Warren Kinsella, Chuck Guite, Palmer Jarvis ad agency and Michael Ignatieff

Yesterday I noted that Warren Kinsella received a $10,000 campaign donation from the ad agency Palmer Jarvis, when he ran unsuccessfully for Parliament in 1997. This was after Kinsella had written the memo to the civil service, ordering them to steer advertising contracts through Chuck Guite, who was later convicted of five counts of fraud. As I noted, Justice John Gomery called Kinsella's memo "highly inappropriate".

Yesterday I marvelled at that $10,000 donation -- that's a lot of dough for a corporation to donate to a political candidate. It probably would have had to go through a management committee of some sort -- and there probably would have to be a pretty good reason to commit so heavily to a candidate.

There was: Kinsella had worked for Palmer Jarvis at their Vancouver office after leaving the federal government and before running for Parliament -- I hadn't read Norman Spector's blog post carefully enough, for he mentioned it.

I focused on the donation. But a far more scandalous fact was addressed by Spector in the same item: this transcript (see page 10952) of the Gomery Inquiry's hearings. In it, Diane Marleau, a previous minister of public works, answers questions about Kinsella:

MR. COURNOYER: If we go to page 118 under Tab 17, we have a number of fax reports or fax sheets. At 118 we have a fax that is dated August 27th, 1996. Were you aware that Mr. Guité was exchanging information with Mr. Warren Kinsella at Palmer Jarvis about this?
MS. MARLEAU: Absolutely not. That would be highly unusual. Mr. Kinsella had been the Executive Assistant to Minister Dingwall. My understanding was that he had left Minister Dingwall’s office. So that is unusual. But I couldn’t tell you more about it. I wasn’t aware of it.
MR. COURNOYER: You didn’t have -- well, superficially, that is what the document seems to be, a fax sent to Mr. Kinsella.

Not only did Kinsella write the memo trying to divert funds to Guite,  but after Kinsella left the government -- and went to work for an ad agency that was doing business with the government -- he continued to swap information with Guite. (Marleau herself refused to send contracts through Guite, and was exculpated by Justice Gomery.)

Here's a memo prepared for the Gomery Commission that goes into some greater detail about ad agency contracts -- including Palmer Jarvis's. They were a smaller player than most of the other agencies. But there's obviously a lot more digging to do here. I'll keep you posted about what I find.

I thought the $10,000 gift from Palmer Jarvis was a blinking red light in itself. Not really -- Kinsella worked there. The real blinking red light is that Kinsella was still in contact with Guite while he was working there.

Kinsella, Guite, and ad agencies -- that sounds like a chapter of Canadian politics that's moving from the "current events" file to the "history" archives. But by choosing Kinsella as his campaign aide, Michael Ignatieff is breathing new life into the story because by rehabilitating Kinsella, Ignatieff is condoning Kinsella's "highly inappropriate" conduct.

I'm all for second chances. But there has to be an interval of contrition before forgiveness, and Kinsella is clearly not contrite about his memo to Guite. By having Kinsella on his team, without Kinsella renouncing his highly inappropriate conduct, Ignatieff is condoning that conduct. And, in doing so, he taints himself and the Liberal Party that he now leads.

That just makes no sense. But it's Ignatieff's choice -- and he'll have to live with it.