Mulroney confidant knew about Airbus commissions: CBC News investigation

A 1993 fax from Air Canada's manager of investor relations to Fred Doucet, a close friend of former prime minister Brian Mulroney, calls into question Doucet's sworn testimony before the House of Commons ethics committee in February of this year.

"I want to say I have no knowledge at all about anything involving Airbus," Doucet told the committee under oath on Feb. 12, 2008.

However, a CBC News investigation has learned that on the same day Mulroney received his first envelope of cash from German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber at a hotel in Mirabel airport, Doucet, who had arranged the meeting between the two men, received a fax from Air Canada outlining the delivery schedule of Airbus airplanes to Air Canada.

The Aug. 27, 1993, fax from Air Canada’s manager of investor relations, Denis Biro, itemized the delivery of 34 Airbus planes between 1990 and 1993.

That was important to Doucet because he was interested in determining how much money was left in the secret 1988 deal between Airbus Industrie and a Liechtenstein shell company, International Aircraft Leasing, or IAL. 

The fax and other documents that Schreiber has provided to CBC News and the upcoming Oliphant Commission looking into the financial dealings between Schreiber and Mulroney appear to contradict Doucet's testimony before the ethics committee.

In fact, letters and correspondence among Schreiber, Doucet, and lobbyist and former Newfoundland premier Frank Moores reveal that Doucet was involved in an in-depth effort to determine how much money was available from the Airbus deal. 

Notes referred to 'The Birds'

Their concerns first surfaced when Moores, owner of Government Consultants International (GCI), sent a handwritten fax to Schreiber on March 16, 1992, explaining why the commissions weren't going to be as large as they'd thought. 

A week later, Doucet wrote a letter to Schreiber saying that Moores was not calling him back. "I do not want to bother you with the matter of The Birds," Doucet wrote. "As I recall, you felt that by now I would have heard from F.M. I have not heard from him."

"There was a constant fight between Fred Doucet and Frank Moores on money," Schreiber said in a recent interview with The Fifth Estate. "'How much is it, how much do we get?' And Fred was never satisfied." 

When asked about Doucet’s reference to ‘The Birds’, Schreiber explained, "Whenever they spoke to me and wanted to know something about Airbus or whatever it was, whether it was Frank Moores or Fred Doucet, they always spoke about ‘The Birds’ on the phone. They never said anything about aircraft or Airbus. 'The Birds' is the name for Airbus."

After receiving the Aug. 27, 1993, fax from Air Canada's Biro, Doucet wrote a memo to Schreiber. "Mr. Biro has confirmed that 34 Airbus have been purchased and delivered to Air Canada according to the enclosed schedule," he wrote. "I sincerely hope that this evidence, many times stated before, is emphatically and categorically related to F.M. [Frank Moores]."

In a letter to Schreiber on April 28, 1994, Doucet reported on his assignment to find out how many Airbus planes were bought and fully paid for by Air Canada.

"I truly hope this removes the confusion. In fact, it’s even better than I had hoped because the total sale was 34, not 32," Doucet wrote. "For me, settling this matter is so very important for reasons I will tell you about in person."

Doucet turned down a request by CBC News to comment on the documents.

When contacted by CBC News, Air Canada's Biro declined to be interviewed about the fax he sent to Doucet. Air Canada's head of public relations told CBC the company didn't want to even look at the fax.

Until his death in 2005, Moores maintained he had nothing to do with Airbus and its sale of $1.8 billion worth of airplanes to Air Canada.