Blogger defies press ban

A US blogger's site has been packed full of traffic after he started posting details of parts of an alleged Canadian corruption scandal which the press can't talk about.

Although the hearings are open to anyone, the Gomery Commission, which is looking into corruption that is alleged to have taken place within the ranks of the ruling Liberal Party, has decided to create a publication ban on the testimony of three key witnesses: John Brault, president of the ad agency Groupaction, Charles Guit, an officer of the Public Works ministry who worked on the Sponsorship Program, and Paul Coffin, president of the ad agency Coffin Communications.

The lid has been kept more or less on the scandal until a US bloke, who lives close to the border, started reporting it on his website. Edward Morrissey, or Captain Ed, who describes himself as a libertarian, has a mole in the Montreal courtroom where the hearings are taking place. He also has the advantage of being in the US, where the ban does not apply.

Since the ban does not apply to the UK either, we can tell our Canadian readers that Captain Ed's blog makes for juicy reading. It seems that Jean Brault told the Commission that there was a massive pattern of corruption going to the highest levels of the Liberal Party and government.

Brault testified to hundreds of thousands of dollars of bogus transactions designed to benefit the Liberal Party of Canada over a period from 1994 to 2002 In exchange for large contracts for little or no work, Brault is alleged to have helped the Liberal Party, hiring Liberal organisers while they continued to perform party work including, paying invoices to other companies for work actually done for the Liberal Party, and giving it large donations in cash.

More here. µ

And here [http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1376471/posts]