Beryl P. Wajsman on David T. Nicholson's Wednesday-Night.com History

The saga of Quebec Family Minister Carole Theberge, former federal Liberal Beryl Wajsman and the Mad Science Group is now in the hands of Quebec's attorney-general.

Quebec's lobbying commissioner announced yesterday in a statement that after investigating "allegations about lobbying activities" concerning daycare, an independent investigator has found "certain dispositions" of Quebec's tough lobbying law were not respected.

The matter has been turned over to the attorney-general, the statement said.

Commissioner Andre C. Cote has convened a news conference Monday to discuss "the role played by holders of public office" in relation to the lobbying law.

Investigator Louis Morin was named to look into allegations by the Parti Quebecois last year that Wajsman, who is not registered as a lobbyist, tried to influence Theberge by lobbying on behalf of Mad Science Group for a daycare licence.

Under Quebec's lobbying law, anyone seeking to influence elected officials, provincial or municipal officials, officials of such government agencies as Hydro-Quebec and even not-for-profit organizations distributing government funds, must register as a lobbyist.

Mad Science began life as a company that offers science-based magic shows for children, and now operates a new 80-place commercial daycare centre in the South Shore municipality Ste. Catherine.

Wajsman was most recently in the public eye as a witness at Justice John Gomery's inquiry into the federal sponsorship scandal. Although Gomery did not blame Wajsman in his report, Wajsman was among those the federal Liberal Party barred for life from its ranks following the report's publication.

In May 2004, Wajsman accompanied Mad Science president Ariel Shlein and Tony Tomassi, Liberal MNA for east-end LaFontaine riding, to a meeting with Theberge.

Wajsman acknowledged yesterday in an interview that he helped Shlein, who was working on a proposal to Theberge to create a network of public-private-partnership daycares.

His first task was finding out who the minister was, he said. He advised Shlein on drafting a letter to the minister, but said it was Shlein who invited Wajsman to the May 2004 meeting.

"I don't know what irregularities they are talking about," Wajsman said.

Last November, when the PQ first alleged Wajsman had acted as a lobbyist for Mad Science, the minister denied she ever met him. A week later, she burst into tears in the National Assembly as she acknowledged that the meeting had indeed taken place.

"Beryl Wajsman lobbied for a daycare centre," PQ house leader Diane Lemieux said yesterday. "Are these 80 places the result of the meeting the minister had in May (2004) when she admitted she was in the presence of Wajsman?

"Is there a cause-and-effect link? I don't know, but considering that the lobbying commissioner sent a complaint to the attorney-general, I think the question should be asked."

Wajsman said yesterday he is not registered as a lobbyist and does not believe that he is one.

Giving the file to the attorney general is "standard," Wajsman added.

If he is charged with a breach of the law, "I'll challenge it or I will pay the fine."

Paul-Jean Charest, spokesperson for the lobbying commissioner, said yesterday he cannot comment on the case because it is in the hands of the attorney- general, who must decide whether charges will be laid.

He added that it was a deliberate decision not to name names in the news release. "The commissioner does not want to comment on anyone implicated in the investigation."

Charest explained that Morin, who was to report by March 31, needed a two-month extension because "'there were delays."

"There were difficulties at the time of his investigation," he said.

Asked if he was suggesting interference from elected officials, Charest said there was no interference.

"Difficulties, not interference," the spokesperson said.

Theberge spokesperson Daniel Desharnais accused the PQ yesterday of trying to politicize the process of granting licences to operate daycare centres.

"The minister doesn't decide," Desharnais said. "The department decides."

Tomassi did not return calls.

Theberge's tenure as family minister has been turbulent, beginning with the government's decision to raise the cost of $5-a-day daycare by 40 per cent to $7.

Last fall, she was embroiled in a battle with the association representing most of Quebec's public daycare centres over her Bill 124, which aimed to cut costs. Opponents feared it would cut the quality of daycare.

But even though editorial writers called for her head, Theberge was not replaced in a February shuffle of the Charest cabinet.

Recently, she has been in a swirl of controversy again, after a daycare co-ordinating office created by Jewish Family Services was named to serve family daycare centres close to the Jewish community.

