Apr 21, 2009 12:50 PM
Richard J. Brennan OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA — A former senior executive of Bear Head Industries says he had no idea former prime minister Brian Mulroney was working for the company promoting its proposal to build light-armoured vehicles in Canada in the early 1990s.
Greg Alford, then vice-president of Bear Head's corporate affairs, was testifying today before a public hearing probing Mulroney's business dealing with German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber and the $300,000 in cash Mulroney received for unsuccessfully lobbying for Bear Head.
"No," said Alford when asked whether he knew whether the former Progressive Conservative PM was working in any capacity for Bear Head beginning the summer of 1993.
The inquiry, headed by Justice Jeffrey Oliphant, has heard from Schreiber that he first approached Mulroney on June 23, 1993 when he was still prime minister to work for Bear Head Industries and the following August paid Mulroney, when he had left office,the first of three instalments of $100,000 in cash.
Mulroney insists he was only given $225,000 in three very private meetings with Schreiber where Mulroney was given envelopes stuffed with cash.
Alford also contradicted earlier evidence by Mulroney before a parliamentary committee that his job was to lobby internationally for Bear Head, not domestically.
Alford said Bear Head's German-based parent Thyssen AG handled international marketing for the German-designed armoured vehicles.
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