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An interview with
Shelley Ann Clark extracted from the
book NEW WORLD ORDER CORRUPTION IN
CANADA, by Professor Robert O'Driscoll
now out-of-print. Shelley Ann played a
key role in the 1987/88 Free Trade
Negotiations in which Canada's future
was secretly bartered away...
Shelley Ann Clark: I was
hand-picked for the position as Germain
Denis' Assistant. I was told from the
beginning that the interview was just a
formality. How true that turned out to
be! After Germain Denis had interviewed
me only for about 3 ninutes, he asked me
when I could start work. Wanting this
challenge, I agreed to become his
executive assistant.
I was hired in July and by September we
had a computer system called GEAC. This
system had been brought in by one Peter
Hines, today a millionaire, and I
discovered quickly that he and Germain
Denis were very tight. I wondered why?
It certainly wasn't the technical
expertise that bonded them: Germain
Denis was a person who refused to have a
computer in his office. "No," he was
heard to say, "this is far too complex
for my mind. Shelley Ann will have the
one computer installed in my area." Mr.
Denis was not telling the truth, as we
shall discover later.
Germain Denis was, as is indicated
above, in charge of critical apects of
the Free Trade negotiations. At the time
I had two secretaries working for me who
were inputting top secret material into
this computer. We had no hours: when you
entered the building, you never knew
when you would leave.
Late one Friday, actually at 6.30 p.m.,
a rather demanding lady, Sylvia Ostry,
telephoned, demanding a copy of a
particular document that was on the
computer: in two hours, she told us she
was boarding a flight to the United
States, and she needed this particular
document. Unfortunately, I was the only
one left in the office. The secretaries
had gone home. Each person with access
to the computer had a password: nobody
knew the other person's password and
this, I was told, was for security
purposes. What I imediately did was to
check with the person who had installed
the GEAC system - Peter Hines - and
fortunately found him still on the job.
My first question was to ask him whether
anything could be done to accomodate the
urgency of Sylvia Ostry's request. I
said there must be a way to break the
programme codes of the computers and if
anyone would know it would him. "Don't
tell a soul, Shelley Ann," he said, "but
the only way that we can get into the
computer system at Trade Negotiation
Office is to contact the president of
GEAC. He has the "God" password." "The
"God" password? What in heaven's name is
that?" "Well," he answered, "that is
what the president has termed it and he
is the only one that has it." "Are you
telling me that the president of GEAC
has access to all of our information
within our computer system?" "That's
right. He can access Simon Riesman's
computer. He can access everyone's
computer on the seventeenth floor at 50
O'Connor." I felt like saying: "Who the
hell is the president of GEAC ?" But for
the moment I registered the thought
internally, saying: "Can you contact
this guy, Peter, I really need the
document." Suddenly - bingo - I had the
document in my hands.
"And he's in Toronto, Peter - the
president of GEAC?"
"That's right"
"And we're here in Ottawa?"
"That's right!"
"But he can do the commands from
Toronto?"
"That's right."
The implications, I thought, are
enormous. Here we are negotiating this
top secret trade deal between Canada and
the United States - so secret that
secretaries in the same office don't
know each other's password to the
computer - while the President of the
Computer Company registering the
information - has access to that
information. What kind of security is
that? Or are the results of the
negotiations a foregone condusion? More
likely the latter, I thought. Not to
speak of Big Brother, invisible but
watching all the time. Tuning in, no
doubt, from time to time to see if
everything is on track - especially the
Canadians.
The very next morning - I've been a
Foreign Affairs Diplomat all of my life;
I was hand-picked by them right out of
business college when I was sixteen
years old; so my entire life has been
with Foreign Affairs and top-secret
clearance with everything involved when
you have access to that kind of
knowledge, what to watch out for, etc. -
the first thing I did (I was a good
Foreign Services Officer and playing it
according to the book] was that I
immediately went to the head of security
of the Free Trade Division. While
Germain Denis was at this point still
Head of Multilateral Trade, Memoranda to
Cabinet, usually labelled "Secret" or
"Top Secret" and outlining the
negotiating tactics to be used with the
Americans, would be viewed prior to
reaching the Negotiating Table.
So I went to the head of security, Guy
Marcoux, and demanded that he
investigate. Who really owned this GEAC
firm. Was it a Canadian company or was
it American-owned with a Canadian
subsidiary as a front? The head of the
security suggested that I was making a
mountain out of a molehull, that I was
seeing a problem where it didn't exist,
that he would not invesigate.
I immediately went to the
second-in-command, Gordon Ritchie, the
Deputy Chief Negotiator and reported
that the head of security did not want
to proceed with the investigation.
