No charges over Cadman affair

OTTAWA — The RCMP say no charges will be laid in the Chuck Cadman affair, but the mysterious political story appears to have yet more chapters.

The federal Liberals, who originally complained to the Mounties, said Friday the Conservative government still has a duty to give Canadians details of the episode.

Tory MP James Moore, however, pronounced the case closed, calling the Liberals reckless in their false accusations. “We have said from the beginning that nothing improper happened here.”
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The Conservatives acknowledge that two of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's close confidants met with Cadman, but say they only offered a repayable loan for his local riding association to cover campaign expenses if he rejoined the Tories.
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080516.wcadman0516/BNStory/National/home
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Two things:
- I don't trust the RCMP much.
- I can't beleive Harper will continue with his lawsuit.

That there won't be charges laid isn't exactly a shock. It's been obvious from the start that, with an apparent lack of any documentation, this thing wouldn't get very far in court. But it's unclear how this puts the matter to rest.

For that to happen, we'd still need a coherent explanation from Stephen Harper as to what he was talking about when he told Tom Zytaruk that party officials offered to "replace financial considerations might lose due to an election," and that those officials were acting on the theory that resolving concerns about "financial insecurity" might convince the late MP to help bring down the government.

The Prime Minister has been less than eager to offer that explanation, to say the least. The story may not have legs, since it's highly unlikely that any more evidence will emerge to move it forward. Also, we collectively have the attention spans of termites. But if a scandal stops being a scandal simply because it can't be proven in a court of law that something criminal happened, we sure are setting the ethical bar pretty low.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080516.WBwbradwanski20080516191537/WBStory/WBwbradwanski/

...the tape exists of Harper talking about 'financial considerations' after the author specifically asks him about whether Cadman was offered an insurance policy.

How is that nothing?