This was contrary to guidelines endorsed by Theberge calling for non-denominational co-ordinating offices.

kdougherty@thegazette.canwest.com

Beryl Wajsman
Beryl WN video page
Beryl slides Flickr show

Wednesday Nov 2, 2005 Yesterday, most of the disgraced Liberals barred by Martin were ducking the media. But Beryl Wajsman, a former Liberal Party fundraiser and president of Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal, called the inquiry a witchhunt.
"This is just an attack on my reputation," Wajsman said, noting he never had any connection with advertising or communications firms that were at the heart of the scandal.
Wajsman was not tied to any wrongdoing, but chastised by Gomery for being "more interested in boasting about his own importance and in attacking the credibility of everyone who disagrees with him than in telling the truth."
On the barred list
Benoit Corbeil Beryl Wajsman Liberal fundraiser; president, Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal [a W-N Friend] Alfonso Gagliano, and others

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Beryl slides

May 20th, 2005 at 13:34 RonNew World Man » Blog Archive » Stronach signals move beyond farce ... To: Beryl P Wajsman Subject: Today. Dear Beryl,. I watched as much as I could of your appearance today. I think you did an amazing job of getting the ...
From: Anthony Philbin
Sent: May 15, 2005 10:18 PM
It would be naive of anyone to presume that a contemporary newspaper editor isn’t directed from time to time to run an opinion that he or she isn’t comfortable with. Obviously it’s part of the job. Perhaps this was the case with the recent report ran on the Gomery testimony of Beryl Wajsman.
Mr. Wajsman’s charity, integrity and commitment to social justice are well-known and well documented in the archives of every major paper. He is one of the very few men I have had the pleasure of meeting who truly understands the importance and responsibility of personal honour. The values Mr. Wajsman champions are the values that all of us go to bed believing we are here to support and defend. Anthony L.M. Philbin

Dear Beryl,

I watched as much as I could of your appearance today. I think you did an amazing job of getting the truth out and setting the record straight. It was a classic performance.
John F. Angus

English audio excerpts of the testimony http://www.iapm.ca/media/gomeryaudio.mp3

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Story distorted the Gomery facts

Letter

May 19, 2005

Re: "Wajsman bites the hand that fed him" (Gazette, May 14). This article on my testimony at the Gomery inquiry left out some key facts about certain evidence presented and much of my testimony.
I have received literally hundreds of calls and e-mails thanking me for championing an opening in the party and for talking straight about the deceit, duplicity and deception that went on.
The Gazette dared to say that I bit the hand that fed me, when I presented proof that I had fed them. The commission counsel himself put my hundreds of thousands of dollars of financial contributions to the party into the evidence, but The Gazette report ignored that fact.
Your story called my presentation of letters of thanks from community and social-action groups "vaudevillian," but the previous day repeated without comment Daniel Dezainde's unsubstantiated "lobbying" claims against me - which he admitted were based on "intuition" and destroyed "evidence."
The Gazette story ridiculed my criticisms of personnel in the Quebec branch of the federal Liberal Party who did not do their jobs - precisely the problem I was hired to fix - but denigrated the proof presented by commission counsel that my efforts were the sole revenue coming into the party that paid their salaries.
Your story had not a word about the fact that Dezainde insulted me, Joe Morselli, Alfonso Gagliano, Irene Marcheterre, his own friend Serge Miousse, and even PMO chief of staff Percy Downe who, by Dezainde's admission, opposed his decision to terminate my services.
Your story pejoratively described me as a bagman, ignoring commission counsel's own presentation that every contribution I delivered was by cheque.
And your story portrayed my explanation of the mix-up over the party phone number with no reference to the fact that commission counsel put into evidence the written statement of the company that made the mistake.
The story made no mention of the evidence presented by commission counsel that our work was the sole financing done within the federal Liberal Party at the sectoral level, and we could not get an accounting from the party's own bookkeeper. It simply repeated Dezainde's unsubstantiated charge that this fundraising was parallel to the party. Commission counsel got Dezainde to admit, in his second day, that this work was on the books and strictly within the party.
I will continue my work for the just, without compromising truth to timidity or mortgaging honour to expediency.
Beryl P. Wajsman
Montreal

A former Liberal bagman admitted yesterday an institute he created received $5,000 from his Liberal boss but he claimed it was a legitimate contribution to help cover startup expenses.

Beryl Wajsman, who is accused of participating in a rogue Liberal funding organization, said he started the Institute of Public Affairs in 2001 after he was fired as a fundraiser for the party.

He said he received a contribution of $5,000 from Guiseppe (Joe) Morselli, who ran what has been described as an illicit parallel funding scheme for Alfonso Gagliano. He also said he received other cheques for his institute but did not elaborate.

Jean Brault, president of Groupaction, one of the largest recipients of sponsorship contracts, has testified that after

Wajsman was fired in June 2001, Morselli persuaded him to pay Wajsman his $5,000-a-month salary while he raised money in cultural communities.

