The Conservatives Have Poor Relationship with Indo-Canadians

As news broke this week about Brian Mulroney's silencing of the Air India Bombing inquiry, it's a reminder of just how combative the Conservative Government has been toward Indo-Canadians.

Yes I know that Jason Kenney is currently exploiting the Sikh community, travelling across the country and globe with his new 'Mini-Me' Parm Gill, but overall their record has been abysmal.

Unfortunately Kenney's endorsement of Gill has meant an unprecedented attack on Gill's opponent, Rhuby Dhalla; which could very well drive a wedge in the Sikh community of Brampton. What does Kenney care? He just really wants a Private Investigator in his camp for the impending Conservative leadership race, if Stephen Harper loses the next election. Stockwell Day had to hire his own, when he paid an American Private Investigator (James Leigh) $ 6500.00 to spy on Jean Chretien.

Mulroney's office withheld Air India report
By Kim Bolan
Vancouver Sun
May 8, 2009

The office of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney withheld a report on the Air India bombing from an Indian judicial inquiry because it was worried Canada would look bad if the information was released, according to formerly secret documents released Friday.

The Canadian Aviation Safety Board report, prepared for India’s Kirpal Commission, concluded in the fall of 1985 that a terrorist bomb out of Vancouver brought down Air India Flight 182 months earlier, killing all 329 aboard.

But at a meeting chaired by Mulroney’s senior advisor Fred Doucet in January, 1986, the PMO concluded the CASB should not have prepared the report and that its conclusions were premature, flawed and damning to Canadian interests.

Memos about two PMO meetings in the months after the bombing are among dozens of previously classified documents released publicly Friday by Air India inquiry staff.

The public portion of the inquiry, headed by retired Justice John Major, ended in February 2008, but the production of evidence has continued for over a year behind closed doors. The final report is expected to be released next fall.

The government’s refusal to provide certain information to the Kirpal commission is “evidence of a cover-up,” lawyer Jacques Shore, who represents the Air India Victims Families Association, said Friday.

“These are among the incredibly shocking revelations that have come to light since we completed our hearings,” Shore said. At the time of the Kirpal Commission, victims’ families were fighting for compensation from the Canadian government for their lost loved ones.

Shore filed new submissions in response to the government revelations saying it is obvious “Canada intended to suppress the CASB report, believing its conclusions could be damaging to the case the government was trying to build with respect to the bombing, in addition to being potentially damaging to its reputation.”

Mulroney’s staff and the “cabinet ministers concerned” did agree that the report’s author would be able to testify at the Kirpal inquiry even though his report would not be provided..

But they did not want Canada to give any information to Justice Kirpal that might link the Air India crash with the same day bombing at Tokyo’s Narita Airport that killed two baggage handlers.

In August of 2008, the Indo-Canadain community of Vancouver were incensed over a weak apology that Harper gave relating to an incident that occurred when Conservative PM Borden was in charge.

Canadian PM apologises for Komagata Maru, Indo-Canadians reject it

The Indo-Canadian community has refused to accept an apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper for the 1914 Komagata Maru ship incident in which hundreds of Indian passengers were not allowed to enter Canada. The Komagata Maru was a Japanese ship hired by Malaysia-based wealthy Sikh Gurdit Singh to bring 376 Indians from Hong Kong to Canada in 1914 to challenge its racist laws.

The Indians were not allowed to disembark in Vancouver and forcibly sent back to India where many were shot on arrival in Calcutta, as it was then called.

Tendering the apology at the annual Mela Gadari Babian Da at the Bear Creek Park in Surrey city near here Sunday, Harper said Canada was sorry for the mistreatment of the passengers in 1914 and apologises for it.

Since the government had promised to apologise only in the nation’s parliament, mela organisers immediately rejected it.

“We wanted the House of Commons to apologise, not the PM at this rally. We reject this apology,” shouted Mela organiser Sahib Singh Thind even as security personnel whisked the prime minister away.

Thind said: “The government has betrayed us, as only yesterday it had promised us that the PM will announce only a date here for the apology in parliament later.

“Today, they have treated us like they did the Komagata passengers in 1914. It was the same racist Conservative government then as now. Racism is alive in Canada.” He said the Indo-Canadian community would chalk out its plan to fight for an apology in the nation’s parliament.

However, Jason Kenney, secretary for multiculturalism and Canadian identity, ruled this out, saying: “The apology has been given and it won’t be repeated.”

An indignant Indo-Canadian MLA Jagrup Brar, who was instrumental in getting the provincial British Columbia assembly to apologise for the Komagata Maru just last month, asked: “If our provincial assembly can apologise, why can’t the nation’s parliament?

“It was the House of Commons which had passed a unanimous resolution proposing an apology. The apology should have been entered into the House records. I wonder who is advising this PM.”

But Deepak Obhrai, Canadian parliamentary secretary (minister of state) for foreign affairs, justified the apology, saying: “It does not matter where the apology is tendered. Some people are bound to make noises. The government has acknowledged that Indo-Canadians were discriminated against in the past.”

Peter MacKay's Father and Airbus Scandal

As the inquiry continues into the business dealings between Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber, another familiar name enters the fray. That of Elmer MacKay, Peter MacKay's father. He is the man in the centre of the photograph, and was a cabinet minister for Mulroney at the time of the questionable transactions.

While he denies knowing anything about the money, he was definitely a key player in the negotiations, and a confidant (Elmer merely says 'friend') of the German businessman. So what was his involvement?

