No charges in Cadman affair: RCMP

This is going to make the lawsuit a heck of a lot easier.
Should'a apologized when you had the option, Dion.

Liberals..........morons

Dion what an absolute failure

The "book" is probably already in the clearance bin.

Really, whats the point, you can't get blood from a stone. The Liberal Party of Canada is so broke that when they go to KFC, they lick other people’s fingers.

Maybe they could repo something valuable of Mr. Dions, like his spine, since he never uses it.

Fife sounds so disappointed

I was trying really hard to insert the sound of a deflating balloon on my post. That sound pretty much sums up the Liberal's case against the Conservatives at this point.

"It looks like the Conservatives will carry on with the lawsuit.."

No shit Sherlock! I hope Fife and the CBC is named in that lawsuit also.
I guess he'll be going to AlJezera too?

Beautiful. This is absolutely beautiful.

This one is next on Dions failure list.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... /Politics/


Tories jab at Elections Canada over Liberal leadership debts.



The Canadian Press

May 17, 2008

OTTAWA -- Federal Conservatives have opened up a new front in their war with Elections Canada, launching a pre-emptive strike against the independent agency's anticipated handling of Liberal leadership debts.

Stéphane Dion and his former rivals have until June 3 to pay off their loans and unpaid bills from the 2006 Liberal leadership contest. But the leader, who is struggling to whittle down a debt of almost $850,000, is legally entitled to seek an extension.

Anticipating that Elections Canada will grant extensions to Mr. Dion and other former contenders, Conservative MPs have begun using the daily members' statements to imply that the elections watchdog is complicit in helping Liberals evade the law.

"The Liberal Leader is said to have almost $1-million in outstanding leadership debts owed to wealthy elites and powerful insiders," Ottawa Tory MP Pierre Poilievre told the Commons this week.




"If he does not repay these debts by the June 3 deadline, they become illegal donations over the donation limit. The only escape is if Elections Canada steps in to protect the Liberal Leader with preferential treatment and an extension."

London Tory MP Joe Preston took up the cudgel yesterday.

"Will Elections Canada give special treatment to the Liberal Party by extending the deadline?"

The charge that Elections Canada can't be trusted to apply the law impartially has been a constant Tory refrain since the agency called in the RCMP to raid Conservative Party headquarters last month. The raid was in aid of an investigation into an alleged "in and out" spending scheme used by the Tories during the 2006 election campaign.

The agency alleges that the Tory party funnelled more than $1-million for advertising through 67 local campaigns in a bid to exceed the party's national spending limit and obtain rebates on expenses local candidates didn't actually incur.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his ministers contend that all parties routinely make the same kind of transactions without raising an eyebrow at Elections Canada. And they've repeatedly accused the agency of unfairly targeting the Conservative Party.

But whereas the in-and-out controversy is arguably a legitimate dispute over the interpretation of the law, in the case of leadership loans the Tories appear to be attacking Elections Canada for applying the law.

Elections Canada spokesman André Guertin said extensions for debt repayment are "part of the law" and it is "absolutely not" preferential treatment to grant them.

Under the Canada Elections Act, the Chief Electoral Officer has the discretion to authorize repayment of debts over a longer period of time and contenders can further apply to a judge for an extension.

It is an offence to fail to repay loans within 18 months unless an extension is granted.

Liberal MP Bob Rae, one of only two former leadership contenders who has paid off his debt, said Mr. Poilievre is "completely misinterpreting the law for his own reasons."

Gerard Kennedy, another former leadership contender who has about $300,000 in debts left to clear, said the Harper Tories are denigrating Elections Canada in a bid to discredit the agency's allegations of Tory campaign spending fraud.

"The more trouble they're in ... the more likely they are to attack the source of the problem," Mr. Kennedy said.

This isn't the first time the Tories have attacked Elections Canada. Last summer, Mr. Harper publicly rebuked Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand for refusing to prohibit veiled women from casting ballots in by-elections - even though the law didn't empower Mr. Mayrand to do so.

Nor is Elections Canada the only independent agency to feel the Prime Minister's wrath. He's fired or butted heads with the head of the Nuclear Safety Commission and the ethics, information and privacy commissioners, among others.

Mr. Kennedy said the latest attack on Elections Canada also reflects the "crude and petty politics" the Tories have played with the Liberal leadership contest from the outset. He noted that in 2007 the government drastically reduced the political donation limit to $1,100 from $5,400, making it much harder for former contenders to pay off debts.

The Tories have since introduced legislation to make it harder in future for leadership contenders to finance their campaigns with loans. That bill has been slowly making its way through the legislative process, but Liberals expect the government to make it a priority within the next few weeks in hopes of drawing attention to the debts still being carried by Mr. Dion as the June 3 deadline approaches.

think the liberal party might be in some trouble over this one in the near future . mean if there " allegations " totally fall apart its going to look bad on them and people might wonder if they were just making stuff up and posting it to there website to make the conservatives look bad