Brian Mulroney Media Room

SCHEDULE CHANGE: Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney Addresses First Annual Sakura Ball

 Email To Friend |  Print |13/11/08

Historic Apology to Japanese Canadians Remembered

The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney is guest of honour and keynote speaker at the First Annual Sakura Ball on Saturday, November 15, 2008. Details are as follows:

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Program begins at 7 PM
(Mr. Mulroney’s address is scheduled to begin at approximately 7:15PM)

Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, Kobayashi Hall
6 Garamond Court
Toronto, ON

Media are required to register with appropriate credentials.

Statement re: Canadians for Climate Leadership

 Email To Friend |  Print |09/09/08

Mr. Mulroney spoke to the importance of the environment in his April 2006 speech to the Sierra Club when he was recognized as Canada’s Greenest Prime Minister. Mr. Mulroney does not think it is appropriate to comment further in the middle of a heated election campaign. He may speak about the environment at greater lengths at a later time.

Thibault in hot water after ’sexist’ comment about Senator

 Email To Friend |  Print |12/08/08

From this morning’s Ottawa Citizen:

OTTAWA — Liberal MP Robert Thibault is again being called on to retract and apologize for more controversial comments, this time in reference to Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton.

In an article published in yesterday’s Hill Times, the Nova Scotia MP refers to the senior Tory, who is leader of the government in the Senate, as an idiot and says she “should go back to making tea for Brian Mulroney and stay out of serious people’s business.”

After being accused last week of making ageist comments, Mr. Thibault is now being criticized for making sexist remarks.

“It is absolutely a sexist comment,” said Françoise Gagnon, executive director of Equal Voice, a non-partisan group that aims to involve more women in politics.

“Comments like these are not helpful to the image of Parliament as a whole,” she said. “It just doesn’t reflect the hard work and the positive contributions that are being made by all members and there’s just no place for sexism.”

Canada again must take lead on crisis in southern Africa

 Email To Friend |  Print |28/06/08

Mr. Mulroney writes in today’s Toronto Star:

Now that the travesty of an election has ended, and as the world grows increasingly enraged at the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe, Canada has a special role to play.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s stunning slap in the face, withdrawing Robert Mugabe’s knighthood, is the latest proof of how deeply he has offended even former supporters. It is now time for the international community to act just as it did in ending the offence to human dignity that was apartheid.

From John Diefenbaker’s role in expelling South Africa from the Commonwealth in 1961, to the work of my government in bringing about a peaceful end to apartheid, to Stephen Lewis and Paul Martin’s pioneering work on the scourge of AIDS in southern Africa, the people of the region have long looked to Canada to show international leadership on their behalf.

As Canada’s new foreign minister, the very able David Emerson, surveys the long agenda of priorities his officials will soon present him, may I propose that he move one item to the top immediately: Zimbabwe. Emerson is uniquely positioned by virtue of Canada’s network of international relations, as well as its history in southern Africa, to play the role of rassembleur for a concerted international campaign on behalf of the brutalized people of that country.

The global agenda gives us several timely opportunities to demonstrate quickly our determination not to permit the sad fantasies of a desperate old man to destabilize a region of such great strategic importance as southern Africa, or to permit him to threaten the stability of a region that has taken such great strides in democracy and development over the past decade.

It was my government that pushed some hesitant partners to place apartheid on the agenda of the G-7 economic summit we hosted in Toronto in 1988. That summit’s communiqué raised pressure on the apartheid government at a crucial moment. When the G-8 meets in Hokkaido next month, Canada should again insist that Zimbabwe is high on its agenda, and deliver a stinging rebuke to Mugabe. In the Commonwealth we should call for an emergency meeting of heads of government to consider measures to be taken in support of the neighbouring countries in the region, and to raise the pressure on Harare. Later this year as we host the summit of the Francophonie, in celebration of Quebec’s glorious 400th anniversary, we should make similar efforts.

I would propose that Minister Emerson consider offering Canada as the host of a pledging conference of donors to take place in advance of the opening of the UN General Assembly in September. At such a gathering the traditional supporters of southern Africa – the Nordic countries, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada – could be joined by the international community in committing significant resources. In anticipation of profound political changes, Canada should make an early and generous pledge.

To co-ordinate this vital and sensitive work, the minister might also consider designating former foreign minister Joe Clark as Special Ambassador on the issue because of his vast experience and in light of the high regard in which he continues to be held in the region.

Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa are already bearing the heavy burden of managing hundreds of thousands of Zimbabwean refugees. It is placing great strain on the stability of those countries, sometimes with tragic effect, as we recently saw in the riots in South Africa. Increasing repression by the security forces is likely to increase the tide of refugees in the weeks ahead.

Such a conference could also outline an agenda for rebuilding Zimbabwe when democracy is restored to that once-peaceful nation so full of potential. The international community could make clear its commitment not only to reject a regime that behaves so unacceptably toward its own people, but also its determination to be a generous supporter of the massive rebuilding the country will face in agriculture, health and education infrastructure and housing, upon a return to democracy.

