Angry in the Great White North

The Canadian Press is now carrying the story first reported on this blog on a legal action being brought against the Liberal Party by the Conservatives. In particular, we are learning the basis of the libel charge.

It is not that the Conservatives might or might not have overspent on advertising.

It is that the Liberals have suggested that Conservative staffers committed illegal acts in return for jobs.

The Conservative Party of Canada is threatening legal action against the Liberals over language they've used to describe an investigation into Tory spending practices.

Lawyers fired off a letter to the president and executive director of the Liberal party, saying a number of Tory staffers have been defamed in a recent opposition press release on the so-called "in and out'' scheme being examined by Elections Canada.

"This letter is . . . intended to serve as notice that it is defamatory to suggest or imply that these individuals have engaged in illegal conduct,'' writes party lawyer Paul Lepsoe. "In particular, it is defamatory to suggest or imply that the positions these individuals have or have had on Ministers' staffs are 'rewards' for having engaged in illegal conduct.

"Our clients reserve their rights to take such action as they deem appropriate against the Liberal Party of Canada and others . . . .''

You can see the actual letter on Stephen Taylor's blog.

This is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. The Conservatives are not attempting to fight the charges of overspending via a libel suit. The Conservatives are fighting with Elections Canada on the interpretation and the scope of that law through a court challenge.

That is a different and separate matter.

What the Liberals did was suggest that the Conservative Party was some sort of criminal enterprise, and that the Conservative Party offers jobs to those people who break the law for the party:

The Liberal release, attributed to MP Dominic LeBlanc on Tuesday, refers to an "apparent scheme to violate election spending limits'' and "serious allegations.'' It also underlined that 11 former candidates and agents went on to find government positions.

"One has to wonder if there is a connection between their willingness to participate and employment by this Conservative government,'' LeBlanc said in the statement.

The Liberals are making these staffers out to be the equivalent of "made men".

Indeed, the question of the campaign financing is irrelevant. Regardless of what Elections Canada decides and how the court case between the Elections Canada and the Conservatives ends, the claim against the Liberals won't be affected. The Liberals have alleged that the Conservatives use employment as payment for criminal acts, and that these staffers are of such deficient moral character that they would commit criminal acts in order to earn these positions.

The Liberals are in a real bind here. The best defense against a libel suit is the truth. Liberal supporters who have commented on this story have taken some solace in the hope that the Conservatives really did contravene the law with the financing.

That only helped when we assumed (incorrectly) that the suit was brought in response to the charge that financing laws were broken.

Now the Liberals have to establish that criminality and employment go hand in hand in the Conservative Party. I have to think that even the most partisan Liberal apologist would blanch at the idea of proving that assertion.

If the Liberals are forced to backtrack on this, to apologize and say in no uncertain terms that the Conservative Party is not an organization in which criminal acts are performed in exchange for jobs or money, the repercussions are going to be serious. If that is how this plays out, the humiliation of the Sponsorship Scandal will be brought back into sharp focus. The Liberals will have to say that the Conservatives did not reward staffers with jobs for committing criminal acts. The Conservatives will be able to note that the Gomery Commission established that the Liberal Party and the Liberal-friendly advertising agencies involved in the Sponsorship Program did exactly that. In that case, advertising jobs were given to Liberals who then passed their paycheques to the party.

Yet again the Liberals have maneuvered themselves into a corner. If they fight, they stand a good chance of losing, and paying a signficant cost in legal fees as well as in political humiliation. If they back off, the humiliation is still there. The Sponsorship Scandal makes a return appearance, and Stephane Dion looks worse than hapless.

The cleverest thing is the timing of all this. In December, there will be a meeting of all Liberal Party riding presidents. If this lawsuit is not resolved by then, you can be certain the riding presidents will be discussing just how this will play out, and that they'll see the Sponsorship Scandal parallels looming. If the lawsuit has been resolved, and the Liberals have been humiliated, then the discussion will be even more intense.

Either way, they will be wondering just how Stephane Dion managed to get himself and the party into this mess.