Brault said he gave Morselli an envelope containing $5,000 at a meeting at Franks restaurant on St. Zotique St. He claimed he left the $5,000 envelope on the dinner table and went to the bathroom. When he returned, the money was gone. He said he later gave another $25,000 in cash to Morselli.

Wajsman denied receiving money from Brault, although he said that Brault tried to hire him to make inroads into the anglophone business community.

He told Morselli at the meeting that he couldn't represent Brault because of his appearance, he said.

"I turned to Joe and said, 'Look, I can't introduce this guy to serious businessmen, particularly the kind of companies he wants because, I mean, between the Elvis Presley haircut and the little moustache, he's sweating, he's nervous, this is not a guy I can introduce.'"

Wajsman admitted, however, that Morselli later gave him a $5,000 cheque as a contribution to his newly founded institute.

After he was fired, the phone number of the Liberal Party was the same as the number to his institute. Wajsman said this was a mixup and blamed his secretary for giving the wrong number to the phone company.

Wajsman said he was hired as a fundraiser to "help get the Liberal finance committee going" because the network had fallen apart.

Daniel Dezainde testified this week that when he became Liberal Party director-general in Quebec in May 2001, he discovered Morselli and Wajsman were part of a "parallel" fundraising organization for which there was no accounting.

Throughout his often vaudevillian testimony, Wajsman insulted fellow Liberal workers as worms, incompetents, emotional midgets, physically ugly, and even racist.

He described Morselli as a "man of great refinement despite what he may look like in his pictures."

He called the staff at Liberal headquarters "nightcrawlers" and "ne'er do wells running between the raindrops to avoid work." He also claimed they were stealing his faxes and opening his mail.

Wajsman accused Dezainde of being a racist who didn't want minorities on the Liberal

finance committee. "Daniel Dezainde looked at me with very cold eyes and a very thin smile and said these people are never getting into the heart of the finance commission."

Judge John Gomery looked skeptical and said: "Well that's your perception." He asked him why he would call Dezainde a racist.

But Wajsman had no direct response, other than to say: "I said to Daniel, 'who are these people, the brown ones, the yellow ones or those whose names you don't like, who were not de souche.' "

Gomery asked him if he didn't think he was overreacting and Wajsman said he knew racism when he saw it because 70 members of his family disappeared in the Holocaust.

Wajsman rounded off his testimony to the Gomery commission by declaring he intended to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party after Martin is tossed out.

"I want to restore the party to the roots of Trudeau liberalism," he said outside the hearing.

Yesterday's other witness, John Welch, firmly denied an allegation by Brault that he was put on the Groupaction payroll for a year, but actually worked for the Liberal Party rather than the firm.

Welch, whOWN on paid leave from his job as chief of staff for federal Heritage Minister Liza Frulla after the allegation was made, said he was hired by Brault on a one-year contract at $7,000 a month to help expand Groupaction's business internationally, but was given little real work to do by the firm.

He said he did "a lot of useless minor jobs" that included representing Brault and Groupaction at political functions, such as fundraising dinners and golf tournaments, a situation he found frustrating.

He said he felt "almost like a poodle" and was relieved when near the end of his contract in May 2000, Brault told him it wouldn't be renewed. "It was the worst job I ever had in my life."

His version was not challenged by any of the lawyers at the commission, and he said he hopes to be able to return to his post at the minister's office now that he has told his story to the commission.

AT THE GOMERY INQUIRY - Beryl Wajsman, a Liberal linked to shady fundraising, has described the Gomery inquiry as a "McCarthyite witch hunt" that is destroying the reputations of the innocent. Yesterday he appeared before Justice John Gomery to clear his name and, clearly a believer in fighting fire with fire, offered a drive-by character assassination of his own.

Mr. Wajsman tossed insults at everyone from Alfonso Gagliano, the former public works minister who hired him to raise money for the party, to Jean Brault, the advertising executive who first implicated Mr. Wajsman in the sponsorship scandal.

He commented that Mr. Gagliano, who was the Liberals' political lieutenant when Mr. Wajsman was recruited to bolster the party finances, did not stack up intellectually against Trudeau-era Cabinet ministers he had known such as Jean Marchand and Marc Lalonde. Mr. Gagliano, he said, "didn't have necessarily the intellectual capacity, perhaps, or the charisma of the Marchands and the Lalondes."

Later, he described the former minister, whom he met about once a month during the six months he worked for the party, as "not a man of many words. If somebody normally has an emotional range of one to 10, you know, if you get one to three from him it's fine.... It's not a knock on Mr. Gagliano. It's just the way it is."