The government of Canada is right to seek to focus our aid agenda on those places where our support can make a real difference. We have tried to do too much in too many places, sometimes diluting the impact of our assistance. It may be that Africa as a whole is too large a field for a focused Canadian development agenda. It is certainly also true that improving our targeted assistance in this hemisphere makes sense.

But southern Africa is different. For nearly half a century Canada has helped lead the international community in fighting racism, repression, and the ruthless regimes that were for so long the curse of the people of that region. We helped them to win many unlikely battles and to begin to rebuild in peace, guided by magnificent leaders such as the incomparable Nelson Mandela. But one of those battles is not yet won, the battle for freedom in Zimbabwe.

It is ironic to reflect on Mugabe’s role in the Harare Declaration, the statement of the Commonwealth leaders meeting in 1991, which he hosted. Among the commitments that declaration made was for “the protection and promotion of the fundamental political values of the Commonwealth: democracy, democratic processes and institutions which reflect national circumstances, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, just and honest government.”

As I noted in my personal journal, reproduced in my Memoirs, at the time we first met, I thought: “There is a cast about Robert Mugabe … that I suspect would make unpromising any political career initiated in opposition to him.” He was even then, more than 20 years ago, a leader of an entirely different school than Mandela or Mozambique’s Samora Machel. They were tough but tolerant, magnanimous statesmen of world stature.

Nelson Mandela once told me that his decision to retire when he did was intended in part as a signal to his peers in the leadership of African nations, as well as to the people of his own. He wanted the world to see that essential feature of any true democracy – the voluntary transfer of power from one leader and government to the next generation – was possible even in as fragile a young democracy as South Africa then was.

Canada should today lead the world in sending the same message to Robert Mugabe: “Please leave, now.” And to the people of Zimbabwe with the same breath we should add, “We will be first among those many countries who will support you in returning to the path of social harmony and development, after too many years of unearned suffering.”

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney (1984-1993) is one of the world leaders credited by Nelson Mandela with playing a central role in ending apartheid.

Announcement of Public Inquiry

 Email To Friend |  Print |12/06/08

Mr.Mulroney is overseas on business and has no comment to make on today’s announcement of a public inquiry.

Guy Pratte’s reply to Ethics Committee’s invitation

 Email To Friend |  Print |09/06/08

The following was delivered to James M. Latimer, Procedural Clerk, Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics today:

Sir:
Further to your e-mail of Friday June 6,2008, I write to advise that Mr. Mulroney respectfully declines the Committee’s invitation to re-attend on June 12, 2008.

Mr. Mulroney has already provided four hours of testimony to the Ethics Committee in December 2007, as well as copies of the relevant documentation within his possession. The Committee having filed its final report to Parliament in early April of this year, and the Chair having declined to particularize the new matters upon which the Committee wishes to hear further from Mr. Mulroney, no useful purpose would be served by his re-attendance. In any event, the upcoming public inquiry should now be allowed to take its course.

Guy Pratte’s response to the Ethics Committee’s latest request

 Email To Friend |  Print |04/06/08

The following letter was delivered to Richard Rumas, Committee Clerk, today:

Sir:

Prior to Mr. Mulroney considering the Committee’s request for his re-appearance, please advise as to the subjects the members want to canvass that have not already been covered by Mr. Mulroney and other witnesses during the Committee’s lengthy hearings, and which were the subject of the Committee’s final report and recommendations to Parliament.

Yours truly,

Mtre Tommy Tremblay, on behalf of Mtre Guy J. Pratte.

Thibault violated conflict of interest code

 Email To Friend |  Print |07/05/08

The Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner has found that Robert Thibault contravened three sections of the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons. Read the Commissioner’s report here.

The finding is particularly serious given that Mr. Thibault sits on the committee responsible for ensuring the ethical behaviour of public officials.

Survey: inquiry a waste of money

 Email To Friend |  Print |25/04/08

According to a study by Angus Reid Strategies, two-thirds of Canadians surveyed said they were “tired about hearing about the Mulroney-Schreiber controversy” and that a public inquiry into their relationship would be a “waste of money.” The poll surveyed 1,015 Canadian adults on April 16 and April 17, 2008 and has a margin of error of 3.1 per cent. Click here to read more.

Let Inquiry do its Work: Send Schreiber Allegations to Police

 Email To Friend |  Print |07/04/08

The following statement on behalf of the Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney was issued today.

Mr.Mulroney will co-operate with the inquiry within its mandate as recommended by Dr. Johnston.

Any new allegations of criminal wrongdoing made by Karl Heinz Schreiber should be immediately referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions and to the RCMP.

Let those experts in criminal investigation study whatever claims or imagined evidence he might make or produce. If there are grounds for criminal charges – they should be laid. If his newest allegations are repudiated as thoroughly as everything he has previously claimed – if no grounds for criminal charges can be found – send him immediately to face his accusers in Germany, where prosecutors believe they have proof of his criminal behaviour in their country.

The inquiry has been set its task. It should not be distracted by unsubstantiated new allegations and smears, or asked to chase any more of Karl Heinz Schreiber’s fantasies or false trails.

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