voted down Thursday.

"The truth is that this represents a cover-up. This represents a clear effort by the Prime Minister to stop difficult questions from being asked days before an election about a huge Liberal scandal involving the theft of millions of tax dollars."

The three men seized on a Feb. 12 statement made by Mr. Martin on the sponsorship scandal when he said it was "impossible to believe that there was no political direction."

"Does anybody think that, with the witnesses we heard, we will be able to determine what happened at a political level?," Mr. Guimond said. "We only had before us those who were carrying out orders. Orders from higher up at a political level."