Déjà vu ...odd timing and reason for fraud charges against a Liberal in Niagara.

I was as shocked as anyone to hear about the charges against James Curran. The Niagara Falls review (and CTV.ca) reports today that fellow Liberal Jim Curran has withdrawn from seeking the federal Liberal nomination in Niagara Falls because of the charge of “cheque kiting”. This is apparently the practice of writing a cheque from one bank account to cover off another cheque from another bank account. There is a law against this.

To offer the benefit of the doubt for a minute to Curran, a fellow blogger, (who is quoted as expecting to be fully vindicated in this matter), business people who do deals especially in real estate need to juggle monies between accounts all the time. If the timing of the clearance of one cheque does not match the other, a mistake or simple misfortune could be construed as “cheque-kiting”, especially if there are those who want to interpret it that way. The level of deliberateness would make this either fraud or not.

Whether there is any merit in these charges, it is too early to tell. However, it is clear the timing of these charges is particularly bad – or good – depending upon one’s political stripes. Healthy skeptics might see a parallel with the timing of these charges (following an alleged two month investigation) and last year’s RCMP investigation into alleged leaks by Liberal government officials into rule changes for income trusts during the last federal election. Although any connection between these leaks and any Liberal government officials were disproved shortly thereafter, the publicity created by an RCMP investigation during an election campaign seemed to break the “stalemate” in the polls between the Liberals and the Conservatives that had existed since day one of the campaign to the favour of the Conservatives.

When all Liberal government officials were exonerated earlier this year, there were questions about whether the Conservative Party’s “Law and Order” agenda played any part in the decision to investigate such a thing during a federal election. The RCMP and its senior officials have been under fire for other matters ever since.

In the case of Jim Curran, the dynamics are both similar and different at the same time. The police force involved in his investigation is the Niagara Regional Police. Politically, who benefits from the removal of a Liberal threat in the federal riding of Niagara? It is pretty clear that the primary beneficiary is current Conservative MP, Justice Minister and Attorney General, Rob Nicholson. And, the Conservatives took the opportunity to try to use this against the Liberals in Question Period today. Rightly or wrongly, Minister Nicholson needs not worry quite as much about retaining his riding in Niagara in the next election today - as much as he did yesterday – given that his biggest political threat has been neutralized. And, the CPC is trying to milk this too as a tactic or perhaps a distraction from them falling in the polls as of yesterday.

Like the “income trust” investigation during the last election, I find it amazing how convenient this whole thing is for Nicholson and the Conservative Party. And, as a secondary benefit, perhaps this also takes the heat off Michael Fortier’s personal $400 million scandal as Public Works Minister a little bit. I look forward to reading the results of a fair and balanced investigation, even though I lament that Jim Curran’s political career is in jeopardy as a by-product in the meantime. Que bono?