Liberals hold Nicholson to fire over Schreiber flip-flop
Seizing upon an apparent about-face from the Justice Department, the Liberals hammered Justice Minister Rob Nicholson on Thursday,grilling him overwhether the sudden decision not to challenge Karlheinz Schreiber's fight to stay in Canada signified a lie, or ignorance on the minister's part.
"My question to the minister is: Is he incompetent to the extent where he doesn't understand his own power? Or did he deliberately mislead the House?" Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion fired in French on Thursday during question period in the House of Commons.
Nicholson, who over the past week said he was powerless to block Schreiber's extradition to his native Germany, deflected the questions.
"I haven't commented publicly on any case up to this point, and I don't intend to do so now," he said, suggesting that Dion re-read the parameters set out for the minister of justice's jurisdiction.
In a jab at Nicholson's proficiency in French, Dion offered to repeat his question for the Conservative minister.
"Let me try again in English," he said to guffaws in the House. "On Monday the minister said he doesn't have the power. Today we learned his department is ready to use the power it pretends he doesn't have. So what is the truth?"
Earlier in the week, Nicholson insisted he lacked the jurisdictional authority to interfere in an impending deportation order to send Schreiber, the man behind corruption allegations dogging former prime minister Brian Mulroney, to Germany.
Announcement on eve of testimony
The German-Canadian arms dealer faces bribery, fraud and tax evasion charges back home.
But the opposition parties rejected Nicholson's claims of powerlessness, saying Nicholson should exercise his discretionary authority to ensure Schreiber stays in Canada long enough to testify at hearings into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair.
On the eve of Schreiber's much-anticipated Thursday appearance before the parliamentary ethics committee, the Justice Department seemed to change its tune, according to the Liberals.
The department consented on Wednesday night to a judicial stay of surrender to give Schreiber time to appeal his case to the Supreme Court of Canada.
An agreement not to challenge the judicial stay of extradition suggested the Justice Department has "offered to use a power it claimed it doesn't have," Dion said Thursday.
"Obviously the department wouldn't even make such an offer if the minister didn't have the power to do so," he said.
Pending an appearance from Schreiber's lawyers in the Ontario Court of Appeal on Friday, Schreiber will no longer be leaving Canada on Dec. 1, as originally scheduled.