The RCMP in Montreal have charged a former senior federal public servant and the president of a Montreal advertising agency with two counts of fraud over contracts connected to the controversial gun registry.
Charles Guité, who managed a sponsorship program for the federal public works department after 1996 and Jean Brault, president of the Groupaction Marketing company that received millions of dollars in contracts through the sponsorship program, were each charged May 10 with six counts of fraud totalling almost $2 million.
One of the contracts at the centre of the fraud charges was a $330,000 deal for a firearms registry communications strategy. The RCMP alleges that Justice Canada, in charge of the registry, did not ask for or authorize the contract and no report was evident for the money spent.
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A second $150,000 contract for “surveillance and documentation of sites and interest groups” related to the gun registry also led to fraud charges against both men.
It is the first time the already-contentious gun registry has been connected to the sponsorship scandal that has rocked the government of Paul Martin on the eve of an election.
Auditor general Sheila Fraser questioned in February the value of a $250 million program set up after the 1995 Quebec referendum to try to increase the federal government’s visibility. She said at least $100 million of that went to Liberal-connected ad agencies like Groupaction.
In the House of Commons May 10, Conservative MP Monte Solberg used the firearms program connection to the scandal to ask the government how it could justify the registry that is costing hundreds of millions of dollars to implement and administer rather than the $2 million promised in 1995 by then-justice minister Alan Rock.
Deputy prime minister Anne McLellan said the government is reviewing how the program has been set up.
“We are not reviewing the commitment to effective gun control,” she said.
Solberg said there is a difference between gun control and the gun registry.
“Gun control is getting guns away from criminals. Gun registry is getting money away from taxpayers.”
