418 large (almost)

One hopes the Walldinger's lawyers are entitled to a very large chunk.

In one of its last actions before transferring power, the Liberal government has agreed to pay David Dingwall $417,780 in compensation for his dismissal as head of the Royal Canadian Mint.

Privy Council Office announced the payment Saturday following the decision of an independent arbitrator, George Adams, who concluded that Mr. Dingwall had not resigned, as the government suggested at the time, but had been fired...

Prime minister-designate Steven Harper said Saturday the Liberals had misled the public where Mr. Dingwall was concerned.

“After months of evasive answers in the House of Commons, we have now learned that David Dingwall's departure from the Royal Canadian mint was involuntary,” Mr. Harper said in a statement.

“This is contrary to the information given by the Liberal government. I am very disappointed that Parliament was misled on this matter.”..

Nice work if you can quit it--not.

Update: Perhaps Parliament could pass a Private Act to reclaim payment from the Walldinger. It would be most interesting to see the Supreme Court's reaction to what would seem an inevitable appeal.

Upperdate: Would this knowledge have affected the election?
...
CTV News has learned the deal was actually approved on Jan. 20, three days before Canadians voted in the federal election. The government issued a cheque to Dingwall on Friday.

"This just compounds the whole sordid Dingwall mess, that the Liberal government knew on January 20 the arbitrator's final result and they wouldn't tell the Canadian public until after the election was safely over," [NDP MP Pat] Martin said.

A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office said neither Prime Minister Paul Martin nor any other campaigning politician knew about the Dingwall settlement until Saturday, when officials in the Privy Council Office issued a news release...

Posted by markc at February 4, 2006 08:54 PM | TrackBack