Here comes de Judge

With the partisan politicians working their magic on the witnesses, media and the one or two folks still watching on TV, the Adscam hearing nears the end of its shelf life. Rumours out of the capital have the Liberal’s hoping to bring the whole unsavoury mess to an end in time to hit the hustings supposedly in late June now. And once the writ is dropped so will be the hearings, as the politicians get on to those important things in life like keeping their paycheques coming.

Having put forward the accountability dog and pony show as the right thing to do, they now get ready to hand out the toe tags for Alfonso, David and a few other bit players. The public long ago lost interest, suffering as we are from glazed eyes and ringing ears as the same old, same old was played out for us. No doubt we will welcome the break from the depressing realization that accountability is a lost art in Ottawa, confirming our worst fears about those who represent Ottawa to the commoners. But as they say when one door shuts, another one shall open, this time in the guise of new player in the "get to the bottom of this" crew.

Quebec Superior Court Judge John Gomery has begun his judicial inquiry into Auditor General Sheila Fraser’s report into sponsorship misdeeds in the province of Quebec. The Judge’s inquiry is a companion piece to the recent Parliamentary hearings into the same scandal, deliberations that haven’t really led us to a smoking gun. However, if Canadians are expecting a hanging judge to watch over proceedings, we had best to think again.

Sayeth the Judge: “The purpose of the commission is not to conduct a trial or to express any conclusion regarding the civil or criminal liability of any person or organization,”

Gomery’s comments make for a wonderful mission statement, but leave one to wonder what exactly will be the purpose of this lengthy investigation. A tribulation that apparently won’t be complete until sometime in 2005.

In fact while it was officially launched on Thursday, the actual work of investigating all the aspects of this Boondoggle won’t commence until September. One assumes the delay is that a well rested inquiry is an attentive inquiry. Maybe the idea is to hold the proceedings after the hot Ottawa summers, otherwise when the witnesses start to sweat it may actually only be from heat exhaustion and not from malfeasance.

None the less, the four month interval should help to put the whole scandal on the backburner for a while, which will be helpful during any election campaign, nothing worse than spreading sunshine when there’s a huge black cloud hanging overhead.

Gomery states that the purpose of his inquiry will be to advise the government, on how to avoid mismanagement of any future sponsorship endeavours. Not to belittle in advance the justice’s intent, but most Canadians could offer up a Cole’s Notes version of his report of 2005. DON’T DO IT AGAIN BONEHEADS. The staff at Boondoggle awaits the government’s cheque for our service to the country.

The above posting first appeared in my Boondoggle blog, for more items and links about Government matters check it out.