Ritchie ordered that the investigation
take place: the end result was that
"Yes, GEAC was an American Company," and
while the investigation was being
conducted, three representatives of GEAC
requested via the Deputy Chief
Negotiator - Gordon Ritchie - that they
see me in order to convince me that
nothing was wrong with the system. When
Gordon Ritchie came to me I said, "Why
me?". "You were the one who discovered
it - I will even lend you the famous
round table" - where he held all his
important meetings - "in my office to
meet these GEAC representatives." And
sure enough the GEAC representatives
came and talked to me for two solid
hours using all the high-tech language
at their command - language though that
I didn't understand: I did not operate a
computer at the time - I had two
secretaries who did that.
So I sat and I listened and when they
had finished I looked at each one of
them in turn and said: "After everything
you have said, I want one of you to
guarantee me that no one can be across
the street, in another city, or anywhere
else and have access to any of the
documents contained within this
computer. Guarantee me this in writing
and I will be satisfied." I knew they
couldn't because a few days before their
president had provided me with a
top-secret document from the computer.
They had to admit it - "No", they said,
they couldn't guarantee that. And that
was the end of that.
I went back to Gordon Ritchie with that
information and forty-eight hours after
the complaint had been made, the entire
12 million dollar system that had been
installed into the Canada/US Free Trade
Office was removed.
My impression was that Simon Riesman and
Gordon Ritchie were applauding my
efforts. What I couldn't understand at
that time - and which is no longer a
question mark in my mind - was the
reaction of Germain Denis: it was one of
complete and total anger: he lost his
temper, went out of control, was
absolutely enraged. What I am telling
you here is in my report to the Public
Service Alliance of Canada dated 22 July
1988, because it wasn't untiI that
notable day that the reason for the
man's rage became apparent to me, that I
had indeed made a discovery, and that I
had done something about it.
Germain Denis shouted at me: "Who do you
think you are - someone at your level
certainly doesn't handle such issues as
this one - I won't have it." After this
outburst he did not speak to me again
for the next two weeks. Thank goodness
for the co-operation of my colleagues
that kept me briefed during that period
or I would have had an extremely
difficult time in completing the various
tasks that had been assigned to me.
I had, though, the absolute evidence:
without the president of GEAC, Sylvia
Ostry would have had to leave the
country without her document.
Mr. Kealey: Of course, removing
the computer and replacing it with
another does not mean that the problem
was resolved. All it means is that
Shelley Anne Clark couldn't prove any
more that somebody else had access to
the computer.
Shelley Ann Clark: Exactly! A new
computer came in - IBM compatible, I was
told. After my first discovery, they
were very attentive to my reactions,
explaining that the main disc was right
there on the seventeenth floor. They
even showed me where it was and that
everything that we inputted into the
computer would be held on this main disc
which would - at the end of the
negotiations - be transferred to the
archives. So, fine - I took their word
for it.
Then came a leak in the press about
having no Francophone on board the Free
Trade negotiations, so Simon Riesman
appointed Germain Denis as the
third-in-command, giving him the five
major areas of interest to this country:
Subsidies, Agriculture, tariffs,
Intellectual property (the main umbrella
for social programs, copyrights,
pharmaceuticals, etc.), and Government
Procurement.
Obviously Germain Denis couId not do all
of it himself. So he appointed heads for
each sector: Michael Gifford was placed
in charge of agriculture; Germain Denis
held the area of subsidies back for
himself; and the person that he put in
charge of intellecual property and
pharmaceutical was a person who had a
lot of control but whom we all thought
was a wimp at the time.
All of this started in October 1986. In
January 1987, the main negotiators went
ahead to Washington for the first
negotiating session. Each "chief" put
together his working group - a working
group on agriculture, a working group on
tariffs, a working group on subsidies,
etc. Throughout the negotiations, these
groups travelled to Washington and met
with their US counterparts. The first
time Monsieur Denis came back from the
US, it was explained to me that we would
have to start briefing the Provinces. At
the time I thought - rather stupidly -
that the briefing would be done by Alan
Nimark who was in charge of
Federal/Provincial Relations. "No,"
Monsieur Denis said, "No,
Federal/Provincial Relations are exactly
that: PR work, smoke-screens,
smoke-jobs, call it what you will."
"Smoke-screens," I asked? And he said
-"Yes - PR. I'm the one who's going to
be looking after the Premiers and when
they come they'll be needing private
dining rooms. There'll be some official
briefings right here in the TNO board
room, but a lot of the time I'll be
meeting the reps on a one-on-one basis."
It was the Alberta, Manitoba, and
Saskatchewan representatives especially
that he met on the one-on-one basis.
