CANADA: Canadian prime minister Paul Martin has been cleared of wrongdoing in a kickbacks scandal that has dominated Canadian politics for more than a year, boosting his chances of staying in power in elections next year.
However, in a report issued on Tuesday, investigators chastised former prime minister Jean Chrétien for the 1997-2001 campaign finance scandal that has tarnished the Liberal Party's image.
The head of the investigation, Mr Justice John Gomery, found that Liberal Party officials "subverted and betrayed" Canadians' trust in government by channelling millions of dollars to advertising firms which then illegally kicked back funds back to the party. The money was part of an advertising campaign to promote national unity in French-speaking Quebec when the province was threatening to secede. Although Mr Martin was finance minister at the time and signed off on continuing the "Unity Fund", the commission concluded he was not aware of the scam or responsible for how the money was mishandled.
Mr Martin moved quickly to endorse the report and distance himself from the corruption, promising it would never happen again. He said the Liberal Party would pay more than $970,000 (€685,000) to cover the kickbacks Mr Justice Gomery said were channelled to the party's Quebec branch. He also banned 10 officials named in the report from party membership.
Most significantly, Mr Martin reaffirmed his pledge for elections 30 days after the commission gives its final report in February to let the public decide if it wants to keep his Liberal Party in office.
Stephen Harper, head of the opposition Conservative Party, said the report showed the Liberal Party used "stolen money" to finance its re-election and that it must be held accountable for the corruption uncovered.
Even as Mr Martin was embracing the inquiry's conclusions, Mr Chrétien said in a news conference that the report, which concluded that he was politically responsible for the scheme though not necessarily personally aware of it, contained serious errors.
"Mr Justice John Gomery drew conclusions that are completely unbased on the evidence put before him," Mr Chrétien said.