A Quebec judge promised yesterday that a judicial inquiry into the sponsorship scandal will find out if there was political influence or whether there were kickbacks in the operation of the program. Justice John Gomery vowed to clear up the mystery about who benefited - "financially, politically or otherwise" - in the five-year, $250 million initiative. But Gomery said he will not be rushed and won't allow the hearings to be turned into a witchhunt. "No one should be railroaded," he said. The commission of inquiry will begin questioning witnesses in Ottawa in September and shift in February to Montreal, where much of the sponsorship spending was focused. Gomery's schedule, which calls for final reports at the end of 2005, is under attack by opposition MPs who say the inquiry is taking too long. New Democratic Party MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre) said Gomery is extending the commission's work schedule far into the future to avoid testimony that would damage the Liberals when an election is imminent. Prime Minister Paul Martin asked Gomery in February to head the judicial inquiry. "My view is that the PMO (Prime Minister's Office) knows that these things have short shelf lives and the public's imagination will have moved on to any number of new issues" by late 2005, the New Democrat told reporters. "And they (the Liberals) will have successfully skirted any real harm and any real damage." Asked if he was accusing Gomery, who is a Quebec Superior Court judge, of manipulating the commission's schedule to help the Liberal government, Pat Martin said: "We think it's very suspect, given the urgency in the Prime Minister's announcement." Opposition MPs questioned Gomery's appointment in February on the grounds that he had a federal appointment to a part-time job as head of the Copyright Board of Canada. But Prime Minister Martin expressed faith in Gomery's impartiality at the time and refused to remove the judge as head of the sponsorship inquiry. Gomery said yesterday he has resigned from the board. Commenting yesterday on Pat Martin 's remark, Liberal MP Joe Jordan (Leeds-Grenville) said, "I think we've got to be very, very careful making statements about people like that." The Gomery commission is among four probes set in motion by Auditor-General Sheila Fraser's findings that the sponsorship program was operated with flagrant disregard for government contracting rules. Some of the financial transactions initiated by the public works department appeared designed to hide to the nature of the payments, Fraser added. Opposition MPs have charged that the project between 1997 and late 2001 was a scheme to pay off Liberal-friendly advertising firms which in turn made donations to the Liberals. More than a dozen RCMP probes and an inquiry by a Commons committee are already under way. Gomery said his commission is not a trial nor can it assign criminal or civil liability. But he can state in his final report whether there has been misconduct and who is responsible for it. The judge said he hopes his fact-finding mission will answer a range of questions, including: How government officials picked the ad agencies that earned hefty commissions to work on the program. Whether there was political influence in the distribution of the $250 million, including any political contributions or "gifts made by recipients" of sponsorship money. Whether any person or organization in the government gained financially or otherwise. Where the money went and who received it. Whether financial controls over the program were adequate and if not, why not. | 
