XPost: can.politics, ont.politics, bc.politics   
   From: {~_~}@nyet.ca   
      
   . . .  points to the opposition parties.   
      
   ANOTHER Conservative staffer and aide that is accused of fraud and   
   breach of trust.  Has anyone else noticed that these types are almost   
   exclusively from the rightwing parties?  Has anyone else noticed that   
   these types are being CHARGED by the RCMP?   
      
   Has anyone else noticed that Stephen Harper is busy meddling in overseas   
   countries' issues - while Canada burns?   
   ____________________________________   
   The Canadian Press Posted: Mar 17, 2014   
      
      
   Hubert Pichet, ex-Tory Senate staffer, accused of fraud, breach of trust   
   Accusations relate to the awarding of contracts   
      
      
   A former Conservative Senate staffer has been swept up in a corruption   
   investigation and is facing charges relating to the awarding of contracts.   
      
   The RCMP said Monday it has filed five charges against former Senate   
   policy adviser Hubert Pichet, 58.   
      
   The charges include fraud against the federal government and breach of   
   trust by a public official.   
      
   "Claiming that he could influence the awarding of contracts, Pichet   
   allegedly received money from companies wanting to do business with the   
   government," the Mounties said in a statement.   
      
   An RCMP spokesman declined to comment further on the charges.   
      
   The Prime Minister's Office issued a one-line statement about the   
   charges: "Those who break the law must be held responsible for their   
   actions."   
      
   A lawyer by trade, Pichet was most recently a Senate policy adviser   
   between 2007 and 2011, but has long had ties to the Tories. He ran   
   unsuccessfully for the Conservatives in the 2008 election.   
      
   He served as an assistant to Tory senator Pierre-Claude Nolin and   
   previously worked as an aide to former Conservative prime minister Brian   
   Mulroney.   
      
   Pichet's name emerged during 2010 hearings into the controversy over a   
   $9-million contract to renovate Parliament Hill's West Block that was   
   given to a masonry business owned by Paul Sauvé. The RCMP then began   
   investigating the contract.   
      
   Pichet was linked to the contract through the testimony of the late   
   Gilles Varin, a lobbyist with Conservative ties who Sauvé said he paid   
   $140,000 to help him secure the lucrative deal.   
      
   Sauvé's company, LM Sauvé, went bankrupt a year later and he lost the   
   contract.   
      
   Varin said he introduced Sauvé to Pichet in a Montreal restaurant in   
   2007 and that two men talked for a few minutes.   
      
   Pichet told Radio-Canada he was asked by Varin about contacts in the   
   Public Works Department, but his involvement ended there. Varin died in   
   2011.   
      
   Sauvé donated to Pichet's campaign when the latter ran for the Tories in   
   an east-end Montreal riding in 2008.   
      
   Pichet is to appear in court on May 1 in Montreal.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)