The Commons ethics committee met and, as with the soap operas televised on competing channels, the conclusion was: Stay tuned.
Karlheinz Schreiber ducked and weaved, queried his questioners and persistently invoked his lawyer's counsel not to answer questions until he had received certain assurances (how long would his stay of extradition be?) and had been given access to his voluminous papers. It was a performance, a negotiation, a bargaining session. Liberal committee chair Paul Szabo was right to acknowledge that Mr. Schreiber needed to consult his papers to be sure of giving full and accurate answers. He was also right to have the committee let Mr. Schreiber hear many of the questions that will be directed his way.
Particularly as the session went on, Mr. Schreiber became almost chatty. He testified that the $300,000 in cash payments he gave to former prime minister Brian Mulroney was part of $500,000 available in a special bank account, but that Mr. Mulroney did not receive the remainder because he didn't earn it. He contradicted Mr. Mulroney's statement that the money had something to do with a pasta business. This and other information, given under the parliamentary protection Mr. Schreiber enjoyed as a committee witness, will help to shape the committee members' questions when he next appears before them.
And that's what it really comes down to. The committee has ordered Mr. Schreiber to return next Tuesday, documents in hand - which he said would require a truck; "it will never work" - and to answer all its questions. If Mr. Schreiber continues to play a game of cat and mouse with the MPs, there will be serious reason to question his usefulness to the committee and to any public inquiry, and the value of delaying his departure for Germany.
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For its part, the committee showed a surprising and welcome maturity yesterday, though not without the occasional misstep. It was heartwarming to learn that Conservative committee vice-chair David Tilson believes so strongly in official bilingualism that he didn't want Mr. Schreiber to be handed an English-only letter to refresh his memory about a question asked by an opposition MP, but his objection had every appearance of obstructionism.
Throughout yesterday's session, Mr. Schreiber proved himself the master of equivocation: "I am really prepared to explain all this," but, but, but. Next Tuesday, he will have to deliver.
