Former prime minister Brian Mulroney acted in an “inappropriate” way and “failed to live up to the standard of conduct that he himself adopted in the 1985 ethics code” by accepting large cash payments from lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber, says a new report by Justice Jeffrey Oliphant. The judge rejected Mulroney’s claim the payments were simply a lapse in judgement, saying the cash transactions were made with the explicit intent to “to conceal the fact that the transactions had occurred between them.” Still, though Oliphant’s report excoriated Mulroney for his dealings with Schreiber after leaving office, the judge rejected Schreiber’s claims his agreement with the former PM was struck while Mulroney was still in government.

Toronto Star