Angry in the Great White North

Jamie Carroll, the former National Director of the Liberal Party of Canada, lost his job today in the wake of controversial comments he allegedly made in a close meeting with Quebec Liberals. In this private meeting of maybe a dozen people, four went to the press afterward to report that when asked to hire more Quebecers at the top levels of the Liberal Party, Carroll responded that if he hired more Quebecers, he would have hire more Chinese too.

Carroll maintains that his words were misconstrued.

What I found remarkable was that the story went public at all.

Well, the parade of Liberal dirty laundry continues. In a confidential letter to the Liberal management committee, Jamie Carroll aludes to a lawsuit against the Liberal Party, saying that he had been defamed.

Being confidential means, of course, that we are reporting on the contents mere hours later:

The federal Liberal party's national director is accusing the party of besmirching his reputation, and is demanding more than a year's pay to step down following his controversial comments last week about the hiring of francophone Quebecers, CBC News has learned.

In a confidential letter addressed to senior party executives, Jamie Carroll says his name has been publicly and unjustifiably damaged by high-ranking Liberals.

Carroll says he's talked to lawyers who have told him he would be eligible for considerable damages should he pursue the matter in court. In the letter, he says he wants 12 to 18 months pay as compensation.

The management committee will be meeting today in private to discuss the matter.

No word yet on when the live video feed of the meeting will be available.

So who leaked the letter? Jamie Carroll? Not likely given that it could complicate his efforts to get the money (the Liberal Party might be forced to dig in against paying Carroll off now that it is public knowledge). Someone on the management committee? If so, then Stephane Dion has an enemy on that committee, because this threatened lawsuit makes Stephane Dion's leadership a bad joke.

But enough speculation on the leak. What about the payoff? What should the Liberals do?

If the Liberals pay off Jamie Carroll, a precedent is established, and those Liberals in Quebec who were insulted by Carroll's alleged slur will wonder why Carroll should be so well rewarded.

If the Liberals tell Jamie Carroll to take a hike, the court case could get ugly. And who knows what other dirty little secrets will be revealed over the course of litigation.

Stephane Dion has lost control of the situation and of the party as a whole.

Any bets on whether the management committee will spend at least as much time discussing how Stephane Dion has allowed things to progress this far as they do discussing Jamie Carroll's threats?

Maybe they should offer Stephane Dion 18 months of pay to go away.

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