Nobody here but us deaf, dumb and blind people

Let me get this straight. Over a six year period, the federal government spent a quarter of a billion dollars advertising itself in Quebec -- a scandal in itself. Of that amount, 40% -- that's $100-million -- was siphoned into the pockets of various middle-men, mostly well-connected Liberal advertising firms. The money was funnelled through virtually every part of the government, from Crown corporations to government departments to the RCMP. And we are supposed to believe that no one knew anything about it? That the Finance minister, one Paul Martin, knew nothing about it? That Pierre Pettigrew, the political minister for Quebec, knew nothing about it? That Lucienne Robillard knew nothing of it? That Denis Coderre knew nothing of it? It was all just Alfonso Gagliano's doing? But then, that is no more incredible than the government's pretense that, because the number one man for the past 14 years has been replaced by his number two, it is somehow a "new" government, entirely unconnected with the last one, notwithstanding the presence of 15 ministers in the current cabinet who were also members of Jean Chretien's cabinets. (UPDATE: At least four of those ministers, I am reminded by the estimable Colby Cosh, served on the cabinet Government Communications committee, responsible for overseeing the sponsorship program. In January 2001, they included David Anderson, Ralph Goodale and Claudette Bradshaw, along with Ms Robillard. The chairman of that committee? Alfonso Gagliano.) It would be a joke, if it weren't so chilling. Consider this passage from today's CP story.

The RCMP's 125th anniversary in 1999 turned into an embarrassing waste of taxpayer dollars, [the Auditor General, Sheila Fraser] said. Public Works contributed $3 million to a trio of ad agencies - Lafleur, Media/I.D.A. Vision and Gosselin - who were responsible for transferring the money to the RCMP. Those three agencies took a combined $1.3 million in fees and commissions and transferred $1.7 million to the RCMP for its anniversary celebration. Fraser's audit concluded that the RCMP's Quebec division received its payments through a separate non-government bank account, which violates the federal Financial Administration Act. The transactions were recorded manually rather than in the RCMP's standard accounting system, and some of the supporting documents were subsequently destroyed.

The RCMP was laundering funds through secret bank accounts? What country is this, anyway?