A sophisticated cabal of MPs

How serious are the Liberals about getting to the bottom of all this? So serious that several Liberal members of the Commons Public Accounts committee were summoned to a meeting in the Prime Minister's office before the committee's first hearings. It's not clear what they discussed, but perhaps we can glean something from the off-the-record briefings senior Martin officials are giving reporters: it was all Chretien's fault.

"[The Chretien government] had a team of people who believed in a certain approach to politics in Quebec that was negligent of rules and unconcerned with proper conduct," said the senior official. "This public inquiry is going to pin it all on them."

Your mission, should you choose to accept it...