Advertising scandal hits Canadian PM [View All]

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By David Usborne
14 April 2005


Paul Martin, the Canadian Prime Minister, is fighting to stave off the collapse of his 10-month-old minority Liberal government amid a financial corruption scandal described by commentators as the worst in the country's history.

The crisis, spawned in part when a US internet blog published testimony last week from court hearings which had been shrouded by a blanket media ban, worsened last night when one of Mr Martin's parliamentary members defected to become an independent.

Recent polls have shown falling support for the Liberals as details of the scandal have unfolded. The Conservative party - the main opposition - is attracting greater support and its leader, Stephen Harper, has been consulting advisers about forcing an election.

The US blog, Captain's Quarters, forced the presiding judge, Justice John Gomery, to lift his media ban on testimony from a witness, the head of a Quebec-based advertising firm.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=629161