In an abrupt about-face, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a review of Brian Mulroney’s dealings with a controversial businessman and cut off contact with the man he valued as a political adviser. Today’s reversal came just a day after new allegations from Karlheinz Schreiber threatened to draw Harper himself into the tangled Mulroney-Schreiber-Airbus affair.For days Harper had repeatedly dismissed Liberal demands for a probe into allegations involving $300,000 in cash payments to Mulroney by Schreiber.
But the same prime minister who had responded with taunts and threats to counter-investigate former Liberal prime ministers delivered a bolt out of the blue this afternoon. Not even Mulroney got an advance phone call from Harper.The announcement was prompted by a 20-page affidavit filed the previous day in Ontario Superior Court with fresh claims against Mulroney — and, for the first time, a mention of Harper in connection with the affair. Schreiber’s affidavit alleges that Mulroney was still serving as prime minister in June 1993 when he agreed to enter into a business arrangement. It says a Mulroney adviser once asked him to transfer funds, in connection with Air Canada’s 1988 purchase of Airbus planes, to Mulroney’s lawyer in Switzerland.
As for Harper, the affidavit claims that Mulroney told Schreiber about an upcoming visit to the current prime minister’s country estate in July 2006. It alleges that Mulroney promised to discuss Airbus with the prime minister at his retreat in Harrington Lake, Que..Harper acknowledged that he and his family hosted Mulroney in August 2006, but insisted that the matter never came up and said he was surprised to see his name in the court documents. But Harper said the allegations are serious enough to threaten the integrity of the prime minister’s office. He announced that he will appoint an independent arbiter to look into the matter and recommend what the government should do. The prime minister also warned members of his government not to deal with Mulroney for the time being.
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