After the first main negotiating session
was planned, I was reeling with the
explanations as to how he would be
handling the particular briefings, and
at ten o'clock went home, thinking it
was the end of the day. I arrived home
at ten-thirty: one hour later Germain
Denis called, telling me to meet him at
TNO, not to go by the Front desk, that
he would be waiting for me in the garage
with a key to the elevator. Security,
therefore, was being avoided; anyone
going in the front door would normally
have to pass through security, sign in
the time, and you would be watched on
the television cameras until you reached
your destination. The way Monsieur Denis
arranged it meant that we were observed
by nobody. It is relevant that the
building is owned by Metropolitan Life -
i.e. under Rockefeller control.
The other thing I was told was that I
must not "tonight or at any time in the
future ever tell your family where you
are going f you do, there will be a
heavy price to pay." Again - because of
my background in Foreign Affairs and
security matters - he didn't have to
repeat himself. I understood perfectly
well that I was in a tight spot. I
didn't know how tight until the
negotiations moved into full swing in
January '87 and he began altering
figures and deleting paragraphs in a
sigmificant way.
I would be called in at night - remember
I was not allowed to tell anyone where I
had gone, and I would often be there
until four in the morning. The first
thing I had to do was to learn how to
operate the computer but was not allowed
to tell anybody because I had a
secretary to do precisely that. I
learned to create a duplicate file from
the main disc in the room on the
seventeenth floor which contained
everything. I was shown how to delete
from the main disc once I had finished.
This proves Denis was no computer
illiterate.
I would arrive and call up the document
that they had negotiated in Washington.
If it was "Subsidies" that they had
worked on, I would call up the
"Subsidies" document, duplicate it, and
rename it "Provincial". Then my superior
would go through it step by step; if
they had negotiated 30% or 40%, the
figure would be brought down - to the
lowest possible figure which was around
10%. This was because he wanted the
manoeuvrability to move them upwards:
the negotiating provinces would have got
rather suspicious if the figures
remained the same: an impression of
negotiation had to be given where, as it
now seems, everything had been decided
on beforehand.
Energy? The paragraphs on energy would
be methodically deleted. The book,
"Faith and Fear", by Professors Doern
and Tomlin, confirms what I have already
disclosed to the media. They say that
the energy chapter was not thrown into
the agreement until the last famous
weekend of 3 October 1987. I know why
the chapter wasn't included until the
very end. It was there all the time: in
the American version, in the Canadian
Federal version but not in the
Provincial version - we kept deleting
the energy chapter from the Provincial
version.
Mr. Kealey: Yes, the Premiers of
all of the provinces, except two, did
not realize that the country was being
given away. Remember what Shelley Ann
stated at the beginning: that there were
private meetings between some Premiers
and Germain Denis. Those were
specifically the Premiers of
Saskatchewan and Alberta, whom Mulroney
had designated "moles" in the group: to
surreptitiously find out what the other
Premiers were thinking, what their
bottom lines in the negotiation would
be, and other sensitive data which could
be manipulated to the Federal
Government's advantage over the
provinces.
This information they would then pass on
to Germain Denis so that he would be
able to put figures in the document that
matched what the Premiers were prepared
to give away. So there never was a
problem of presenting figures that were
too far above what the Premiers were
prepared to accept. If there was, the
solution was quite simple: change the
figures in the document. Mulroney and
his cohorts knew ahead of time because
of the two moles, the Premier of Alberta
and the Premier of Saskatchewan.
Shelley Ann Clark: That's right.
I was able to prove to CJOH beyond a
shadow of a doubt that these meetings
took place. I had locked away my
appointment book for'86 and '87, and
when it was produced every meeting that
took place was marked, the rooms that
were used, the times, etc. I brought a
witness with me - John Bowlby, an
executive member of Citizens Against Bad
Law. We photocopied the documentation in
front of a lawyer. It was submitted to
Charlie Greenwell of CJOH TV, so that he
and his lawyers knew that when they
aired the programme there was sufficient
evidence - between the July 1988 Public
Service Alliance document and this
appointment book - to indicate that I
was telling the truth.
May I return to the second "doctored"
document produced for the provincess,
following Germain Denis's directives I
would produce a hard copy, make the
specified deletions from my hard drive
in addition to making those on the hard
disc in the main room at 50 O'Connor.
This done, I would then create ten
copies for ten briefing books. The ten
briefing books were numbered because I
had to be sure in whose hands each book
went just in case one would go astray.
So they were numbered one to ten;
Alberta would have #1, Manitoba #2,
Saskatchewan #3, etc. No matter what
pressure was put on me by the Prime
Minister's Office, by the Privy Council
Office, by Federal Provincial Relations
- and I was warned that there would be
excessive pressure and complaints by the
Premiers for not getting their books
several hours ahead of the briefings - I
was ordered to give out the books
literally minutes before the briefings
took place. At the end of the session,
Germain Denis would bring back the books
himself or, if he didn't, I would be
called in and the minute they left the
room I would go and collect them, bring
them back, and lock them in Monsieur
Denis's vault.
