Evidence of meeting #15 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.
As an Individual
Between 1987 and 1998, I may have been paid about $75,000, but that is just an approximate figure. I never added it up.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
We can always get the documents from Stikeman Elliott. That is not a problem.
You said that you lobbied Mr. Chrétien without being registered as a lobbyist. You also lobbied John Manley, Doug Young and Roy McLaren.
Were you registered each time, for each of these individuals, or could there have been more oversights with respect to your registration?
As an Individual
You just said that I was not registered, so what can I say?
However, I can tell you that I went through the process for all departments involved. If I remember correctly, those were Foreign Affairs, Industry, National Defence and International Trade.
NDP
As an Individual
At the time, we only had to register once. We wrote down the names of the departments we intended to lobby.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
At the time, the law said that if a person intended to make representations to a public office holder, such as your former colleague, Jean Chrétien, in an attempt to influence the awarding of a contract, that person had to be registered. We have just established that you were not registered when you lobbied Mr. Chrétien. Were you not registered when you lobbied others either? Is that what you are saying? I do not want to put words in your mouth.
As an Individual
Of course not. I only had to register once. Mr. Chair, I would be pleased to submit a letter I wrote to the office of the registrar of lobbyists about this so you can see the documents and the explanation given in the letter.
February 12th, 2008 / 3:55 p.m.
Liberal
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Lalonde, for being here.
My, you have a long and distinguished career, sir. What was read into the record isn't really complete. I read that in 1959 you were a special adviser to the justice minister in the Diefenbaker government; in 1967 in the PMO, adviser to Prime Minister Pearson; then you worked as principal secretary to Prime Minister Trudeau as well as those things. And then it continues on. After you retired, sir, you've.... As I said, it's pretty safe to say that you certainly know your way around here and you'd certainly know how things work in government.
I want to read these questions into the record, if I could. We are doing a study obviously on the Bear Head project, on the Airbus purchase, and how that affects Mr. Mulroney.
Do you have any evidence to offer this committee of any wrongdoing by any public official regarding the Bear Head project?
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
And I know these are repetitious, but we do want to read these into the record.
Do you have any evidence to offer this committee of any wrongdoing by any public official regarding the consulting agreement between Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber?
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
Do you have any evidence to offer this committee of any wrongdoing by any public official regarding the Airbus purchase by Air Canada?
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
Do you have any evidence to offer this committee of any wrongdoing by any public official regarding the circulation of correspondence from the Privy Council Office to the Prime Minister's Office, with particular emphasis on the correspondence sent by Karlheinz Schreiber to the current Prime Minister?
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
Thank you, sir.
You have stated that you originally met Mr. Schreiber in a professional capacity and he hired you to perform legal services for him. You said this in, I think, The Globe and Mail, March 24. When did you start?
As an Individual
I have already answered. Sometime in--I had better not make a mistake on the decade there--1987.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
Mr. Schreiber claims he told Mr. Mulroney when they met at Harrington Lake in 1993 that he had already hired you to lobby for Bear Head, and that comes out of the Toronto Star, April 19, 1996. When did Mr. Schreiber first hire you to lobby for this project?
As an Individual
As I have mentioned, this would have been after the change of government, obviously, in 1993. I think you'll have to check the record, Mr. Chairman, to make sure I get the right decade.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
Mr. Schreiber told the committee that the Swiss bank account code-named MARC was set up at the end of 1993, and $500,000 was transferred into it to make sure that you would work for him and for Thyssen, but that he, Mr. Schreiber, was later told that things had changed and he was not to use the account anymore. This is a quote taken from Mr. Schreiber's testimony on December 4.
Mr. Lalonde, can you tell the committee what work you did for Karlheinz Schreiber?
As an Individual
On that particular file? I have already said in French. I advised Mr. Schreiber in 1992, when he was considering suing the Conservative government for not having proceeded with the project, and then I was retained on representations to various officials and ministers in the Liberal government to convince them that they should call a public tender for the supply of those light armoured vehicles made by Thyssen.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
Thank you, sir
Were you ever paid out of the MARC account?
As an Individual
I don't have a clue. Frankly, we don't ask our clients from which bank account they take the money with which they pay us. My firm was paid by cheque or bank transfer, and I don't know.
