Dion calls for judicial inquiry into Mulroney allegations

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion is demandinga full judicial inquiry to assess allegations about former prime minister Brian Mulroney and German-Canadian lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber, sayingthe current government is too close to Mulroney to be objective.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Friday that his Conservative government would appoint an as-yet-unnamed person to have an independent look into allegations about dealings between Schreiber and Mulroney, whose Progressive Conservatives held powerfrom 1984 to 1993.

On Saturday, after media reports indicated that Schreiber had written to Harper about Mulroney in March 2007, Dion called for a judicial inquiry because Harper didn't react at the time.

"These latest revelations demonstrate that Mr. Harper and his government are too close to Mr. Mulroney to assess this situation objectively," Dion said in a release on Saturday.

Schreiber's letter to Harper "explicitly claims that when Mr. Mulroney sought 'financial help' in 1993, Mr. Schreiber met with him, while he was still the prime minister, and worked out an agreement to provide him with funds," Dion said.

Harper made the government announcement Friday after Schreiber filed an affidavit in an Ontario court claiming he negotiated a $300,000 lobbying deal with Mulroney at the prime minister's retreat in Quebec two days before Mulroney stepped down as prime minister.

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

Schreiber's allegation about the Airbus funds is similar to the accusations that sparked Mulroney's 1995 lawsuit against the federal government, and resulted in the former prime minister receiving an apology and a settlement of $2.1 million in 1997.

None of the allegations has been proven in court. Schreiber is scheduled to be deported to Germany on Wednesday to face bribery and fraud charges.