Deal lets Schreiber Stay

This is good news. I wonder if the press will have a birthday party for Schreiber this month when he turns 74. He has created quite a bit of news for them. They should show their appreciation and it would be good for a photo session. Maybe they could put a hacksaw blade in his cake if he is still in jail.
Anyway we know now that the inquiry will go ahead and that Schreiber can be here to testify. Until now it was not entirely clear that the inquiry would go ahead or that Schreiber could stay here to testify. This is from the Star.


Deal lets Schreiber stay
TheStar.com - Canada - Deal lets Schreiber stay

Possible extradition put on hold so he can remain in Canada for inquiry into dealings with Mulroney

March 06, 2008
Les Whittington
Ottawa bureau

Ottawa–The federal government has agreed to allow Karlheinz Schreiber to stay in Canada, putting on hold his possible extradition to Germany, so he can testify at a public inquiry into his dealings with Brian Mulroney.

The latest twist in Schreiber's eight-year fight to avoid being shipped back to Germany to face charges of bribery, fraud and tax evasion came in an agreement between Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Schreiber's lawyer.

"Subject to any change in circumstances, Mr. Schreiber will not be surrendered until he has testified before the inquiry," Nicholson writes.

The Supreme Court of Canada is to rule today on whether to hear an appeal of a 2004 extradition order against Schreiber. If the decision were to go against the businessman, Schreiber would have been subject to immediate removal from Canada had his lawyer, Edward Greenspan, not reached the agreement with Nicholson.

The accommodation cements the government's intention to hold the public inquiry into Schreiber's financial links with Mulroney, a murky saga that for years has spawned allegations of questionable dealings.

Those dealings were also recently the subject of a probe by the House of Commons ethics committee, before which both Schreiber and Mulroney testified.

"What they are saying is that there will be an inquiry," said Liberal MP Robert Thibault (West Nova.)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised last year to create a full-scale commission of inquiry into the financial links between the German-Canadian businessman and the former Progressive Conservative prime minister.

The decision came after Mulroney demanded public hearings when his dealings with Schreiber hit the headlines in the fall.

But Mulroney has flip-flopped recently, saying a full-scale public inquiry was no longer necessary – a move that had some MPs wondering if Harper might somehow try to avoid establishing one.

Nicholson's deal with Schreiber should put an end to that speculation. But it's still not clear when the inquiry will start because University of Waterloo president David Johnston – asked by Harper to set the terms of the investigation – is holding off until he sees the final report on the ethics committee's probe. Liberal MP Paul Szabo, the committee chair, indicated that the committee report is unlikely to be available until early April.

Schreiber, who turns 74 this month, surrendered at the Toronto West Detention Centre yesterday.


With files from Tracey Tyler