pmdaughterlinkedtoscandal

PM's daughter linked to federal bank
By CAMPBELL CLARK- - Globe and Mail--Feb. 14, 2001
Ottawa — The president of the Business Development Bank of Canada, the agency at the centre of a storm involving Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, was until recently a close business associate of Mr. Chrétien's daughter France, corporate registration documents show.
The Progressive Conservatives, who released the documents Tuesday, called the link one more indication of ties that go beyond coincidence between the Prime Minister's associates and the BDC, the agency that gave a $615,000 loan to the Auberge Grand-Mère, an inn owned by Mr. Chrétien's friend Yvon Duhaime.
"It makes a person wonder if this BDC is really a corporation or a family-run business," Tory House Leader Peter MacKay said in an interview. "It's all too close and cozy. It doesn't breed independence and it doesn't breed impartiality."
The Liberals said the Tories are making much of weak links and engaging in character assassination.
Michel Vennat's ties to Mr. Chrétien have been raised because besides being the BDC's current president, he was chairman of its board when former president François Beaudoin left in circumstances that are now the subject of a lawsuit.
Mr. Beaudoin filed a suit claiming that the BDC's board drummed him out of his job after he had suggested recalling the loan to the Auberge, an action that would have left Mr. Duhaime short of financing.
His allegations have created controversy for the Prime Minister, who admitted he called Mr. Beaudoin and met with him about the loan to the Auberge, which previously had been refused.
The Tories say the BDC has several links to Mr. Chrétien through former aides or associates:
• At the time he was chairman of the BDC, Mr. Vennat, a well-known Liberal who has been close to Mr. Chrétien, was also president of Maxi-Crisp, a snack food company in Lachine, Que., the corporate registration documents show.
France Chrétien Desmarais, the daughter of Mr. Chrétien and wife of Power Corp. president André Desmarais, was one of four members of Maxi-Crisp's small board of directors, along with Mr. Vennat and his second wife.
Mr. Vennat's name was removed from the list of directors on Jan. 25, the registry shows. Mr. Vennat was out of the country and could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
• Mr. Chrétien's former director of operations, Jean Carle, was appointed senior vice-president of the BDC in 1998, before Mr. Vennat became chairman.
• Spencer Stuart, the search firm that recommended Mr. Carle, was headed by Mr. Vennat's ex-wife, Manon Vennat.
Industry Minister Brian Tobin charged that the Tories and their leader, Joe Clark, are on a fishing expedition, dredging up weak links and engaging in character assassination. "If he was fishing in Newfoundland, he'd be forced off the boat by now because he keeps hauling up empty nets," Mr. Tobin said in an interview. "There's a point at which fishing expeditions become character assassination."
Mr. Tobin also blasted Mr. Clark's allegation that Mr. Chrétien's chief of staff, Jean Pelletier, had met Mr. Beaudoin at a hockey game and suggested that Manon Vennat's firm be used for the executive search that later identified Mr. Carle.
Mr. Pelletier, who is in China with the Prime Minister on a trade mission, took the unusual step of issuing a statement denying the allegation. "Mr. Clark is mistaken. I never spoke to anyone at the BDC about hiring an executive search firm."
Mr. Tobin said that Michel and Manon Vennat have been divorced for years, and added that Mr. Pelletier said he has never attended a hockey game with Mr. Beaudoin.
Mr. Tobin also said that another allegation made by Mr. Clark was false: that in a later search for a new president that picked Mr. Vennat, the BDC had switched search firms before eventually hiring the BDC's sitting chairman. Only one firm, Egon Zehnder, conducted the search, Mr. Tobin said.
He said it is unfair to suggest links to the PM are scandalous: "Are we saying, in the case of Jean Carle, that if you work for the Prime Minister, you should never have a life afterwards?"