So Francois Beaudoin, the former president of the BDC, has been vindicated. Beaudoin had claimed in his wrongful dismissal suit that he was forced out as president after he urged foreclosing on the notorious loan to the Auberge Grand-Mere, on whose behalf he had been lobbied by the then Prime Minister, Jean Chretien. The bank responded by accusing him of misuse of corporate funds, a charge the judge forcefully dismissed.

"The court considers that Mr. Beaudoin suffered an unspeakable injustice as a result of this matter," [the judge] wrote.... While the judge stopped short of affirming Beaudoin's accusations of a vendetta, he said "the ferocity and unkindness with which he was treated in this affair certainly allows him to feel as he does."

Given the number of well-placed Liberals on the bank's board and in its executive suite, the question naturally arises as to why Mr. Beaudoin was canned, and why he was smeared when he refused to go quietly. This story just gets murkier and murkier.