Evidence of meeting #14 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 mulroney.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:40 p.m.
As an Individual
I don't know whether you can assume that. A lot of things go on in a prime minister's office. I wasn't aware of that project.
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Lavoie, I looked at your CV one last time before we stated. I've often seen you on television, and I believe we can consider you one of the best corporate communicators. I imagine you were also hired to give Mr. Mulroney advice on his public relations.
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
From what I understand, it was in the spring of 2000 that you first learned that Mr. Mulroney had received money from Mr. Schreiber.
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
So, in 1999, when you said, “I mean that, ultimately, he (Mulroney) never received any money from anyone. Because there was never any money,” you didn't know at that time that he had received money from Mr. Schreiber.
3:40 p.m.
As an Individual
I didn't know. Moreover, I would remind you that that conversation, in my mind and very clearly, concerned the Airbus transaction, the MBB helicopter transaction or the Bear Head project.
You're right: I didn't know.
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
You saw that that affair didn't die. Even after the settlement, the suspicion continued that Mr. Schreiber had given money to Mr. Mulroney. That's what you observed?
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
For Airbus, but he had given it.
You had no doubt already read that letter that the RCMP sent to Swiss authorities.
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
That doesn't surprise me.
When the lawyer spoke to you in the spring of 2000, he first told you that there had been cash retainers and three payments—three times, you say—of tens of thousands of dollars.
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
It seems to me that, if someone talks to me about tens of thousands of dollars, that represents less than $50,000. But, according to you, that amount came to $100,000.
3:40 p.m.
As an Individual
No. Mr. Ménard, I could answer you that, on the one hand, tens of thousands of dollars can represent less than $100,000 and, on the other hand, that the $300,000 figure appeared in the Globe and Mail, and we didn't dispute it.
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
So it wasn't you who said there had been a payment of $100,000.
3:40 p.m.
As an Individual
I said that last fall, but the first time those figures were advanced, they appeared in an article by Bill Kaplan in the Globe and Mail.
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
Did you learn at the same time as we did that Mr. Mulroney had said that he had in fact received $75,000?
3:40 p.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
I imagine you understood that, from the moment Mr. Mulroney had received amounts of cash from Mr. Schreiber, if that were known, people might think that it confirmed the content of the RCMP letter. However, you say there was another reason why he received those payments.
3:40 p.m.
As an Individual
First, Mr. Ménard, since you refer to the RCMP letter of September 29, 1995, I can say, briefly, without wasting the time allotted to me, that it should be kept in mind that that letter referred to a bank account at the Union Bank of Switzerland bearing the code name Devon, to which $5 million had purportedly been deposited.
