Editing Jean Chrétien (section)

==== Shawinigate ====

{{Main|Shawinigate}}

In late 2000 and early 2001, politics were dominated by questions about the Grand-Mere Affair (or the [[Shawinigate]] scandal). Opposition parties frequently charged that Chrétien had broken the law in regards to his lobbying for [[Business Development Bank of Canada]] for loans to the Auberge Grand-Mère inn.<ref name="L'Affair Grand-Mere">{{cite news|title=L'Affair Grand-Mere |publisher=[[CBC News]] |date=January 25, 2006 |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/chretien/shawinigan.html |access-date=August 26, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023141848/http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/chretien/shawinigan.html |archive-date=October 23, 2012 }}</ref> Questions were especially centered around the firing of the president of the bank, François Beaudoin, and the involvement of Jean Carle, formerly of the PMO, in sacking Beaudoin.<ref name="L'Affair Grand-Mere"/> Carle served as Chrétien's chief of operations between 1993 and 1998 before leaving to take up an executive post at the Business Development Bank.<ref>{{cite web | title = So long, tough guy |work = Maclean's |date= January 25, 1998 |url = http://business.highbeam.com/4341/article-1G1-20335728/so-long-tough-guy |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131203003123/http://business.highbeam.com/4341/article-1G1-20335728/so-long-tough-guy |url-status = dead |archive-date = December 3, 2013 | access-date = August 26, 2013}}</ref> Chrétien claimed that Carle was not involved in any way with the loans to the Grand-Mere Inn, only to be countered by Joe Clark, who produced a leaked document showing that he was.<ref>Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003, p. 314.</ref> After initial denials, Chrétien acknowledged having lobbied the Business Development Bank to grant a $2&nbsp;million loan to Yvon Duhaime. Duhaime was a friend and constituent to whom the Prime Minister stated that he had sold his interest in the Grand-Mère Inn, a local Shawinigan-area hotel and golf resort, eventually providing evidence of the sale—a contract written on a cocktail napkin. Duhaime was a local businessman with an unsavoury reputation and a criminal record, who received a loan from the Business Development Bank that he was ineligible to collect on the account of his criminal record (Duhaime did not mention his record when applying for the loan).<ref>Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 pp. 222–223.</ref> The bank had turned down the initial loan application, but later approved a $615,000 loan following further lobbying by Chrétien. When the bank refused to extend the loan in August 1999 under the grounds that Duhaime had a bad financial history, Beaudoin was fired by Chrétien in September 1999, which led to a [[wrongful dismissal]] suit that Beaudoin was to win in 2004.<ref>{{cite news | title = 'Shawinigate' bank exec wins dismissal suit | publisher = [[CBC News]] |date= March 3, 2004| url = https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/shawinigate-bank-exec-wins-dismissal-suit-1.511667 | access-date = February 17, 2021}}</ref> It was revealed that Chrétien had never been paid for his share in the sale of the adjoining golf course, and criminal charges were laid against Duhaime. On February 19, 2001, the RCMP announced that there they did not find sufficient evidence to lay criminal charges against anyone in regards to the Grand-Mere Affair, and Chrétien accused Clark of waging a "witch hunt" against the Liberals.<ref name="L'Affair Grand-Mere"/> On March 2, 2001, the federal ethics counselor Howard Wilson cleared Chrétien of wrongdoing in the Grand-Mere Affair.<ref name="L'Affair Grand-Mere"/> On April 5, 2001, the ''National Post'' received documents purportedly from an anonymous source within the bank, indicating that Chrétien was still owed $23,040 by Duhaime for his share in the Auberge Grand-Mère.<ref name="Cosh 2010">{{cite web | last = Cosh | first = Colby | title = That pesky issue: but was it forged? | work = Maclean's |date= May 19, 2010| url = http://www.macleans.ca/2010/05/19/that-pesky-issue-but-was-it-forged/ | access-date = August 26, 2013}}</ref> The revelation of the Grand-Mère affair did not affect the outcome of the 2000 election. Chrétien and his circle believed that the breaking of the Grand-Mère story was the work of the Martin faction.<ref>Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 p. 297.</ref>