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.
As an Individual
It didn't come to me. It went to him, because he was my client. The money was adjudicated through an arbitration process presided over by the late Judge Alan Gold.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
So this $587,000 worth of public relations was not for your services from 1988 to that point, but specific to--
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Right, since the letter went to the Swiss banks.
A lot of Canadians want to recoup that $2.1 million.
For you to bill that amount you must have been quite integrally involved with Mr. Mulroney during that difficult two-year period. He talks about it as the worst period of his life--a nightmare period.
To rely on a public relations firm for $587,000.... Did you never ask him, “If I'm going to represent you in this, Brian, did you or did you not ever accept any money from Karlheinz Schreiber, because it's going to be key and integral to my convincing Canadians that you have nothing to hide”? Did you never ask him that question directly?
As an Individual
Not exactly, but I asked a question the day he contacted me, which was Monday, November 13, 1995. I was then living in Ottawa, and he asked me to come to Montreal to see him. I had a social activity in Montreal that evening and stayed overnight. I met him the following morning at his home.
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
What did you ask him? Did you ask him if he had any business dealings with Karlheinz Schreiber?
As an Individual
I'm coming to it.
He told me what he was faced with, which was this letter. I remember clearly asking him--so does he--if there was any truth to the letter that was sent over. He said absolutely not.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
So you weren't lying to the people of Canada; he was lying to you.
As an Individual
No. He was not lying to me, because there was no truth to what was in that letter.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
We paid him that $2.1 million because it was alleged that Karlheinz Schreiber gave him money. Now we know he did give him money.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Lavoie, earlier you mentioned Mr. Mulroney's lawyer, who apparently told you he had received cash. He purportedly told you that in the spring of 2000. I would like you to identify that lawyer.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
He used the word “retainer”. Do you remember whether the conversation took place in French or English?
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
He used the word “retainer”. You know as well as I do that that's an earnest money term rarely used outside the context of a lawyer's work.
Do you think that was an allusion to the fact that Mr. Mulroney, who, unless I am mistaken, was, at the time, already a partner in a very large Montreal law firm on an exclusive basis, had been retained as a lawyer? Is that what Mr. Tremblay was attempting to allude to in speaking to you about that?
As an Individual
I didn't understand it that way. Well, perhaps yes, perhaps no, but I was in the public relations field, and we also have retainers.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
You would nevertheless have had to explain how he had received hundreds of thousands of dollars, wouldn't you? You would have had to know why he had received that money. If it wasn't for legal work, what was it for, in your opinion? You had to provide a public explanation. So how did you understand it? What were you going to say?
As an Individual
First, the question wasn't at all in the public domain, was it? Mr. Tremblay called me at Mr. Mulroney's request essentially because I was being sued for $1 million for defamation by Karlheinz Schreiber, and, in the circumstances, it was clear to them that I needed that information.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
And what did you, Luc Lavoie, understand that he had done to earn that $300,000?
As an Individual
I understood that it was a retainer to represent him in projects in which he was involved.
