2 mars 2004
MARIA McCLINTOCK
The head of VIA Rail was fired yesterday for making "unacceptable" remarks about Olympic gold medallist Myriam Bedard, who blew the whistle about huge fees being paid to a Quebec ad firm at the centre of the Adscam scandal. Chretien's former aide fired for comments about whistleblower.
Jean Pelletier, who was a top aide to former PM Jean Chretien, was dumped as the railway's chairman of the board, effective immediately.
It's the second time VIA has lost a senior executive over the sponsorship mess -- president Marc LaFrancois was suspended last week.
"It is completely unacceptable for the chairman of a Crown corporation to make comments of this nature about someone identifying wrongdoing in the workplace," Transport Minister Tony Valeri said yesterday.
Last week, Bedard said she was forced to quit her marketing job at VIA in 2002 after questioned about how much Groupaction was charging for work it was doing for the Crown corporation.
Groupaction was one of the ad agencies highlighted in Auditor General Sheila Fraser's scathing 2002 audit on the federal sponsorship program.
Pelletier quickly slammed Bedard's version of events.
"I don't want to be mean to her, but she is a poor girl, I pity her, a girl who doesn't have a husband that I know of," he told La Presse last Friday. "She has the stress of a single mom who has economic responsibilities. Basically, I pity her."
Prime Minister Paul Martin called Pelletier's remarks "unacceptable."
"When an individual wishes to come forward with information on the issue of sponsorship, that individual should be able to so," Martin said yesterday from New York where he was attending UN meetings.
Bedard, who met with senior Martin adviser Francis Fox yesterday, was told action was going to be taken.
"It's good news," she said. "I was thinking of all the single women, with children at home, that were going to work this morning at VIA Rail and meeting Mr. Pelletier ... what's going to be the feeling?"
Bedard said she's prepared to testify at a Commons committee probing the scandal, adding that a "couple of people" at VIA knew what was going on at the rail company.
Conservative MP Peter MacKay applauded the government's swift action.
POSITIVE ACTION
"Three years ago, Madame Bedard was forced from her VIA Rail job for refusing to participate in a scheme that squandered hard-earned tax dollars," MacKay said.
"It is refreshing to finally see positive action taken to punish Mr. Pelletier."
Along with LaFrancois, Business Development Bank president Michel Vennat was suspended last week after another auditor general's report found that $100 million was being funnelled to Liberal-friendly ad agencies.
page mise en ligne le 2 mars 2004 par SVP
