The Gomery Commission, formally the Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities, is a federal Canadian commission headed by the retired Justice John Gomery for the purpose of investigating the sponsorship scandal, which involves allegations of corruption within the Canadian government. Canada is a sovereign state in northern North America, the northern-most country in the world, and the second largest in total area. ... Justice John Gomery Justice John Howard Gomery (born August 9, 1932 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian jurist. ... The sponsorship scandal is an ongoing scandal that has affected the government of Canada, and particularly the ruling Liberal Party of Canada for a number of years, but rose to especially great prominence in 2004. ...

The Commission was called by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in February 2004 soon after the auditor generals report that found much was amiss with the Sponsorship Program. The Commission was part of Martin's active campaign to be seen as working the solve the problem. The Right Honourable Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC, MP, (born August 28, 1938 in Windsor, Ontario) is the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, succeeding Jean Chrétien on December 12, 2003. ...

The Commission had a broader mandate and greater resources than the Auditor General, and most importantly could look beyond government to the advertising agencies that had received the Sponsorship dollars.

The Commission began in Ottawa, meeting in the Old City Hall. The hearing opened in September of 2004. The first to testify was auditor Sheila Fraser who reported the findings of her earlier investigations. The first part of its investigation was of the political direction of the project. Most of the top officials involved were called to testify. The International Style 1958 portion of the Old City Hall on Sussex Drive The Safdie addition to the south of the building, the controversial tower can be seen on the right The building today commonly referred to as the Old City Hall was the building that served as Ottawas... Categories: Canadian people stubs | 1950 births ...

In an unprecedented event the inquiry saw the testimony of two Prime Ministers in February: Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien. The testimony of Chrétien was much anticipated. In December Chrétien's lawyers had moved to expel Justice Gomery due to comments he had made to a National Post reporter that the lawyers argued showed that Gomery was biased against Chrétien. These included Gomery commenting that golf balls marked with Cretien's name, which had been paid for by the sponsorship program, were "small town cheap." Gomery rejected the calls to recuse himself setting up a confrontation between him and Chrétien. At the end of his day of testimony Chrétien closed his statement by pulling out a series of golf balls bearing the name of American presidents and asking if each of them were "small town cheap." The stunt was the focus of all the media reports. The National Post is a large Canadian English language national newspaper based in Toronto. ...

After the Prime Minister's testified the hearings moved to Montreal to investigate where the money had gone. The hearings in Ottawa had uncovered little more than was in the Auditor General's report. The AG did not have the authority to investigate outside of the government, and the look into the advertising companies in Montreal uncovered a great deal of new and explosive allegations. The most important of these were by Groupaction executive Jean Brault who recounted a series of crimes committed to direct government money to Liberal party supporters. These caused a sharp fall in the support for the governing Liberals and has put their government in jeopardy. Groupaction Inc. ... Jean Brault was the president of Groupaction, a Montreal advertising firm implicated in the Canadian sponsorship scandal. ...

The inquiry hearings are scheduled to end in late May with the final report to be released in December. Paul Martin has promised that an election will be called within thirty days of the final report. It is likely that the government will fall before then, however.

Links

• The Gomery Commission (http://gomery.ca)