Barry Devolin Column 

May 17, 2005

Gomery Forbidden To “Name Names”

(Note: By law, the Gomery Inquiry hearings will proceed to conclusion and a final report will be tabled regardless of whether there is an election this year or not.)

Over the past few weeks, I have been asked many times by constituents what they should expect to see in Justice John Gomery’s final report due in late 2005 or early 2006.

Will Canadians be told who is guilty for thefts totaling millions of public dollars via the sponsorship program? In short, will Justice Gomery “name names” in his final report?

The answer to these questions is a categorical “no”. Justice Gomery will not name names. He will not tell Canadians who is to blame, and he will not suggest what punishment these guilty individuals deserve.

In fact, Justice Gomery is not allowed to say what many Canadians are expecting to hear. This muzzle on Justice Gomery is found in Paragraph (k) of his Terms of Reference.

k) “The Commissioner be directed to perform his duties without expressing any conclusion or recommendation regarding the civil or criminal liability of any person or organization and to ensure that the conduct of the inquiry does not jeopardize any ongoing criminal investigations or criminal proceedings.”

So, if Gomery isn’t allowed to say who’s to blame, what will be in his final report? The answer to this can be found in Paragraphs (a) and (b) of Gomery’s Terms of Reference.

a) “To investigate and report on questions raised, directly and indirectly, by Chapters 3 and 4 of the November 2003 Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the House of Commons with regard to the sponsorship program and advertising activities of the Government of Canada…”

b) “To make further recommendations that he considers advisable, based on the factual findings made under paragraph (a), to prevent mismanagement of sponsorship programs or advertising activities in the future…”

In other words, Gomery has been asked to investigate the issues raised by the Auditor General about the Sponsorship Program, and to make general recommendations to guide those creating sponsorship-type programs in the future.

In my opinion, this is in stark contrast to the expectation created by the Liberals and held by many Canadians that Gomery will be delivering a verdict and sentence in his final report, rather than just summarizing the evidence presented and making some general recommendations for the future.

This is why the “wait for the Gomery Report” logic doesn’t really work. Instead, a more compelling explanation is that Paul Martin is deliberately misleading Canadians about the Gomery Report in an attempt to buy a few more months in power.

Conservative Members of Parliament – including myself – who have been following the Gomery testimony on a daily basis have already reached the only possible conclusion – that the Liberal Party of Canada stole public funds through the sponsorship program and used them to cheat in the 1997, 2000 and 2004 federal election campaigns.

Those watching the Gomery hearings have also heard much evidence that makes is very hard to believe that Paul Martin did not know what was going on within his own Liberal Party in Quebec. In other words, it’s hard to believe that Paul Martin is telling the truth.

At some point in the next few months, the people of Canada will have a chance in a federal election to render their decision on Liberal misconduct. That’s because while it may be that John Gomery is the judge, it is the Canadian people who will be the jury in the Liberal sponsorship case.