Evidence of meeting #18 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was schreiber.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Elmer MacKay  As an Individual
Karlheinz Schreiber  As an Individual

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON

So was Mr. MacKay lying today, or were you telling us the wrong information last time?

5:30 p.m.

As an Individual

Karlheinz Schreiber

You don't know what you're talking about. That's the problem. He sent me a draft in an e-mail, which you have--

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON

Right.

5:30 p.m.

As an Individual

Karlheinz Schreiber

--and from that e-mail, I wrote my letter. So what are you talking about?

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON

That is not what you told this committee the first time you were present here. You told this committee that he had sent you the letter and that you signed it. I'll show it to you; it's in the blues.

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo

Order.

We'll go to Mr. Thibault on a point of order.

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

Robert Thibault Liberal West Nova, NS

I think it might be worthwhile.... I've known Mike for a long time, and I know that he wouldn't want to mislead. But it might be worthwhile to refresh his memory and look at the testimony, because I think the testimony was that the draft letter was changed.

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo

Mr. Wallace, the time slot is complete.

The committee is going to be going in camera to deal with a couple of matters. I mentioned it at the beginning of the meeting. I gather that it might take a little while to clear this room.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC

Mr. Chair, respectfully, in previous meetings you have given additional time to your party and to the opposition parties to ask additional questions. We've given that freely. We have some additional questions, and I think it's just fair that you provide us an opportunity to ask those questions.

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo

Fair enough. I'm sorry, I understood that we would just go the two rounds. I'll look for a consensus here, but if something else has come up, and it's relevant and vital, I think we might go for one more question around the table, if they want it.

Would that be okay?

5:35 p.m.

Conservative

Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC

Even if they don't want it, we do have some additional questions.

I note that with Mr. MacKay, two parties had the chance to ask some additional questions, so perhaps they could share the courtesy.

5:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo

I'm sorry.

I think there's an interest. I'm looking around, and I see that the members would like to ask a couple of more questions. I'm going to give a couple of questions to each party, and that should give us time to deal with the in camera business that we wanted to deal with.

Why don't I just go around the table, and I'm going to go to Mr. Hubbard first.

5:35 p.m.

Liberal

Charles Hubbard Liberal Miramichi, NB

When Mr. Pelossi was visiting us by teleconference, he talked about directions he got from you. It always appeared that you would say to put money in this account, put money in that account, the Devon account, the Britan account, and he never took it out. He always said you were the one who disposed of the money.

Did this actually happen, first of all; and secondly, do you have any records of who you gave that money to, those two accounts?

5:35 p.m.

As an Individual

Karlheinz Schreiber

Number one, Mr. Pelossi was with IAL, which was not my company. I recommended Mr. Pelossi to Mr. Moores and GCI, and he represented them when he signed the agreements, because Frank Moores had a connection to Brian Mulroney, who was the route to go to obtain contracts, not Karlheinz Schreiber. This is nonsense.

The second thing is, when the money came, Frank Moores, at the beginning, took Mr. Pelossi with him to the bank when he opened two accounts. I would not have needed Mr. Pelossi to open a bank account, and I would not have recommended him even to be around, but Moores wanted him to be there because Mr. Pelossi normally would have been the one who would have transferred the money to where I told him, from the orders I would have gotten.

But then, sir--and this is where the confusion starts--he stole the money. He stole $1.3 million from my clients, and I had a terrible situation in which I had to say, look, I recommended the guy, and he stole the money. You will agree with me that people would say, is that true, or is he part of this, or is he stupid to recommend a guy like this? I had to sue him. I had to put the prosecutors on him.

5:35 p.m.

Liberal

Charles Hubbard Liberal Miramichi, NB

I'm really short of time. Was one of those accounts specifically for Brian Mulroney?

5:35 p.m.

As an Individual

Karlheinz Schreiber

Not to my recollection.

5:35 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo

Thank you very much.

We're going to move to Mr. Hiebert, please.

5:35 p.m.

Conservative

Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC

Mr. Schreiber, we've heard from Mr. Alford before this committee, and he testified that he was completely unaware of Mr. Mulroney doing any work with you or with Thyssen.

We've heard from Mr. Mulroney about his international efforts. I'm wondering why would it be that Mr. Alford, who worked closely with you presumably, was not aware that somebody as high-profile as Mr. Mulroney was working with you. Can you explain how he would not have known?

5:35 p.m.

As an Individual

Karlheinz Schreiber

Yes. I can explain this to you very easily. I will try one more time.

Mr. Mulroney did nothing, because it was in June and the election was on, and his dream that Kim Campbell would win an election and he could be helpful to build the plant in Montreal could not happen. How could he go to a Liberal government and say we want a plant there? This is nonsense, and the international stuff is crap.

5:35 p.m.

Conservative

Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC

I'm asking specifically about Mr. Alford. So you never talked to Mr. Alford about Mr. Mulroney working with you on this project? Yes or no?

5:35 p.m.

As an Individual

Karlheinz Schreiber

1993. I left in 1994....

5:35 p.m.

Conservative

Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC

I'm just wondering about the amount of communication with your team.

5:35 p.m.

As an Individual

Karlheinz Schreiber

No, I know. No, no, no.

5:35 p.m.

Conservative

Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC

Okay.

I have one other question. Mr. Schreiber, you've said before this committee that it was Mr. Moores who first introduced you to Mr. Mulroney, yet in your affidavit--

5:35 p.m.

As an Individual

Karlheinz Schreiber

No. I haven't said that.