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| Canada a safe haven for Tunisian billionaire? |
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| Written by Gordon Prentice | |||
| Thursday, 27 January 2011 17:50 | |||
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Tunisia has issued an international arrest warrant for Belhassen Trabelsi, the fabulously wealthy brother-in-law of the ousted Tunisian President, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Excellent news. Trabelsi plundered Tunisia, accumulating a vast fortune in the ten years since his sister married Ben Ali. Canada is home to 20,000 Tunisian Canadians and half of them live in Montreal where the Ben Ali family have a $2.5m home in the up market suburb of Westmount. Tunisian Canadians are outraged that Trabelsi – who returned to Montreal in his own private jet last week - may find sanctuary in Canada. They have caught the national mood. Canada doesn’t need or want corrupt ex Presidents or their huge extended families. There is plenty of room in Saudi Arabia. Cabinet Government In their evidence to the Chilcott Inquiry this week, we learn from former Heads of the Civil Service, Lords Wilson and Turnbull, that in the run up to war against Iraq Tony Blair kept some Cabinet ministers in the dark. Hardly earth shattering news. Blair is the great dissembler. A master at stringing people along. In September 2001, in the aftermath of 9/11, I recalling asking the Prime Minister if the reports were true that the Cabinet didn't meet as often as it should. I wrote at the time: “The Prime Minister told me the Cabinet met regularly. As he told me this I saw Robin Cook – who was sitting directly opposite me – arch one of his eyebrows almost imperceptibly. We all know the PM doesn’t run a traditional Cabinet Government. So why pretend?” Wilson and Turnbull could have insisted on the proprieties of Cabinet Government being followed. For their own reasons, they chose not to. 
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| Last Updated on Thursday, 27 January 2011 19:34 |