After hunting through boxes of archived research for my 2001 Airbus book, The Last Amigo, I found an anonymous note I received in 1988 when I was working at the Globe and Mail.
It's not easy to read here, so here's what it says:
DEAR STEVIE,
YOUR RECENT ARTICLE IN THE GLOBE'S REPORT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE ON GCI AND FRANK MOORES WAS A GOOD ONE BUT YOU MISSED THE BEST PART. FRANK AND HIS FRIENDS ARE ABOUT TO STRIKE IT REALLY RICH AND YOU AND I ARE GOING TO HELP HIM. SOUNDS GOOD, EH? READ ON.
FRANK HAS ARRANGED FOR AIR CANADA TO BUY $2 BILLION WORTH OF FRENCH AIRPLANES, AND HE GETS A COOL 5% OR $100 MILLION. OF COURSE, THE FRENCH WILL PAY THE COMMISSION, BUT $300 MILLION WILL COME FROM OTTAWA, AND YOU KNOW YOU AND I PAY FOR THAT. CHECK IT OUT.
The note arrived after the newspaper's February, 1988 Report on Business Magazine published a story I'd written called "Like Magic," about Frank Moores' lobbying firm, Government Consultants International. In this, I listed several of the company's clients including Messerschmidt-Bolkow-Blohm.
And about this company I noted:
It's not easy to read here, so here's what it says:
DEAR STEVIE,
YOUR RECENT ARTICLE IN THE GLOBE'S REPORT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE ON GCI AND FRANK MOORES WAS A GOOD ONE BUT YOU MISSED THE BEST PART. FRANK AND HIS FRIENDS ARE ABOUT TO STRIKE IT REALLY RICH AND YOU AND I ARE GOING TO HELP HIM. SOUNDS GOOD, EH? READ ON.
FRANK HAS ARRANGED FOR AIR CANADA TO BUY $2 BILLION WORTH OF FRENCH AIRPLANES, AND HE GETS A COOL 5% OR $100 MILLION. OF COURSE, THE FRENCH WILL PAY THE COMMISSION, BUT $300 MILLION WILL COME FROM OTTAWA, AND YOU KNOW YOU AND I PAY FOR THAT. CHECK IT OUT.
The note arrived after the newspaper's February, 1988 Report on Business Magazine published a story I'd written called "Like Magic," about Frank Moores' lobbying firm, Government Consultants International. In this, I listed several of the company's clients including Messerschmidt-Bolkow-Blohm.
And about this company I noted:
"The German firm is part of a consortium that wants to sell Air Canada a plane known as the Airbus. MBB retained GCI early in 1985 to push its case. Moores came in for heated criticism in Parliament after his appointment to the board of Air Canada in March, 1985, tossed him into what was seen as a conflict of interest. He subsequently resigned from the Air Canada post."
Soon after the ROB story appeared, the anonymous letter arrived at the paper.
Unlike most anonymous letters I received, this one felt like the real thing.
I chased the tip for a long time but it was impossible to prove until 1999 and impossible - for legal reasons - to publish until 2001.
Someday I hope the person who wrote this note will get in touch again.
Soon after the ROB story appeared, the anonymous letter arrived at the paper.
Unlike most anonymous letters I received, this one felt like the real thing.
I chased the tip for a long time but it was impossible to prove until 1999 and impossible - for legal reasons - to publish until 2001.
Someday I hope the person who wrote this note will get in touch again.
5 comments:
Hi Stevie,
I'm a huge fan of your work. In my opinion, you epitomize diligent, persistent and professional journalism at its finest, and the future of Canada's democracy will owe much to your work.
I may be on the wrong track on this issue, in which case I apologize, but your publication of an image of the original note that was sent to you anonymously causes me some disquiet.
Specifically, I'm wondering whether one or more of your blog readers might recognize the handwriting of the note's author, and by that recognition jeopardize the author's anonymity. Even if that doesn't happen, might the author not be similarly concerned about his or her possible loss of anonymity if he or she discovers this disclosure? Is the publication of the note itself - vice just a transcript of its contents - really necessary given the context?
Like I said, my concern may be totally unfounded, but I thought it best to run this by you.
By the way, I feel no need for you to publish this comment, and I'd be perfectly content if you decide to withold it from public view. Your call entirely.
Thanks for your consideration of this matter Stevie, and please keep up the fantastic work. Don't let the many bastards get you down :)
John
Stevie--Are you aware of the selling off of Canada's gold reserves,while Mulrooney was PM? If not,I have lots of information---
Can't wait for all this to spill out. And you can tell you told them so.
Stevie, Would you ever consider doing updates to your books on this matter? You're books provide the best insiders view of Ottawa thats out there.
Cheers
have you ever considered posting all of the articles that you worked on for the G&M and others online surrounding this story? These were interesting material but cannot be found online and may become forgotten. cheers
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