Mulroney owes Canadian taxpayers $2.1 million: Opposition

OTTAWA – Former prime minister Brian Mulroney won a $2.1-million libel settlement under "false pretences" and the Conservative government should force him to repay it, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says.

Ignatieff’s call Tuesday was echoed by New Democrat and Bloc MPs, all of whom have jumped on the findings of a federal inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair to renew calls for the former Tory leader to repay the out-of-court settlement he won in 1997.

"I think this is a matter of honour," Ignatieff told reporters. "I think this money was acquired effectively through false pretences, and Canadians feel it’s wrong."

Justice Jeffrey Oliphant’s report, released Monday, slammed Mulroney for, among other things, not being "forthright" in testimony he gave during a 1996 pre-trial hearing of his libel case about his business relationship with Schreiber.

Mulroney, who by then had secretly accepted three cash payments of at least $225,000 from the German-born lobbyist, testified he had "never had any dealings" with Schreiber and that their only contact since he stepped down as prime minister in 1993 had been over a cup of coffee or two.

Mulroney was suing the federal government for $50 million for falsely alleging in a letter to Swiss authorities that he and Schreiber had received millions of dollars in kickbacks from Air Canada’s $1.8-billion purchase of 34 Airbus planes in 1988.

Ignatieff, along with NDP Leader Jack Layton, said Prime Minister Stephen Harper should first try "moral suasion" to convince Mulroney to repay the money. If that doesn’t work, Layton said, the government should explore its legal options for recuperating the funds.

"Mr. Mulroney should have to pay back the money," Layton told reporters. "It’s very clear from what emerged in that report that that is what he should do."

The government ducked responding directly to the opposition demands on grounds it is still digesting the report.

"The report is now with appropriate authorities who will study it, and the government will respond to any recommendations, indeed any recommendations in this area, in due course," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told the Commons.

Bloc MP Pierre Paquette told Nicholson the government must take the initiative because Oliphant’s report makes no recommendations about recovering the $2.1 million.

Earlier in the day, Richard Wolson, the lead commission counsel, was at pains not to offer an opinion on the subject. He emphasized that a recommendation about repayment was not part of Oliphant’s mandate.

"I’ll leave that to members of Parliament to debate and to the public to debate," Wolson said in an interview. "It’s not an area that Justice Oliphant was asked to opine on."

It’s not the first time the subject of repayment has come up.

Allan Rock, who was justice minister when Mulroney won the settlement, suggested during testimony to a parliamentary committee in 2008 that the settlement would not have been made if the then-Liberal government had known about the cash payments from Schreiber.