Your money, their legal bills part 2: Liberal Adscam legal bills remain 
a mystery 

by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch updated 5:20 p.m. January 10, 2007]

Former PM Jean Chretien's legal invoices for the Gomery inquiry have been blacked out by the federal government.

OTTAWA  —  Canada's new government is refusing to disclose details about how taxpayer money was spent on legal representation for former prime minister Jean Chretien at the Gomery inquiry. 

The federal justice department has blacked out all details of how the former prime minister's lawyers spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in legal fees. 

Taxpayers footed the bill for legal representation for Chretien, former cabinet ministers and a cadre of Liberal political staffers for matters related to the Gomery inquiry into the federal sponsorship scandal. 

Invoices submitted by the former prime minister to the federal government obtained by PoliticsWatch under access to information are heavily blacked-out with virtually all of the 352 pages released containing nothing but letterhead.  

In total, the public spent more than $2.8 million in legal fees for the Adscam witnesses. Chretien alone ran up a tab of $587,430.00,  nearly one-fifth the entire money spent on legal fees by the government. 

Justice Canada was inundated with invoices from various former Liberal politicians and staffers for legal costs. The government refused to pay a large percentage of some of the initial bill claims made by some of the Liberal staffers. 

Justice Canada officials confirmed to PoliticsWatch that the heavy editing of the Chretien documents was "by virtue of section 23 (solicitor-client privilege) of the Access to Information Act." 

Information Commissioner Robert Marleau's office confirmed on December 27 that it has launched an investigation into the invoices following a complaint by PoliticsWatch. 

Gomery's fact finding report was released in November of 2005 and placed blame for the sponsorship scandal on Chretien, his former chief of staff Jean Pelletier and former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano among others. 

Chretien has launched a judicial challenge of Gomery's findings but pledged that his further legal challenges of Gomery's findings will be paid for out of his own pocket. 

While Adscam no longer dominates the political debate in the House of Commons like it did the previous three years, the scandal has the potential to erupt again in the near future.  

Last month, Liberal MP Jean Lapierre said the Liberals could face challenges in Quebec in the next election because of the scandal. 

"This whole sponsorship thing is still sticking with us," he bluntly said.

"In January, you're going to have criminal charges laid out for five or seven individuals, you're going to have a report from a judge on Option Canada and all of those things are going to affect our brand." 

Your money, their legal bills part 1
(July 24, 2006)

Justice department documents obtained through access to information by PoliticsWatch shows the federal government was billed nearly $2.8 million for legal fees by a number politicians, political staffers and bureaucrats who appeared before the Gomery inquiry. Find out which Adscam witnesses submitted the biggest legal bills. 

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