Disgraced Canadian Cabinet Minister Alleged to be Mafia Soldier

Former Public Works minister Alfonso Gagliano is facing yet another ethical firestorm as questions of his ties to the Bonnano crime family were raised in Parliament yesterday.

Gagliano has come under fire in recent months over his role in the controversial sponsorship program, which sent millions of dollars in commissions to Liberal-friendly ad firms in Quebec.

Long known as the party's Quebec Lieutenant, Gagliano was the fixer who got things done. When allegations of fiscal malfeasance started to arise, Jean Chretien got him out of Dodge by appointing him ambassador to Denmark. (The Dane's were mightily and rightly displeased)

When the Auditor Genereal's report was released and the extent of Gagliano's involvement in missing millions of $ became apparent, Prime Minister Martin recalled him from his cushy gig.

The new allegations of mafia membership are explosive to say the least.

The Daily News report cited secret FBI documents the newspaper had obtained, claiming Gagliano was identified in the papers as a "made" member of the Bonanno crime family.

Canadian media outlets sat on the story on advice of libel lawyers however once the opposition raised the issue in Parliament under the aegis of parliamentary priviledge the media was free to report on the allegations originally printed by the New York Daily News.

If the allegations are true, this would be the biggest scandal to hit the Liberals and would very likely result in the fall of their minority government.

montreal.cbc.ca...

Yeah, this news will have the effect of a bomb. I was shocked yesterday when I heard it on TV. I knew that Quebec (or just Canada in general) was like a paradise for criminals, and that the Bonano familly had a general right here, in Montreal, Quebec (Vito Rizzuto, recently arrested and on trial to be extraded back to the USA), but now this... whoa...

I've spent a lot of time talking about how corrupted the gov is in the south, but it seems we're just as bad here hehehehe.

Even if true Martin will distance himself from it and the sheeple will continue to vote Liberal.

Originally posted by Technical
Even if true Martin will distance himself from it and the sheeple will continue to vote Liberal.

maybe we can be wiser than this and vote out the corporate takeover of our souls, instead of pretending that 90% of politicians aren't criminals(a background check will confirm this). let's not let canada fall into the same polarised partisan mire that we see south of the border. hell, if the states splits into pieces, WE might be the 'superpower' of north america, HAHA! let's have some unity, here. even albertans like poutine!

[edit on 20-11-2004 by billybob]