The curtain was pulled back on a Canadian political scandal as Jean Brault testified at the Gomery inquiry. The sponsor-ship-kickback scheme toppled a government weeks after the Gomery Commission issued a report that outlined a story of greed, politics, and misconduct involving over-spending, kickbacks, and fraudulent billing by communications agencies in Quebec. At the heart of the scandal is advertising executive Jean Brault, who has come a long way since he started his advertising agency, Groupaction, out of his basement in the 1980s. Groupaction became a multi-million dollar company, helped along the way by generous federal government contracts. Brault is facing fraud charges, and it is from his firm that the federal government is trying to recover $35 million. The floodgates of government sponsorship contracts opened after the 1995 Quebec referendum, paving the way for a story of misuse of taxpayers’ money and leading to speculation of widespread political corruption. Much of the deal making took place over lavish lunches and extravagant dinners. One episode included a dinner with Brault and his advertising executives the night before they were going to make a pitch for a big federal contract. The person they were going to pitch to, Chuck Guité, was also there. Although Brault said at the inquiry the contract was not mentioned over dinner, a short time after that meal together Brault’s company was awarded the contract. In 2001 Brault met with Joe Morselli, vice-president of fundraising for the Liberal Party, who requested a Liberal organizer be placed on Brault’s company payroll. Brault refused, and instead offered to pay $5000/month in cash using a bizarre payment system reminiscent of the under world. Brault benefited for several years from the nearly $60 million in contracts from the sponsorship program and kept funnelling money back to the Liberal Party. But stress was getting to Brault, and in 2001 he had a falling out with Alain Renaud, a Liberal activist and lobbyist. Brault had been paying Renaud’s fees and expenses of almost $1 million, and in return Renaud secured most of Brault’s sponsorship and advertising contracts. After the dispute, they parted ways.

Questions 

1. Identify the power bases of the individuals involved in the sponsorship scandal: Jean Brault, Chuck Guité, Joe Morselli, Alain Renaud, Tony Mignacca, and Sheila Fraser. 

2. What influence tactics did the prominent characters in the sponsorship saga use to try to pressure people to act in certain ways? 

3. What factors contributed to the political behaviour evident in the sponsorship scandal?