Lyin' Brian Gets Up to Bat, Brings Own Pitcher

The Brian Mulroney/Jeffrey Oliphant inquiry really gets underway today when Justice Oliphant hands the proceedings over to Mr. Mulroney for a two-day carnival show intended to "frame" the issues.

If the witness was a mortal, like you for example, he would be called, sworn and then questioned by the inquiry counsel, the guy who's supposed to frame the issues. But in this inquiry there are mortals and there is Brian Mulroney, the guy who lied under oath about the very subject matter of this inquiry, the schmeergelder he received via cash-stuffed envelopes from Karlheinz Schreiber.

Recognizing the divinity of The Witness, Justice Oliphant has decided that the inquiry will grant The Witness the indulgence of being allowed to be questioned, not by inquiry counsel, but by his own lawyer, his own advocate for the first day and a half.

An opening statement is one thing - five, ten maybe even twenty minutes. But a day and a half of spin spread in a thick, smothering blanket by Mulroney counsel, Guy Pratte? You may still think this inquiry, with its artificially narrowed scope (don't look here, don't look there, no talking about that or that or that), is legitimate but I don't. Mulroney is the culprit in this proceeding, it's only because his heart still beats that Stephen Harper was forced to stage this set up at all. That he should then be allowed to run the show leaves little doubt this is a grotesque travesty.