Chrétien satisfied with ruling citing bias in Gomery report

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Former prime minister Jean Chrétien is expressing satisfaction after his successful legal battle against the Gomery commission.

He won a Federal Court of Appeal decision earlier this week that struck down part of the report from the inquiry into the sponsorship scandal.

"He (Gomery) made negative remarks about me and the court has decided that it was wrong and he had acted inappropriately," Mr. Chrétien told Quebec City radio station FM 93.

"I've been criticized by a lot of people in my life. He was not the only one. I've always defended myself.

"Apparently, I'm quite combative."

The Federal Court of Appeal upheld on Tuesday a ruling that quashed Justice John Gomery's conclusion that Mr. Chrétien bore responsibility for the scandal.

Federal Court Justice Max Teitelbaum ruled in 2008 that Justice Gomery, who headed the inquiry, was a biased attention-seeker.

He said Justice Gomery prejudged the outcome of the investigation and trivialized proceedings through repeated inappropriate comments to the media.

The Harper government appealed that ruling but the appeal court dismissed the case and ordered the federal government to pay Mr. Chrétien's legal costs.

The sponsorship program was created to raise the profile of the federal government in Quebec after the near-loss of the 1995 referendum on the province's independence.

But the program became a vehicle for Quebec advertising companies to receive funds for little or no work, some of which was kicked back to Liberal party operatives in the province.

Although he did not directly implicate the former prime minister in any wrongdoing, Justice Gomery concluded that Mr. Chrétien and his former chief of staff, Jean Pelletier, set up the sponsorship program without adequate safeguards against abuse.

Justice Teitelbaum also quashed the findings against Mr. Pelletier, but an appeal of that ruling was dismissed after Mr. Pelletier died early last year.