Angry in the Great White North

From CTV:

Prime Minister Paul Martin is demanding that Conservative Leader Stephen Harper apologize for using the words "corruption" and "organized crime" in describing the Liberals.

"Yesterday in the House of Commons, Mr. Harper made a statement concerning organized crime which is false,'' Martin said, from Kelowna, B.C.

"He should apologize and he should withdraw that statement."

Here's what was actually said:

In February, this party decided that we would support the government's budget based on a number of priorities we shared, including some very modest steps toward tax relief, the Atlantic accords on resource revenue sharing, and the transfer of gas tax revenues to municipalities for infrastructure.

But by April, we believed that the evidence revealed before the Gomery commission left the Liberal Party without the moral authority to govern this country. The testimony before the commission began to confirm a sponsorship program that was a front for massive kickbacks involving organized crime, used by the Liberal Party to fill its own election coffers.

And then:

A party, and I think this is important to repeat when we are talking about the Clarity Act and the rule of law, that has been named in a judicial inquiry, a royal commission, has been found guilty of breaking every conceivable law in the province of Quebec with the help of organized crime cannot lecture the separatists or anyone else about respecting the rule of law.

and finally:

I have said to people in my own party and to others that if I belonged to an organization and led an organization that was found to have been involved in a massive corruption ring using organized crime to defraud taxpayers, I cannot understand why anyone found in that position would want to be associated with that organization.

The Liberal Party is infuriated over the alleged link to organized crime:

They flatly rejected Liberal calls to apologize. Prime Minister Paul Martin demanded a retraction and his office threatened to sue over the comments by Stephen Harper.

"Yesterday in the House of Commons, Mr. Harper made a statement concerning organized crime which is false," Martin said on his way into a Kelowna, B.C. conference on aboriginal people.

"He should apologize and he should withdraw that statement."

Stephen Harper is trying to say that crimes were committed (clearly true), and the Liberals who committed those crimes were highly organized (clearly true).

It's not like anyone is saying a major figure in Adscam, say Alfonso Gagliano, is a member of the mob.

Well, actually someone is saying that.

In addition to the arrest and pending extradition of Rizzuto, a former high-ranking federal politician was named in the New York Daily News as a “made” member of the Bonannos. The Daily News relied on an unreleased FBI document and informent in publishing the allegations surrounding Mr. Gagliano.

Alfonso Gagliano, Canadian former public works minister and former ambassador to Denmark, reacted with anger and disbelief when it was reported that his photograph had been picked out of a photo display by LCN informant Frank Lino. According to an FBI document 329, 2004, Lino, who’s described as an “individual who is in a position to testify,” provided the following information:

The INDIVIDUAL was shown a picture of ALFONSO GAGLIANO. The INDIVIDUAL stated that he recognized GAGLIANO from his trip to Montreal, Canada in the early 1990s. The INDIVIDUAL advised that GAGLIANO was introduced to him as a soldier in the Bonanno family by JOE LOPRESTI, another Bonanno member in CANADA. At a dinner LOPRESTI bragged to the INDIVIDUAL that the Montreal Bonannos had such extensive connections including that of GAGLIANO, a politician. The INDIVIDUAL socialized with GAGLIANO when he was hanging out with VITO RIZZUTO,

and:

The INDIVIDUAL made a second trip to Montreal in the 1990s. ... At this meeting, the Canadian Bonannos were informed of MASSINO's new position as Boss of the Bonanno family. LOPRESTI introduced a politician, ALFONSO GAGLIANO, as a soldier in the Bonanno family....

Gagliano was furious at Lino’s unsubstantiated allegation. He told a Canadian national TV network that while he may have unknowingly crossed paths socially with organized crime figures, he was never involved in criminal activities. “What really amazed me in all this, is that here is somebody Lino that practically did it all wrong—he’s accused of six murders, extortion, cheating, lying,” Gagliano told the network. ‘This is something that touches the heart and soul of my personality. My integrity.”

The name of the politician involved wasn’t disclosed.

Documents filed in the Rizzuto extradition case show a mafia connection to the Canadian government. Specifically, a transcript of the debriefing of informant Oreste Pagano on September 21, 1999, reveals links between Mafia boss Alfonso Caruana and an unnamed government official. Asked if there was “a strong association with the mafia and the Canadian government,” Pagano, a convicted drug dealer, referred to a conversation he had with Alfonso Caruana.

“We spoke once about it that there was a person who was going into the Canadian government and was from the same village as Alfonso.”

“What village is that?”

“Siculiana.”

The name of the politician involved wasn’t disclosed.

Clearly allegations like this from page 61-62 of Angels, Mobsters and Narco-Terrorists: The Rising Menace of Global Criminal Empires are beyond the pale and impossible to prove, FBI documentation notwithstanding.