Charbonneau Commission won't examine allegations of federal corruption

A lawyer arrives at the Charbonneau commission in Montreal, Sept. 27, 2012, which is an inquiry looking into corruption and collusion in Quebec's construction industry. (Graham Hughes / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

MONTREAL -- An explosive inquiry into corruption, illegal political financing and Mafia influence now rocking Quebec will avoid exploring whether such dirty secrets exist elsewhere in Canada.

A spokesman for Quebec's construction probe told The Canadian Press that attempts to inspect incriminating evidence within federal circles would be ruled outside the inquiry mandate.

He said witnesses could be interrupted if they veer into a subject deemed off-topic -- such as the financing of federal political parties.

That means the Charbonneau commission couldn't delve into allegations of illicit federal activities even if a lawyer or witness wanted to raise them during questioning, spokesman Richard Bourdon said.

So what might people across Canada do if they want to pursue the question of whether collusion schemes, cost overruns, Mafia ties or illegal party financing have infected politics at the federal level or anywhere else outside Quebec?

Bourdon offered a tongue-in-cheek suggestion: "You'd need another commission," he said in an interview.

"It's very clear that we're not going to touch the federal sphere."

Bourdon did say that the commission would alert the appropriate authorities if it gathers any pertinent details about federal wrongdoing through the phone line and email address created to receive tips from the public.

The issue of federal ties is not hypothetical.

Allegations with federal implications have surfaced during the inquiry, but only peripherally and without being explored further.

The inquiry has already:

And the inquiry has just barely gotten underway.

A star witness testified earlier this month that Robert Abdallah, whom the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper once promoted as its preferred candidate to run the Port of Montreal, played a role in the corruption schemes that were rampant in Montreal.

Abdallah was accused during testimony of participating in a kickback system when he was the top civil servant at the City of Montreal. He has strongly denied the allegation from witness Lino Zambito, a former construction boss.

Still, Zambito's statement echoed in the House of Commons, where the federal government was forced to fend off opposition queries about its relationship with Abdallah. The Tories stressed that, in the end, he didn't get the port job.

The inquiry has also heard Zambito describe an elaborate and illegal political financing system at both the provincial and municipal levels.

The ex-construction boss said bigger engineering companies frequently demanded that he deliver cash donations to provincial parties in amounts far exceeding the legal fundraising limit.

Zambito said he would camouflage such donations by breaking them into smaller amounts and filtering them through friends, family and employees.

Were industry players active in fundraising at the federal level?

Did they play a similar role there?

These are questions the inquiry might never address. The inquiry's 25-page mandate description includes a relatively vague reference to examining "the financing of political parties," but Bourdon said the commission has made it clear that it does not interpret federal parties as being part of that role.

What Elections Canada records do show is that a Lino Zambito made numerous donations totalling more than $7,000 to the Liberal Party of Canada between 2004 and 2010.

A recent Canadian Press investigation also showed that dozens of employees at some of the engineering firms implicated in ongoing construction scandals have donated to the federal Conservatives, and to a lesser extent the Liberals.

A burst of donations to the Conservative party from employees at the scandal-plagued companies coincided with a 2009 fundraiser in Montreal at which Harper appeared.

Sources told The Canadian Press at the time that Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos was one of the key organizers of that event.

Before entering the federal Parliament, Housakos was the chief fundraiser for Quebec's now-defunct ADQ party. He also worked, briefly, for a subsidiary of the engineering firm BPR.

Housakos denied playing a role in the 2009 event.

At the time of that event, the federal government was looking to spend $4 billion on construction-ready infrastructure projects as part of its $47-billion economic stimulus program.

These funds were largely transferred to the provinces, which in turn made the cash available to municipalities. In other words, Ottawa was not the one writing cheques to companies performing much of the infrastructure work -- that was done at the municipal or provincial level.

As the Quebec scandals grew in 2009, Canada's then-public safety minister Peter Van Loan said there was no evidence of federal stimulus money going to the Mafia.