Gurmant Grewal - The "Grewal Tapes"

The "Grewal Tapes"

In mid-May, at the time the Liberal government risked losing a confidence vote on its 2005 budget (which was later decided in the government's favour by the speaker, after a tie in the house), negotiations began between Grewal and the Liberals about the possibility of Grewal's changing political parties. After several BC Liberals acted as go-betweens, Grewal met with Ujjal Dosanjh, Minister of Health, and Tim Murphy, the Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister's Office, on three occasions May 16–18. There were also numerous phone calls.

In these negotiations Grewal was offered to change parties in exchange for a senate seat for his wife, a cabinet post for himself, and an apology from Volpe. In response, Murphy and Dosanjh made vague promises of future reward. While these negotiations were going on, prominent Conservative MP Belinda Stronach defected to the Liberals and did receive a ministerial position in the government. In the end, Grewal did not change parties.

Unbeknownst to his interlocutors, Grewal was recording the conversations, a fact that he revealed to the public on the evening of May 18, where Grewal publicly accused the Liberals of trying to buy his vote with offers of a cabinet or a diplomatic post for himself and a senate seat for his wife. The next day he claimed that he had made four hours of recording, and released nine minutes of a recording of a conversation with Murphy, in which Murphy suggests that he abstain from the coming confidence vote. New Democratic Party MP Yvon Godin referred them to Bernard Shapiro, Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner and to the RCMP.

Two weeks later, on May 31, Grewal handed over recordings to Shapiro and the RCMP. Simultaneously he released an hour and 15 minutes of recordings and transcripts to the public.

Several news outlets almost immediately began pointing to portions of the tape that seemed to be edited, something that Grewal and the Conservatives denied. On June 2, 2005, the Conservatives issued a news release admitting that two short sections had been accidentally omitted. They simultaneously released a new recording that was 15 minutes longer than the one issued on May 31; on June 5 a new transcript was released.

As this was happening, audio experts began identifying clear edits in the May 31 tapes. Whether there are also edits in the June 2 versions remains controversial.

Sometime in mid- to late June, Grewal handed more copies of the recordings over to the RCMP, though he subsequently explained that these were his own personal copies of already existing recordings.

In mid-August, the RCMP announced that there would be no further criminal investigation into the tapes and their contents.

On January 25, 2006, Shapiro released a report that was sharply critical of Grewal. Shapiro stated, "While it is not clear whether Mr. Grewal genuinely sought an inducement to change his vote or whether he just acted the part in an attempt to entrap Mr. Dosanjh, his actions were, in either case, extremely inappropriate."