Schreiber arrives for 3rd day of testimony
Karlheinz Schreiber arrived on Parliament Hill Thursday for his third appearance before a House of Commons ethics committee investigating his ties to former prime minister Brian Mulroney.
A crowd of camera and reporters clustered around Schreiber, who, unlike his first two appearances, wasn't wearing handcuffs because he was granted bail Tuesday.
Opposition committee members want to question Schreiber about nearly 4,000 pages of detailed documents he submitted earlier this week.
When Schreiber came to Parliament Hill on Tuesday, he brought with him several binders stuffed with papers, including a thick folder that he said contains all his correspondence with Mulroney.
Among them is a wrathful letter penned by Schreiber to Mulroney on May 8, 2007, that opposition MPs said links the former prime minister to the Airbus affair.
Schreiber warned in theletter he is "prepared to disclose … that I was asked by Fred Doucet to transfer funds to your lawyer in Geneva (Airbus)."
Doucet was Mulroney's former chief of staff.
"This is my last warning," Schreiber wrote to Mulroney, adding, "you asked me through my lawyers to commit perjury to protect you."
In an apparent contradiction from that letter, the 73-year-old Schreiber testified on Tuesday beforea federal ethics committee that $300,000 in cash he paid to Mulroney was not a kickback from Air Canada's $1.8-billion purchase of jets from Airbus.
He said instead the money involved a light-armoured vehicle plant known as the Bear Head project.
But committee memberslike Nova Scotia Liberal MPRobert Thibault have seized upon the May 8, 2007, letter.
"If this is not true, then it's blackmail," Thibault said Wednesday in the House of Commons. "Then it should have been turned over to the RCMP, you would think, by Mr. Mulroney. If it is true, these are very serious allegations."
But Conservativecommittee members havequestionedthe value of hearing another day of Schreiber's testimony, saying he has onlyshown a failed business relationship between two private individuals and provided no evidence of improper conduct by Mulroney.
Varied tones
The bindersalso containalso numerous letters from Schreiber toPrime Minister Stephen Harper and other politicians.
Those documents are now public, and those who have seen them say they're a mixed bag, with many pagescomprised ofnewspaper clippings.
A varied tone is shown throughout Schreiber's writings to the former prime minister, the CBC's Tom Parry reported.
In July 2004, Schreiber wrote to Mulroney after the death of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan to tell him, "I like the man Brian Mulroney even more than Prime Minister Brian Mulroney."
By April 2007, Schreiber writes to Mulroney about, of all things, childhood obesity and ends up telling him, "There was a time I was embarrassed when people or the media called you 'lying Brian.'Times have changed."
As late as January of this year, Schreiber refers in the letters to the Airbus affair as "a hoax," yet, by May he's threatening Mulroney, the CBC's Parry said.
Schreiber is wanted on fraud, bribery and tax evasion charges in his native Germany.
None of the allegations against Mulroney has been proven in court.