Liberals want RCMP probe of Cadman allegations

[daleo]

Federal Liberals have asked the RCMP to investigate allegations the Conservatives tried to bribe a dying Independent MP in a crucial vote three years ago, something Prime Minister Stephen Harper flatly denies happened.

The Liberals said they sent a letter to the Mounties on Thursday, noting that under the Criminal Code of Canada, it's illegal for anyone to try to influence a member of Parliament by offering financial incentives.

...

Dona Cadman, now the Conservative candidate for Surrey North, was sticking by her story Thursday.

Cadman's daughter, Jodi, also backed the story.

"He just said 'I have something to tell you,' and he told me that he was offered a life insurance policy, that my mom and myself would be taken care of," she said Thursday in Vancouver.
...
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/02/28/szabo-cadman.html
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Not that I trust the RCMP to perform an impartial investigation, anymore.

[Clintonista2]

1. Haha the daughter has got to be driving harper nuts

I bet he wants to remove her as a conservative candidate SOOOOO bad, but knows how terrible he would look if he did it...

[glarius]

2. I think the following is the smoking gun:

One of the Liberal Members of Parliament in question period this morning said something that explains the whole thing, I believe. I wasn't listening all that closely to Question Period but when I realized what he was saying I picked up my ears. He said something to the effect that there is a life insurance policy that each M.P. has (through the government) that the Conservatives would pay off after his death to make sure that $1,000,000 went to Cadman's wife. I'm not exactly sure how it went, but if people would look into this, I think that is the smoking gun.

[daleo]

3. That could be it

There are ways for parties to do creative financial things - look at the extra money that Mulroney got from the party all through his tenure.

The other thing that occurred to me is that the Conservative Party must have lots of insurance company executives as members. They would probably have wide powers of discretion when it comes to vetting insurance contracts, and if one of them went along with the plan, who else would ever know about it?

[daleo]

4. I thought about that some more

If Cadman had voted down the government, he may not have been able to run for re-election, or he might have lost his seat if he had run. If it was a term life insurance policy (like most workplace life insurance), he wold have lost his life insurance when he lost his seat. For a man with advanced terminal cancer, that would obviously be a big deal.

So these Tory operative say "don't worry, we can fix it so that your family gets the same benefits that they would have gotten if you were still covered by the Parliamentary plan."

They might just have been lying to a dying man - after all, how could Cadman be sure they would actually come through, once he was dead? Or they may have had ways for the party to pick up the policy, perhaps at considerable cost to the party. But we know the Conservative Party shoveled hundreds of thousands to Mulroney while he was PM, so it can be done.

Either way, it would still be a bribe to sway his vote, and it would still be illegal.