Harper Should Immediately Call for an Inquiry Over the Cadman-Con Affair.

Adam at 9:19 on the previous post in the Blog commented as follows:

1. Chuck Cadman himself publicly said he was not offered anything.

2. Dona Cadman is now running for the Conservatives and indicated that there was nothing unbecoming.

3. The Liberals fear saying anything outside the House because they will be immediately slapped with a defamation lawsuit.

4. Finally, there is no insurance company in the world that would ever give a $1 million policy to someone who is terminally ill. Only an idiot would think that can happen.

It is sad that you say federal politics is boring until the federal liberals decide to sling mud. Your party is neutered and losing credibility - harping on "character" is not going to help the Liberals.


Adam - your Comment points beg for rebuttal AND a post if its own...so here goes.

#1 - Cadman said in media scrums and comment that he was not offered anything by Martin or Harper...however he was not asked by the media about offers from Mr. Harper’s operatives. In fact Mr. Harper says on tape in an interview for the book that he knew his operatives were making Cadman “a financial offer” allegedly to offset his cost of a pending election!!! Mr. Cadman was near death at the time and not going to be a candidate in an election caused by the non confidence vote. Mr. Cadman passed away two months after the vote. HOW stupid is that representation as a defense to the allegations at hand?

#2 Yes I understand that Mrs. Cadman is running for the Cons and that must be very awkward for you guys. You will likely end up paying her off or even refuse to sign her nomination papers under the circumstance. Your party has a history of treating nominee you don’t very like badly – forcing some to even sue you to honour the “expense deals” made to get them out of the way.

This is potentially a much bigger deal and could be a matter of influence peddling - a criminal offence. Mrs. Cadman is not, as far as I know, a lawyer, nor familiar with the law in this area or the influence peddling provisions of the Criminal Code. So it is not likely we can rely on her as one to adequately judge if the offer was "unbecoming" or not. We have police investigations, prosecutors and the courts to make those determinations for our society.

#3 - Why should any parliamentarian say anything outside the Commons about this matter? It is not their allegations and questionable behaviours that are at issue here. Besides it is all in a book and on tape and all over the media. If you Cons want to sue, you can sue the media coverage of the story if it is over the line. You can sue the author and maybe you will want to burn his books while you are at it. You can sue Mr. Cadman's wife and his daughter who are confirming the allegation in the book, apparently from first hand conversations with Mr. Cadman. These individuals are all outside the protection of parliamentary privilege. Go for it boys. If you want a legal action you have it against those actually making the allegations, not parliamentarians who are just doing their job on behalf of Canadians.

#4 Correct, there is no insurance company in the world who would issue a policy on Mr. Cadman's life given his terminal illness. Unless of course someone was prepared to lie or mislead on insurance application...but I am not accusing anyone of that…heaven forbid. Besides – it never happened because Mr. Cadman is reported to have thrown Mr. Harper’s operatives out of his office at the suggestion of such a scam.

Speaking of misleading scams, how gullible do you Cons think we Canadians are? We are being asked to accept that there was no offer of a $1m insurance policy to Mr. Cadman in exchange for his vote, even when the allegations are confirmed by two primary sources, Mr. Cadman’s wife and his daughter. They have nothing to gain by being misleading on these issues. In fact, Mrs. Cadman may have something to lose. She will likely have to face some concerns and reservations by the CPC as to her continuation as a candidate in light of her comments and her confirmation of these alleged events.

Instead, we are being asked to believe Mr. Harper’s version of events. He says that so far as he knew, the “financial offer” his operatives were making to Mr. Cadman was an offer to pick up his election costs. That presumes Mr. Cadman's candidacy in the election that would result from his support of the Cons in the pending non-confidence vote. That makes no more and no less sense than the possibility of a $1m insurance policy offer allegation. Perhaps both offers were made. Who knows but that does not matter in the larger scheme of things going on here.

The facts about Mr. Cadman' health were well known to all of Canada at the time of these incidences and allegations. And the facts were that, Mr. Cadman was in the final stages of his life at the time the non-confidence vote was being initiated by the Cons. That vote, given Mr. Cadman’s support, the Cons would be able to defeat the Martin government and trigger an election which Mr. Harper desperately wanted. The political stakes were high for the Harper Cons at the time the operatives were allegedly making certain “financial offers” to Mr. Cadman in exchange for his vote.

The allegations that are being made, if they are proven to be influence pedaling, will result in the potential for some high stakes and dire consequences for individuals involved. It will also have dire consequences about the respectability, the credibility and the suitability of Mr. Harper and his party to be worthy of the consent of the citizens of Canada to govern.

The stories the Cons are trying to spin about this is incredible and insulting. They are looking more and more like a cross between the Keystone Kops and Rasputin with all the efforts at obfuscation and the mockery and mocking defenses. They are now backpedaling on earlier positions in the face of the new facts that are coming out. The new facts are becoming a growing litany that are already well beyond the Cons traditional and trademark damage control and issues management techniques.

None of your points hold water adam. It is time to come clean boys. You should immediately implore your leader to call a judicial inquiry into this embarrassing and debasing Con-induced mess. Do it out of decency, for the good of the country and out of respect for the Office of the Prime Minister...if nothing else.