Commission of Inquiry into Certain Allegations Respecting Business and Financial Dealings Between Karlheinz Schreiber and the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney : Order in Council (OIC) P.C. 2008-1092 created this particular Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on June 6th, 2008. The OIC named the Commission of Inquiry the Commission of Inquiry into Certain Allegations Respecting Business and Financial Dealings Between Karlheinz Schreiber and the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney and appointed the Honourable Jeffrey J. Oliphant as commissioner.
The terms of reference for the inquiry directed the commissioner to investigate and report on the following seventeen questions:
1. What were the business and financial dealings between Mr. Schreiber and Mr. Mulroney?
2. Was there an agreement reached by Mr. Mulroney while still a sitting prime minister?
3. If so, what was that agreement, when and where was it made?
4. Was there an agreement reached by Mr. Mulroney while still sitting as a Member of Parliament or during the limitation periods prescribed by the 1985 ethics code?
5. If so, what was that agreement, when and where was it made?
6. What payments were made, when and how and why?
7. What was the source of the funds for the payments?
8. What services, if any, were rendered in return for the payments?
9. Why were the payments made and accepted in cash?
10. What happened to the cash; in particular, if a significant amount of cash was received in the U.S., what happened to that cash?
11. Were these business and financial dealings appropriate considering the position of Mr. Mulroney as a current or former prime minister and Member of Parliament?
12. Was there appropriate disclosure and reporting of the dealings and payments?
13. Were there ethical rules or guidelines which related to these business and financial dealings? Were they followed?
14. Are there ethical rules or guidelines which currently would have covered these business and financial dealings? Are they sufficient or should there be additional ethical rules or guidelines concerning the activities of politicians as they transition from office or after they leave office?
15. What steps were taken in processing Mr. Schreiber's correspondence to Prime Minister Harper of March 29, 2007?
16. Why was the correspondence not passed on to Prime Minister Harper?
17. Should the Privy Council Office have adopted any different procedures in this case?
In investigating and answering these questions, the terms of reference also specifically stated that the commissioner was, "to perform his duties without expressing any conclusion or recommendation regarding the civil or criminal liability of any person or organization."
The genesis of this inquiry was with accusations made by Karlheinz Schreiber against former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. These accusations were outlined in a sworn affidavit made on November 7th, 2007 pertaining to an agreement allegedly concluded between the two men on June 23rd, 1993. In response to these allegations, the Canadian Government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed future Governor General the Right Honourable David Johnson to act as an independent advisor to the Prime Minister and empowered Johnson to conduct an independent review of Schreiber's allegations. In his first and second Report of the Independent Advisor into the Allegations Respecting Financial Dealings Between Karlheinz Schreiber and the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, Johnson recommended calling a public inquiry and outlined what the scope of said inquiry should be.
As stated in the terms of reference for the commission, "any public inquiry should be a focused inquiry into specific matters of legitimate public interest," and, in Johnson's view, "the issue of public concern in this matter remains compliance with the constraints on holders of high public office and the adequacy of the current constraints." In his report, Johnston listed the seventeen questions the public inquiry should answer. They became the questions listed in the terms of reference for the commission and addressed in the commissioner's final report.
