Will work for judicial appointments

Sing, little birdy, sing. Benoit Corbeil, fingered by Jean Brault as one of the more importunate Liberal bagmen hitting him up for funds, has begun to talk. In an interview with Radio-Canada he "denies" Brault's charges, even as he concedes he did ask him for $50,000 -- $15K of it in cash -- to pay off various Liberal operatives. More important, he says the same shadowy network of senior Liberals controlled both the raising of funds for the party and the awarding of government contracts. And he states unequivocally that everyone in the Quebec wing of the party knew about it. Everyone. And then there's this shocking (ie completely unshocking) allegation: The same network controlled the appointment of judges. During the 2000 elections, the party had a stable of about 20 big-time Montreal lawyers working for them for free. Or perhaps, not quite for free: Several of them were subsequently rewarded with judicial appointments. The same practice applied, he says, with regard to accountants and engineers -- and, of course, advertising agencies -- all of them "volunteering" their services to the party in hopes of winning contracts. This goes way beyond sponsorships, in other words. But you knew that. POSTSCRIPT: Paul Wells was onto this way before me, and has more. POSTERSCRIPT: Why can't we see the same interview, in full, en anglais? Has the CBC no translators? LE POST-SCRIPTUM: Quelques articles en francais concernant Benoit Corbeil ici.