Let's Leave Some Room In The Spotlight For The Liberals

Police ready to turn spotlight on Liberal officials

With fraud investigations into ad agencies nearly wrapped up, Mounties to intensify scrutiny of possible corruption, influence peddling

DANIEL LEBLANC

From Friday's Globe and Mail

April 25, 2008 at 4:58 AM EDT

OTTAWA — The police have almost finished probing advertising firms involved in the sponsorship scandal and are moving on to allegations of corruption against Liberal officials, sources say.

The RCMP and the Sûreté du Québec have recommended to Crown prosecutors that a final set of charges be laid in the advertising phase of the probe, against people who worked for at least two companies involved in the sponsorship program, sources said.

These cases wind up the police investigation of the major advertising firms involved in the controversial federal initiative to put up Canadian flags in Quebec after the 1995 referendum on sovereignty.

Having focused on issues of fraud since 2002, the Mounties sent a clear message last week they are now looking at allegations of influence peddling, laying charges against former federal Liberal official Benoît Corbeil.

Sources said the RCMP is hoping to go higher up the Liberal hierarchy than Mr. Corbeil, the former director-general of the Liberal Party's Quebec wing, who is accused of taking a bribe from a businessman and defrauding the party.