Former Nfld. premier innocent in Airbus affair, Crosbie insists

Former federal transport minister John Crosbie says deceased lobbyist and ex-Newfoundland premier Frank Moores had no personal involvement in Air Canada's purchase of Airbus jets in the 1980s.

However, Crosbie, who served in Brian Mulroney's government at the time, said Moores's company, Government Consultants International, had been involved in lobbying for the sale, which is the subject of a widening political scandal in Ottawa.

"Everybody in the world, in Ottawa, who was involved in politics or government, all knew that Mr. Moores's firm were acting for Airbus," Crosbie told CBC News.

Earlier this week, several media reports focused on a Feb. 3, 1988, letter signed by Moores, in which he wrote an Airbus Industrie executive regarding financing of Air Canada's purchase of Airbus jets.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called a public inquiry over allegations by German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber, who has accused Mulroney of corruption. Schreiber, 73, is fighting an extradition order to Germany, where he faces fraud and other charges.

Moores called suggestions 'grossly untrue'

Moores, who had been a close associate of Mulroney's for many years, founded GCI after leaving politics. The firm flew high during the Mulroney era, although Moores denied until his July 2005 death that he was ever involved in the Airbus affair.

Those suggestionswere "grossly unfair, and so grossly untrue," Moores told CBC News in a 2004 interview, while he was battling cancer.

Crosbie said that the latest allegations involving Moores are nothing more than muckraking.

"It just shows you the kind of frenzy that's now taking place in Ottawa," Crosbie said. "They think they smell blood, the media do, and it's everything that's on their minds. But there's nothing that I see [that] involves Mr. Moores at all."

Crosbie's admission that GCI represented Airbus, though, is significant. Producers with CBC Television's The Fifth Estate, which has been reporting on the controversy for more than a decade, said this is the first time a Mulroney government member acknowledged that Moores's firm lobbied for Airbus.

Moores had said he planned to sue CBC over The Fifth Estate 's coverage of the Airbus story. The threatened lawsuit never went anywhere.

As federal transport minister, Crosbie was ultimately responsible for Air Canada.

Crosbie said that when heard rumours that the fix was in for an Airbus sale, he said he checked them out with Pierre Jeanniot, thepresident ofAir Canada at the time.

"He satisfied me on that there had been absolutely no attempt to interfere by anyone in the government," Crosbie said.

Meeting with Schreiber 'unwise,' Crosbie says

Crosbie, who served as provincial finance minister when Moores was Newfoundland's premier in the 1970s, said that Moores never lobbied him directly about the Airbus sale.

Crosbie said, though, that he thinks Mulroney— whom he still supports— made a mistake when he met with Schreiber before he retired as prime minister.

"I think the present events certainly show this was unwise," said Crosbie.

In an affidavit, Schreiber has claimed that he struck a lobbying deal with Mulroney in 1993, claiming that he gave Mulroney $300,000 in cash in exchange for help insetting up a pasta business.

The signed affidavit also alleges that 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.

None of the allegations against Mulroney has been proven in court.