Gomery rides again and St-Maurice begins.

Yes, the Gomery Inquiry is back in action; this time the hearings are in Montreal. Yesterday the Commission heard from the clerk of the Privy Council who responded to questions relating to when and how much knowledge the former prime minister had about the report of the Auditor General on the sponsorship program. Most of the day was spent on the contracts awarded to the Lafleur Communications Marketing Inc. with questions being directed to Jean Lafleur, the company’s former president.
That company took in more than $33 million with Mr. Lafleur receiving a salary of $9.3 million.

The Inquiry will continue to hear from firms that received millions of dollars from the sponsorship program. There should be a few more postings over the next few months as some interesting testimony is given.

Now, Montreal has produced another new “rider” who will serve as a focus of attention as a new member of the Liberal Party. He is none other than Marc-Boris St-Maurice who in another “life” was the head of the Marijuana Party of Canada. He comes with a score card reflecting his seven arrests for possessing small amounts of marijuana. He came to the conclusion that his Marijuana Party was going nowhere and that he would have a much better chance to move the marijuana cause ahead more rapidly from within the Liberal Party.

At the present time there is a before the Commons’ justice committee bill C-17 that would decriminalize the possession and the production of small amounts of marijuana. Such offences would be punishable with fines. Mr. St-Maurice would like to see less punitive approaches for simple possession.”