Lapierre, lobbyiste?

Speaking of fingers, Alfonso Gagliano has lately emerged from hiding to point a stubby digit at Jean Lapierre. Interviewed from Florida, where he is currently avoiding scrutiny (swimming with the fishes? -- ed.), Gagliano accuses the strutting bantam in epaulets/Paul Martin's Quebec lieutenant of acting improperly as a lobbylist:

Still bristling from Mr. Lapierre's comments a few weeks ago about "rotten apples" in the Liberal party, Mr. Gagliano recalled Mr. Lapierre, a consultant to several businesses at the time, approaching him when he was minister of Public Works, asking him to meet "a friend." Accompanied by Mr.Lapierre, Mr. Gagliano said he met with Francois Dufort of Cossette Communications Group for a presentation on publicity services and only found out later that Mr. Lapierre was a lobbyist for the firm. "If I'd known he was a lobbyist, I definitely wouldn't have gone," he said, adding that Mr. Lapierre had "in a sense" misrepresented himself. "I am not settling accounts. I was asked about it and that's what happened," he said. Cossette Communications has since landed the lucrative federal contract for placing ads for the government.

The Bloc has been on to this story for a while now, claiming Lapierre's business activities as a "strategic analyst," in which he arranged for corporate biggies to meet with MPs they wished to influence, amounted to lobbying without a licence, ie without registering as a lobbyist, as required by law. But it's okay. He's clean:

Lapierre defended his actions, saying he can't be considered a lobbyist because he never received any remuneration for setting up meetings.

That's right. He did it for free. BONUS, IN A PLAIN BROWN ENVELOPE: The situation is extra piquant, of course, because Lapierre was formerly so chummy with the Bloc. Here's Bloc MP Michel Guimond, during debate last year on the government's new ethics code:

When I was the Bloc Quebecois transport critic, Jean Lapierre invited me to meet with Gerald Schwartz from Onex to talk about the acquisition of Air Canada. As a lobbyist, he invited me to come and talk about developing the Bikerdike Basin in Montreal. The Olympia and York Developments group, linked to the Reichmann family, wanted to develop a Disney-style amusement park in the Bikerdike Basin and Jean Lapierre lobbied for this. The morning after the election, will Jean Lapierre, who is the member for Outremont and in opposition with us, be completely independent? No, he will not.

Gilles Duceppe has similar happy memories:

Outside the House, however, Duceppe revealed Lapierre set up meetings for corporations in the past, meetings Duceppe himself attended. "He contacted people, if not in power, certainly in the opposition, to organize meetings with firms. With me it was the case with Gerry Schwartz for Onex in the sale of Air Canada, or rather CP." A meeting between Duceppe, Bloc MP Michel Guimond and Schwartz took place on Sept. 27, 1999 at Montreal's Hotel Vogue, according to information supplied later by Duceppe's office.

But I repeat -- he was working for free:

"I was a political analyst and if, at a certain moment, Mr. Duceppe said that perhaps Mr. Schwartz should meet Mr. Guimond ... it was at the suggestion of Mr. Duceppe and I never charged for that."