He stressed that at one lunch meeting when he handed Mr. Gagliano a letter to read, "he read it slowly, ever so slowly," saying it took Mr. Gagliano more than 10 minutes to read the three-and-a-half video page letter.

Mr. Brault, whose firm Groupaction made millions from the federal sponsorship program, told the inquiry last month that he left an envelope with $5,000 cash for Mr. Wajsman and Liberal organizer Joe Morselli during a 2001 lunch meeting at Frank's restaurant in Montreal's Little Italy. He said he gave Mr. Wajsman a total of $25,000 over several months.

Mr. Wajsman yesterday said he never received a cent from Mr. Brault. He said Mr. Brault had asked him during the lunch to open doors for Groupaction in the Montreal anglo business community, but he refused. "Forty minutes into the lunch, Mr. Brault went to the bathroom, and I turned to Joe and said, 'With all due respect, I can't introduce this guy to serious businessmen, particularly the kind of companies he wants. I mean between the Elvis Presley haircut, the little mustache, he's sweating, he's nervous. This is not a guy I can introduce,' " Mr. Wajsman testified.

As his testimony continued, few escaped his barbs. He said he left his job as an aide to Liberal MP Irwin Cotler because "frankly, I had a lot of problems with his wife."

He accused the man who fired him from his fundraising job, Daniel Dezainde, then director-general of the party, of racism, saying Mr. Dezainde objected to Mr. Wajsman's efforts to have people from visible minorities named to the party's finance commission.

Mr. Dezainde testified this week that he fired Mr. Wajsman because he was running a secret fundraising operation that was not being registered in party books. "I'm suggesting to you that perhaps what Mr. Dezainde was trying to communicate to you was that he didn't think that you were in a position to dictate to him the composition of the finance commission," Justice Gomery said in response. "Is it possible that you overreacted?

Mr. Wajsman described the staff at the Liberal party's Quebec wing as "a nest of night crawlers," and said he felt he was raising money "to pay the salaries of six ne'er-do-wells who are running between the rain drops to avoid doing anything. I was fed up."

He said one staffer, Richard Mimeau, was "doing nothing but organizing broom-ball festivals when he was supposed to be the Liberal organizer for Quebec West. (Mr. Mimeau is secretary of the Quebec Broom-ball Federation and a player in Montreal's elite senior league.)

Mr. Morselli, whom Mr. Wajsman described as a friend, got away with a backhanded compliment: "Mr. Morselli was a man of great refinement, despite what he may look like in his pictures."

Mr. Wajsman denied allegations that his fundraising efforts, which netted about $300,000 for the party, were improper. He said that contrary to Mr. Dezainde's claim, party officials were fully aware of the fundraising cocktail parties he organized.

After relations soured with Mr. Dezainde, who had been named director-general in May, 2001, Mr. Wajsman made one final pitch to Mr. Gagliano, again at Frank's restaurant. "I will never forget his famous phrase: 'Beryl, you have to be patient. Revenge is a dish best served cold.' "

2003

Thursday May 29, 2003 LINDA MASSARELLA wrote It's Bond, Stockwell Bond: ...the who's who ..was at the Club St. Denis to hear former director of the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] R. James Woolsey and others including Lt-Gen Charles Belzile CMM, CD, former Commander of Canadian Forces Europe, ; Thomas d'Aquino, President of the CEO Council of Canada; Stockwell Day,MP, foreign affairs critic for the Canadian Alliance, The Hon.Perrin Beatty, former Minister of National Defence and current President of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Dale L. Watson, former director of the FBI's Counter-Terrorism Division and John Angus President of Stonehendge Corp

Thur. May 30, 2003 bbc

"A Matter of Honor": Address to the 3rd Policy Conference of the Institute for Public Affairs by Beryl P. Wajsman,Esq.

Beryl P. Wajsman, Esq.: A Profile

After completing his undergraduate studies in government, history and economics, Mr.Wajsman went on to receive his B.C.L and LL.B. degrees from McGill Law. Following a year of post-graduate work in the United States in philosophy and theology he spent several years as a journalist culminating in his appointment as Editor of the prominent Canadian socio/cultural/political journal “Viewpoints”.

Having done considerable work with the Liberal Party of Canada as organizer, Liberal Association Vice-President, member of regional commissions and consultatative advisory groups, and other quasi-official posts within the Party wing in Quebec, he then proceeded to Ottawa where he first headed a study on “Access to Justice in Canada” at the Institute for Research on Public Policy and then served in the Ministry of Justice on policy matters related to international finance and labor reform as well as a stint at the Law Reform Commission.

