Former prime minister Brian Mulroney's business dealings with German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber were "inappropriate," Justice Jeffrey Oliphant says in a report released Monday.
Oliphant also concluded that Mulroney failed to live up to the ethics code he himself introduced in 1985 for holders of public office.
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Oliphant said the lack of a paper trail made it impossible to believe either Mulroney or Schreiber on the sum of how much money was paid to the former prime minister. Oliphant also chastised Mulroney over his testimony that taking the money was a mistake.
"In my view, an error in judgment cannot excuse conduct that can reasonably be described as questionable if that conduct, as is the case here, occurred on three distinct occasions," Oliphant said.
"I therefore conclude that the reason Mr. Schreiber made the payments in cash and Mr. Mulroney accepted them in cash was that they both wanted to conceal the fact that the transactions had occurred between them."
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Oliphant could not make findings of civil liability or criminal guilt in his report, but he did issue several recommendations, including a call to make it an offence for former public office holders to fail to meet the disclosure obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act.
Mulroney-Schreiber dealings inappropriate: report
