Did the Conservatives offer Chuck Cadman a life insurance policy?  Dona Cadman insists they did:

Vancouver–Independent MP Chuck Cadman confided on his deathbed to his daughter days after the 2005 budget vote that he had been offered an insurance policy for a million dollars by the Conservatives.

Jodi Cadman said this morning she burst into tears when her father revealed that news to her.

"My first reaction was I was hurt, very hurt and I started crying," she said in an interview. "If there was an Achilles heel for him, it was complete selflessness. It would have benefited myself and my mom."

The million dollar life insurance policy was offered to Cadman, who was dying of skin cancer, in the days before a crucial vote on the Liberal budget two years ago that kept the government alive, according to a recollection by Jodi's mother Dona.

How credible is this?  According to insurance industry officials, it isn't credible at all:

Finding a life insurer to give you a $1 million policy when you are terminally ill is next to impossible, insurance experts say.

But it is the claim that just such a policy was on offer to Chuck Cadman in 2005 as the late MP was dying from skin cancer and the government of the day was teetering on the brink of defeat that has rocked Ottawa.

"If you are terminally ill, you are uninsurable (for $1 million)," said Ken Hunter, a partner with Toronto-based Hunter McCorquodale Inc., which offers life insurance for "hard to insure" clients.

"In theory, there is a price you could charge, but the reality is the price would be more than $1 million. If I'm the insurer, I need more than $1 million to cover the cost of doing business."

"I can't conceive of why anybody would suggest that might be possible," Hunter said.

Other officials agree:

Gerald Cilliers, who has his own independent financial services firm in Langley, B.C., said there are two ways of applying for insurance: through the traditional underwriting process where you answer detailed questions and undergo medical tests; or with guaranteed issue, where there are limited questions and no medical required, but rates are often much higher.

You can also get insurance, through a bank or other financial institution, to cover future mortgage payments or other obligations in the event of death. This is called underwriting on claim, where limited questions are asked when you apply, and the main assessment and investigation only takes place on claim.

However, all of these options would still be a barrier to someone getting a policy as rich as $1 million with a terminal illness, Cilliers said.

Still others concur:

Wendy Hope, a spokesperson at the Ottawa-based Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, said insuring a terminally ill patient would be "highly unusual, if not impossible."

Hope said the industry is puzzled by the claim that a $1 million life insurance policy was offered to Cadman weeks before his death.

The Conservative Party's own insurance policy for its workers and staff is not available to MPs, since an MP is covered by parliamentary insurance:

Ryan Sparrow, a spokesman for the Conservative party, denies those allegations, and he adds that Cadman wouldn't have been eligible for life insurance under the party's plan.

"Members of parliament aren't eligible for life insurance form the Conservative party of Canada," Sparrow said.

Cadman would have been covered for life insurance as an MP, a job he held for more than six years prior to his death, which meant he was eligible for full retirement, survivor and life insurance benefits.

The basic life insurance policy for MPs, paid for by the government, is relatively modest, worth twice their last full year's salary - starting around $300,000.

The allegations of a bribe is based on hearsay, since all the people who were actually present at the discussion in question have gone on record to say there was no bribe.  On the other hand, the bribe itself seems to be a financial impossibility.

The RCMP can look into this, and they will conclude the obvious -- there is nothing to substantiate the allegations, and plenty of good reasons to doubt that the allegations are true.

With Adscam, there was an actual auditor's report with real balance sheets and other documentation to base the accusations on, not to mention a whistleblower testifying to the financial anomalies that he personally discovered, and not to something someone told him years earlier.

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