Conservatives release tapes
The Conservatives have released all the tapes to the RCMP and posted them on Grewal's webpage . Lots more to follow.
posted by buckets at 5/31/2005 03:55:00 PM
Buckets of Grewal
The Grewal Tapes
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
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7 Comments:
I've only looked over it quickly but here's my pet theory:
Grewal approached the Liberals and offered his "services" in exhange for Volpe backing down. From this: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/05/19/grewel-050519.html its pretty clear he approached the Liberals.
Of course, the Libs, fresh off of getting Ms. Stronach, may have implied they might offer more, as icing on the cake. Or maybe Grewal made the implication. We may not know since these are not all of the tapes, apparently (at least not the begining or the end, according to CBC). The tapes seem to show Murphy saying "no thanks, we'll see how you vote." I guess they didn't trust him.
Considering that he has done this exact same thing many times in the past, they probably were smart not to trust him.
I'm guessing that Grewal genuinely tried to cross and was caught by the CPC (in the wake of BS, they were probably pretty sensitive to this) and made the " I was trying to get them to break the law" claim to cover his ass with the CPC. But since he only ever really intended to use the tapes to ensure the Liberals followed through on the deal and not release them, he wasn't careful enough to make sure he didn't do anything incriminating or embarassing to himself. Hence the reason it took so long for the tapes to come out...the CPC was hoping the whole thing would blow over.
Or Grewal did this, possibly at the behest of Harper, and its a case of entrapment - he made the (possibly criminal) offer to sell his vote for a favour - either a "back off" from Volpe over his questionable scheme to sell immagration papers or a senate seat.
Either way, I think Grewal and the CPC come out worse than the Libs. I mean we EXPECT that from the Libs (and I suspect the CPC would be doing the same wheeling and dealing if the talbes were turned), but the CPC has tried to position themselves as the clean alternative.
Man, what a freaking mess. Don;t we have bills and laws to pass or something?
I suspect it was entrapment from the get go. I doubt he went into it expecting a deal, recorded everything, and then got cold feet and decided to leak the tapes.
I think the Libs will come out of it looking worse than the CPC, but it won't do either of these parties any favours. And, as the "everyone is corrupt" mentality grows, it may make people more forgiving of Adscam which could help the Libs in the long run.
I read halfway through, then had to get back to work.
Issue: Is saying something like 'cabinet may be possible' an offer, or a statement?
In the business world, that's not an offer.
Grewal was making it clear that he needed 'certainty' to come over. In other words, he's soliciting an offer.
I know criminal law enough to know that somewhere in those PDFs there had better be a sentence like:
"Cross the floor and we'll make you minister of [whatever]", else this is just a lot of posturing.
To me it certainly smells like Grewal did the soliciting. But it's Martin with egg on his face today as the tapes seem to contradict his statement that no offer was made.
Let the spin begin....
WD. Maybe. But what is the offer? "Cross now, Perhaps you'll be parliamentary secretary some day."?
calgarygrit,
I don't think he got cold feet, I think he got caught outright by someone in the CPC who, perhaps noticed all these phone calls and meetings. In an effort too save face, he concocted this story to cover his ass and it spun out of control - if he admits the truth, he is committing a crime AND he loses the trust of his party. His life as a politician is over. So he has to stick to the "I was gathering evidence after they approached me" shtick, even though nothing in the tapes shows that. And the fact that after sitting on them for 10 days, we still only get 1 hour and 15 minutes. Mr. Grewal is in a very bad place. The shenanigans by the CPC is to cover their ass, so they don;t look like monkeys almost losing a second MP (and thord I suppose) so soon after BS.
It's not like he hasn't done this exact same thing before, both provincially and federally. According to the intermediary, he's wanted to cross the floor for 2 years, but the Libs didn't want him.
Now, I wonder what Mrs. Grewal has to say? She's been strangely silent , don't you think, for someone who was involved.
Whatever may come of this in the short term, I don't expect to see Grewal running for the CPC or anybody else in the next election.
Mike. An interesting theory about Grewal getting caught and then coming up with the whole story. I wouldn't deny it completely, but it seems to me that the decision to begin taping should mark the moment when he decided to change from potential crosser into agent provocateur. On the other hand, maybe he tapes lots of conversations and so the taping does not imply a sting.
(See the short essay of ryan thiessen in a recent post--who also supposes that Grewal's initial interest had been real.)
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