Globe story on the Cadman case

One day we'll find out what really happened -- but I suspect it will come out in a biography written twenty years from now when it won't make a whit of difference... .


Harper drops suit against Liberals over Cadman allegations

DANIEL LEBLANC
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
February 7, 2009

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper has abandoned his $3.5-million libel lawsuit against the Liberal Party over allegations that he knew of Conservative efforts to bribe a dying MP in 2005.

Friday's move was in direct contradiction with Mr. Harper's past vows to take the matter to a total victory in front of a judge.

"The truth is that this will prove to be in court the biggest mistake the leader of the Liberal Party has ever made," Mr. Harper said last March, speaking about Stéphane Dion.

The matter was settled, without an apology or a trial, and with all sides refusing to comment.
Joseph Magnet, a professor of law at the University of Ottawa, said the decision fuels the impression that the lawsuit was an attempt by Mr. Harper, who last fall was about to fight an election, to "deflect attention" from the furor, which has since subsided.

"These defamation suits … manage a crisis by mounting an offence," Prof. Magnet said. "They push the problem down the line in time, and it's maybe what happened here."