Following his return to Montreal, Mr. Wajsman developed a career that encompassed public service and public finance.

In his political work he has been a delegate to five national Liberal conventions, an organizer in Quebec and Ontario for the Liberal Party of Canada in eight national elections, served as a legal counsel to the Federalist side in the 1980 and 1995 Referendums, was a member of the Canadian Consultative Commission on Multiculturalism, became a charter member of the Laurier Club, was a finance committee associate for the Liberal Party of Quebec, served the Federal Liberal Quebec wing on its Finance Commission, was an advisor on Special Projects from the Millennium Program to Multiculturalism to several Ministers, acted in the capacity of Special Counsel to a former Political Minister for Quebec as well as to several MP’s on policy and electoral matters, directed operational issues in several ridings in recent electoral campaigns and was a vice-chairman on the Task Force on Municipal Mergers.

His advocacy positions have included the Chairmanship and organization of the first Symposium on the Holocaust at McGill University, co-chairmanship of the Network Canada Conference on Jewish Leadership, staff direction of the Center for Law and Public Policy, legislative director and chief investigator of the Commission on Economic Coercion and Discrimination , member of the executive of the Canadian Jewish Congress (Quebec Region) with special responsibility for inter-community liaison, founding board member of the Project Genesis anti-poverty alliance, founding member of the Montreal Committee for Soviet Jewry, board member of the Committee for Justice for the Duplessis Orphans, project associate on the Iran Loan Debate, and advisor to a variety of social action groups including the Canadian Council for Refugees, Femmes du Monde contre la pauvrete, la Fondation Pour la Tolerance, the Conseil Communautaire Cote des Neiges ,the English Black Community Council and the Montreal Holocaust Museum.

In public finance he has acted as consultant for all or part of the syndication and project acquisition of important infrastructure projects. These included Desarollo Urbanistico Caroni in Venezuela which resulted in a development built for 11,000 working families; the revitalization of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York which saw the creation of 15,000 new jobs in a joint venture between 40 private employers, major unions and the City administration; the realization of Centre Negresco which was the working name for the public finance and assembly process of Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts expansion; the refinancing of Les Industries Blancomme in France which provided job security and continuity for 1500 workers that had been with the company an average of 20 years; the refinancing of Montreal’s “La Cite” and “Westmount Square” residential complexes and the structuring of Finimpex, an innovative bond initiative that allowed the administration of the Sao Paulo district in Brazil to begin the rehabilitation of some of its worst slum areas.

Mr. Wajsman is the founder and President of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal that represents seven cultural communities, over twenty-five social action groups and four international unions in the FTQ affiliated with the Canadian Labor Congress and the AFL-CIO. He acts as Special Political Consultant to several Ministers and elected officials on all three political levels and currently is Special Counsel to the Community Growth and Strategic Planning Directorate of Federation/CJA as well as advisor and associate board member of Catholic Community Services. He is a member of the Montreal Coalition to end Hunger and of the “Lawyers Feed the Homeless” program at Osgoode Hall in Toronto for whom he obtained permanent funding for its food budget. He also supplies strategic and tactical advice to “Chez nos Amis”, The Old Brewery Mission, the O.E.I.L. and R.O.M.E.L. housing co-ops and the Canada-Israel Committee.

Mr. Wajsman is a member of the University Club of Montreal and the National Press Club of Ottawa.He has received many citations from charitable, community and volunteer organizations most recently the Robert F. Kennedy Community Service Award from the International Academy of Law and Mental Health. His corporate board memberships include Med Extra Health Services.

Among his publications are an important number of articles, monographs and papers on issues ranging from international relations, responsibility of public officials and political strategy and advocacy. You may refer to the website at www.iapm.ca to review some of the more recent works including “Orgy of Hate: The Disgrace of Prejudice”, “Imperatives of Assault: Legitimacy as Precursor to Sovereignty” and “Ardent Advocacy: Pragmatic Radicalism and the Struggle for a Civil Society.”

2002

Thursday Sep 26, 2002 Bulletin No.29 Ardent Advocacy.doc
The Pursuit of the Politics of Purpose
Pragmatic Radicalism and the Struggle for a Civil Society

Wednesday Sep 11, 2002 A must see Open Letter to the Ministers of Justice and Immigration of Canada

2009

2008

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

2007

2006

Daycare lobbying sent to attorney-general

KEVIN DOUGHERTY, The Gazette

2003

Beryl P. Wajsman, Esq.: A Profile

2002