On Wednesday, amid the clamour of the Brian Mulroney, Karlheinz Schreiber public enquiry debacle in the House of Commons, the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper introduced a bill in Parliament that theoretically would create an elected Senate with fixed, non-renewable eight year terms of office.

As I suggested in this column a week ago, this bill is totally wrong-headed. Section 42-1 of the 1982 Constitution Act says that change in respect to the powers of the Senate, the methods of selecting senators and the number of members each province is entitled to in the Senate require Constitutional amendment.

Constitutional amendment requires majority resolutions of the Senate and House of Commons and majority resolutions of the legislative assemblies of at least seven provinces that have, in the aggregate at least fifty per cent of the population of all the provinces.

Conservative House Leader, Peter Van Loan says the status quo is no longer an option “and that if change cannot happen through Conservative reform, the Senate will be abolished”, the implication being that Parliament on its own could effect abolishment. Sorry Mr. Sloan but we have a Constitution that would prevent arbitrary abolition of the Senate.

The Government is also expected to reintroduce a bill in the next week or so that would add new seats in the House of Commons to better reflect the Canadian population. I have no reservation about a House of Commons representing the population, indeed I support the notion.

I do have a problem with a Senate that would reflect or mirror the population because that would make it redundant and subjugate the interests of smaller provinces to the more populous.

The so-called elected Senate idea proposed by Harper and his House Leader, Peter Van Loan is intended to by-pass the need for Constitutional amendment. In their view, the perception of an elected Senate is more important than the reality and could be realized by holding consultative referendums (similar to the U.S. where referendum is part of the electoral process) that would advise, but not instruct the Prime Minister in respect to who he or she should appoint to the Senate. In other words, it would be an electoral farce.

On the matter of Karlheinze Schreiber and former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, it has been alleged by Schreiber, in a written affidavit that he struck a deal with Mulroney in 1993, before the former Prime Minister left office that would result in payment of $300,000 in cash for services unknown. Shreiber’s signed affidavit also alleges that a Mulroney adviser asked Schreiber to transfer funds in connection with Air Canada's 1988 purchase of Airbus planes to a Mulroney lawyer in Switzerland.

There are so many questions to be answered in this matter. That said, the weight of inquiry is going to be borne by the families of the two men. No matter who did what to whom, the families (wives and children) of these characters are going to bear the most excruciating public examination of persona, business dealings and relationship. Innuendo, accusation and unproven allegation will dominate. Many of the issues are twenty years old and will be magnified in time and by media coverage. None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Mulroney has made millions in his post-prime ministerial endeavors. Chunks of those millions have been made in association with Peter Munk, the CEO of Barrick Gold and George H.W. Bush (father of the current U.S. President). Mulroney is Chairman of Barrick’s International Advisory Board and Bush is a Senior Advisor to Barrick.

Some of the players in the alleged circumstances concerning Schreiber and Mulroney have passed away. Others have retired to happy and unhappy circumstance. In recent years, Mulroney has been a close advisor to Prime Minister Harper and a bridge-builder between the old Alliance/Reform Party and the former Progressive Conservative Party.

There are dozens of Mulroney loyalists in the Senate (Government Leader) and within the Harper government, including a few cabinet ministers. Harper has disassociated himself and his government from Mulroney. Many of these people will have difficulty rationalizing their past loyalty to Mulroney and their current loyalty to Harper.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper named University of Waterloo, President David Johnston (who once worked with Mulroney on environmental issues) as the impartial third party who will define perimeters for the Mulroney inquiry. Johnston is a former Principal and Vice Chancellor of McGill University and former Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario. Johnston's appointment is effective immediately and a final report to the Prime Minister is due by Jan. 11.

On Thursday, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed an application by Schreiber to stay an extradition order to Germany, where he is wanted on charges of tax evasion, bribery and fraud. Canada’s Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has promised to wait 15 days before extraditing him to Germany.

In my opinion, there is no circumstance that would justify the extradition of Schreiber before he has testified before the inquiry, presented evidence and been cross-examined by both prosecution and defense lawyers. If he is allowed to leave the Country before testifying, that would show contempt for the inquiry process, Mr. Johnston and the Canadian legal system. It would also be grounds for an election where Canadian voters could be asked to decide who is guilty.

Implicit in all of this is the impact that inquiry and discovery will have on Stephen Harper and his government. Mulroney had become a close personal advisor to the Prime Minister, now he is a pariah.

At the first hint of trouble, our Prime Minister abandoned his mentor and instructed his associates in the House of Commons and the Senate to ditch the man who had been advising him and them for the last twenty four to thirty six months. Nice guy!

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at mailto:bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com