The very long and expensive 16 million dollar public inquiry into former Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney's dealings with corrupt businessmen Karlheinz Schreiber can best be described as a relationship between two dishonest men who ended up playing a very expensive game of blame with each other at the expense of the Canadian taxpayer. The entire “Airbus affair” plays like a crime movie - envelopes filled with cash, secret meetings, a Swiss bank account and criminal dealings. The problem for the Canadian public is that the affair is reality TV, and one of the main characters was the leader of the Federal Government of Canada. The relationship between Mulroney and Schreiber began long before the Airbus affair began and only turned sour when allegations, brought to light by the RCMP and then the media, emerged that would lead to a public inquiry. In the 70's, Schreiber came to Canada …show more content…
Oliphant goes on to say that both (men) wanted to conceal the fact that transactions had occurred between them. Questions have been left unanswered even though the inquiry is now over. One of the main questions is exactly what legitimate service did Mulroney perform for the funds he was paid by Schreiber? A second question that has yet to be proved is the timing of the deal. Did Mulroney make a deal for payments while he was still Prime Minister? The fact is, as stated by Oliphant, Mulroney did accept cash payments from Schreiber. Soon after, suspicions raised due to Mulroney's silence on the matter. According to Mulroney, his silence during his own defamation suit against the government of Canada was due to lawyers not asking the right questions. Oliphant explains that Mulroney's claim that federal lawyer Claude Sheppard did not ask the correct questions, is “patently