Elmer MacKay testifies he knew nothing about cash payments

Entries in Schreiber’s diary indicate that he made phone calls to former Mulroney cabinet minister Elmer MacKay on the same days as the first two meetings were held. MacKay has confirmed he had lunch with Mulroney and Schreiber the day of the third meeting.

In addition, Schreiber’s diary shows he made phone calls to MacKay on two days in July 1993 when he made banking transactions in Switzerland to obtain money to pay Mulroney.

MacKay acknowledged Monday he had been an ardent supporter of the Bear Head project while he served in cabinet because the deal — at least in its original form — would have brought much-needed jobs to his home province of Nova Scotia.

Even when he project was later changed to move the site of the proposed Thyssen plant to Mulroney’s home province of Quebec, MacKay said he continued to support it because there was "still a benefit to Canada."

MacKay insisted, however, that he knew nothing of the cash payments collected by Mulroney after he left office. And he was at a loss to explain the Schreiber diary entries bearing his name.

He can no longer recall details of any of the conversations he had with Schreiber on the days in question, MacKay testified.

But he was adamant that "I do know there was nothing in there about business or money or anything like that."

According to Schreiber, the deal was reached just before Mulroney stepped down as prime minister in June 1993, although the money didn’t change hands until later.

So is Elmer MacKay telling the truth? When he was in Mulroney's cabinet he was constantly on the carpet for patronage appointments and dirty practices, so it's not a stretch to imagine that he was complicit in the dealings and the cover up.

Remember Harper only called the inquiry after pressure from the opposition and after learning that his own name was presented in the court documents. Was he also trying to protect Peter MacKay?

The Perplexing Case of Elmer MacKay

In the whole sorry saga of Karl Schreiber's shennanigans in Canada, the weirdest part has got to be Schreiber's relationship with Elmer MacKay.


Elmer is mostly remembered as the guy who gave up his seat in Central Nova so newly elected PC leader Brian Mulroney could run there. In thanks, Mulroney made Elmer Solicitor General. Later Elmer became even more famous as the father of our lovelorn Minister of Defence, Peter MacKay.

Back in 1999, Schreiber was in Switzerland when German officials issued an arrest warrant for him. Elmer flew to Switzerland and flew back to Canada with Schreiber. Once in Canada, Schreiber was arrested on the German warrant to face extradition. Elmer paid $100,000 in bail. (Trudeau-era Justice Minister Marc Lalonde paid another $100,000 bail. However, Lalonde is generally described as a lobbyist working for Schreiber, while Elmer consistently describes his relationship with Schreiber as friendship.) Karl lived in Elmer's house for a while.

What is this strange relationship between Elmer and Karl? Many parents wouldn't cross an ocean to fetch back an errant child, much less a business acquaintance or friend.

As late as 2006, Elmer used Peter MacKay's constituency office resources to try to force the RCMP to back down in its investigation of Schreiber.

I wonder if Karl has been shaking down the Conservatives for a long time, threatening to reveal secrets if they don't keep him out of trouble. Or Karl might be receiving help staying out of Germany because the German case against him includes bribes he paid to Canadians for the Airbus deal - some people in Canada may worry that if the Germans ever get him home for trial, the lid will be blown off the whole Airbus controversy.

It is mighty suspicious that decades of RCMP investigations have revealed so little about the Airbus scandal: most of what we know about the scandal (such as Frank Moores' involvement) was uncovered by the media.

Or maybe Elmer MacKay is just the best friend a shady arms dealer could have.

Schreiber says Elmer MacKay urged him to mend fences with Mulroney

Karlheinz Schreiber says former Conservative cabinet minister Elmer MacKay urged him to write a letter to Brian Mulroney to patch up their relationship so he could raise his extradition case with the prime minister, CBC News has learned.
Schreiber, who is set to testify before the federal ethics committee on Thursday about his affairs with Mulroney, claims MacKay told him that Mulroney was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the summer of 2006.

CBC News approached Elmer MacKay at his Lorne, N.S., home for comment.

Schreiber said MacKay told him that if he wanted Mulroney to raise the issue of his extradition with Harper, he needed to make amends with Mulroney. Both Mulroney and Schreiber are long-time friends of MacKay, who is the father of current Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

CBC News has obtained a copy of an e-mail which appears to have been sent from Elmer MacKay's wife's address to Schreiber's wife in June of last year under the subject heading "proposed letter." (A real family affair)

The e-mail contains verbatim portions of the actual letter Schreiber did send to Mulroney about three weeks later.

The letter apologizes for what it claimed was a misleading characterization of Schreiber's business dealings with Mulroney as depicted in a report by CBC's The Fifth Estate. The letter claims Schreiber was misled by the producers.

Schreiber said he sent the letter because MacKay suggested Mulroney might raise the issue of Schreiber's pending extradition with Harper.
But Harper has said Mulroney never raised the issue of Schreiber's extradition with him at that meeting.
When approached at his Lorne, N.S., home, MacKay would not comment to CBC News about the e-mail.

Schreiber is currently suing Mulroney to recoup $300,000 in cash payments he handed out to the former Tory prime minister to enlist his help in establishing a pasta business and a light-armoured vehicle factory. Schreiber contends that Mulroney did not provide the services.

Schreiber alleges in an affidavit that the deal was struck two days before Mulroney left office as prime minister in 1993.

Schreiber also alleges in the affidavit that a Mulroney adviser asked Schreiber to transfer money in connection with Air Canada's 1988 purchase of Airbus planes to a Mulroney lawyer based in Switzerland.