'No point' for a public inquiry into private deal: Mulroney lawyer

Brian Mulroney's lawyer said on Thursday that a taxpayer-funded public inquiry is not necessary because a House of Commons committee has failed to unearth anything new other than details of a private transaction.

"There's no point in a public inquiry," Guy Pratte said at a news conference in Ottawa. "We have neither facts nor public money involved. It was only a private transaction between Mr. [Karlheinz] Schreiber and Mulroney."

He said Mulroney would co-operate in the event of a public inquiry, but notes that the goal of such a probe is to examine issues of public interest such as the waste of public monies.

Last November, the former prime minister said he would welcome a public inquiry and would attend "with bells on," but later questioned the need for such an investigation, saying he had been vindicated.

His lawyer defended the flip-flop on Thursday, saying the original comment was made before the Commons ethics committee had decided to probe the business dealings between Mulroney and German-Canadian businessman Schreiber.

But the committee's three-month probe, he said, has not uncovered any evidence of wrongdoing, and neither would a public inquiry.

"To have a public inquiry in those circumstances, where the only place you could lead to is to have Mr. Mulroney apologize again, what's the purpose?" he said.

Mulroney maintains innocence

Schreiber, who made five committee appearances, has maintained he paid Mulroney $300,000 to lobby the Canadian government for a light-armoured vehicle plant known as the Bear Head project. He also has said that the two reached their working arrangement on June 23, 1993, two days before Mulroney stepped down as prime minister.

However, Mulroney appeared before the committee on Dec 13 and said he took $225,000 in cash from Schreiber after his time in office for lobbying efforts abroad in the late 1990s.

The former prime minister has apologized for that lapse of judgment, Mulroney's spokesman Robin Sears has said, but added that the business arrangement wasn't illegal or unethical.

Mulroney's spokesman said the committee has not found any witnesses to corroborate Schreiber's allegations.

Pratte added that a public inquiry would only serve to delay Schreiber's extradition.

"Having extended his checkout time from 'Hotel Canada' by three months courtesy of the ethics committee, he wants an extra year or two to extend his late checkout further courtesy of the taxpayers who will foot the bill for a public inquiry without having put one iota of evidence on the table," said Pratte.

Schreiber has been fighting extradition since the RCMP arrested him in 1999 at the request of authorities in Germany, where he is wanted on charges of bribery, tax evasion, fraud and breach of trust.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has vowed to proceed with a public inquiry, though the mandate has yet to be defined. University of Waterloo president David Johnston, appointed by Harper to set out the terms of reference, will do so once the Commons committee wraps up its work.

In an early January report, Johnston suggested a public inquiry might not be necessary after the parliamentary hearings. He also pinpointed 17 questions the inquiry should investigate, mostly dealing Mulroney's business transactions with Schreiber.

Mulroney's lawyer said on Thursday that he plans to submit a detailed document answering those questions in detail.

Stop '15-year jihad' against Mulroney

Earlier in the day, Mulroney's spokesman, Robin Sears, urged the Commons ethics committee to quickly end its "partisan" probe into the former prime minister's business affairs, suggesting it was part of a "15-year jihad" against him.

"This has been like a 15-year jihad against Mulroney and his family by his enemies — led by Mr. Schreiber and enabled by some in the media," Sears told CBC News.

"It is time to bring this to a close. There really is no case left to answer."

NDP MP Pat Martin, committee vice-chair, was swift to condemn Sears's choice of words, saying the jihad comment was "shameful," "goofy" and trivializes the "international crisis of jihad.

"I can't believe that a responsible person would overstate things in that way," he told CBC News.

Martin said the committee extended the invitation to Mulroney as a "courtesy" to allow him the "final say" before the group wrote up its final report for Parliament.

'Pull the pin' on the committee probe

But committee members insist there are numerous inconsistencies that still need to be cleared up.

'We've moved the puck down the ice as far as we can. Now you pass the puck to the one most able to put it in the net.' —NDP MP Pat Martin

Mulroney was asked to appear before the committee on Thursday for a second round of questioning, but announced on his website Tuesday that he would not do so.

While the committee has the power to compel Mulroney to appear before them, several members suggest that's not likely to happen.

Martin said he has no intention of supporting a subpoena out of respect for the Prime Minister's Office and because he expects nothing new can be gleaned from a "hostile" witness.

Instead, he called for the committee to "pull the pin" on its probe, allowing a public inquiry to get underway.

"We've moved the puck down the ice as far as we can. Now you pass the puck to the one most able to put it in the net. And I believe that will be the commissioner of a full public inquiry."

The committee is expected to try to figure out its next move when it meets on Thursday.

Martin said the committee has discussed drafting an interim report for the government, laying out key issues and contradictions in testimony that an inquiry could examine further.