Canada’s Martin Puts Job on Line in Inquiry

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin put his political life on the line Sunday, indicating he would resign if an investigation showed he had prior knowledge of a scandal that saw $76 million in public funds go to advertising and public relations firms linked to his Liberal Party.

Martin -- who took over from Jean Chretien in December -- has already ordered a public inquiry into the scandal, which took place from 1997 to 2001 when he was finance minister. The funds had been designed to promote national unity in French-speaking Quebec.

“Where does the blame lie in all this? I think it certainly lies with all of us who were in government,” he said during a two-hour national phone-in radio show on the scandal during which he faced several angry questions.

But Martin indicated that he had no direct knowledge of the scheme. “Anybody who is found to have known that people are kiting checks, that people are falsifying invoices -- me or anybody else -- should resign,” he said. “I’ve made that very, very clear. I don’t think we have to debate that.... Anybody who knew that kind of thing was going on and let it happen, they don’t belong in public life.”

Martin has insisted he knew nothing of what was going on and blamed Chretien for keeping him in the dark about government policy in Quebec.

Auditor General Sheila Fraser reported that up to $76 million of the total $187 million in funding went to private consultants who did little to advance the objectives of raising the federal profile in Quebec and promoting Canadian unity.