Then at midnight I would undo nine of
the briefing books and shred them in the
shredder. It had to be done at midnight:
you couldn't afford to be caught by
security and we had been ordered under a
special memorandum emanating from the
Minister's Office that no documents used
in the Canada/US negotiation were to be
destroyed without the authorization of
Riesman or Ritchie. It took that level
of authorization to shred anything: we
were allowed to shred Telex Packs that
came in from Foreign Affairs but any
negotiating document could not be
touched. The only time I could shred
these was between the hours of midnight
and 3 am. I would shred nine books,
holding one complete set back which I
would put in the vault so the next time
they negotiated on that particular
subject with the Americans we would pull
out that one set and Monsieur Denis
would know how far he had proceeded. If
he had negotiated 10%, the next time it
would show up as 12% and so on and so
on.
The next development was that Maude
Barlow and John Turner started making
accusations against Mulroney: that he
was selling out the country, that our
social security programs were in
jeopardy etc. etc. Working directly on
the Social Security programs and some of
the other issues - as I was - I knew
these individuals were telling the
truth. The more I realized the
illegality of what I was doing the more
frightened I became: what this meant for
the country and how it would be held
over my head as a sort of blackmail
control - completely, forever and ever
and ever.
My first thought, therefore, was to
escape the office, to give up doing what
I was doing. I started by asking the
Foreign Ministry to transfer me: they
wouldn't. Not only that: they wouldn't
touch me with a ten-foot pole: "You have
to stay there", they said. "Why?", I
said."This is Foreign Affairs, after
all: to rotate is a normal part of
existence here. I've rotated all my
life. Why can't you rotate me now?" "No
we can't touch you."
Another position opened up with the
Trade Negotiations Office as the head of
Protocol and Hospitality, an interesting
position which I was more than qualified
to deal with. Richard Levy, Head of
Operations at the TNO, agreed: "Shelley
Ann," he said, "you would be great for
the position. Go ahead, speak to the
Director General of Operations. If he'll
give it to you - you've got it." I met
with the Director General of Operations
and he, being an honest guy, looked at
me: "Shelley Ann, are you out of your
mind? Germain Denis will never let you
go. It would only be over his dead body
that it would be possible for me to
remove you from your present position."
ROD: But why?
Shelley Ann Clark: The secrets
involved. Remember that Germain Denis,
the Prime Minister and I were about the
only ones who knew the intricacies and
the implications of the free trade deal
for Canada at that point. I was
vulnerable. The more midnight meetings
that were forced the more my marriage
was completely falling apart. I was
becoming vulnerable, a single parent,
needing the job, scared to death and as
mad as all hell.
So I created a fuss. The honest guy who
told me he wouldn't be able to remove me
from my position except over Germain
Denis's dead body was immediately posted
to Rome. It told certain people he had
said too much. Remember that Germain
Denis knew I was seeking to remove
myself. Everyone had been told not to
facilitate this move. Whenever I would
go to my Personnel Officer who gave out
assignments, I would arrive in that
office; within five minutes the phone
would ring, Germain Denis would be at
the other end of the line. My Personnel
Officer would say,"It's Germain. You
have to talk to him." And he would beg
me and order me to return to TNO
immediately. The Personel Officer had
never seen anyone of his level beg
anyone or order someone back.
ROD: Do you have any piece of
evidence we can print?
Mr. Kealey: What you have to
consider here is: had she taken any
document that was part of their
documentation she would be in prison.
That would have been a federal crime -
removing secret documents - and so she
would have been no further ahead if she
actually took documents. What she did
however was to file a formal complaint
with her union. She has the complaint
and their covering letter that tells her
to destroy the complaint. She is the eye
witness - the smoking gun is the Real
Free Trade Deal the one buried in
canisters outside Ottawa that Canadians
have never seen. What we have to do as a
people is to apply pressure upon our
so-called independent politicians to see
what those canisters contain.
ROD: But can this evidence ever
come out ? If, for example, we put it in
this book we are preparing, with other
evidence pointing to the same
proposition, will it ever get more than
a very limited circulation ?
Mr. Kealey: We have an example
right here. Shelley Ann gave her story
to one weekly paper. They've written the
story in much detail and already people
are coming to them saying, "I also
worked in that area. I have seen the
documentation being transferred from one
place to another. I can vouch for what
she's saying." The more that is
published, the more hands it gets into,
the more chance you will have of it
circulating. By publishing, by
circulating the material you remove fear
- you take away that fear and more
people will come forward.
Shelley Ann Clark: On 6 January
[1994] I was on a talk show that crossed
all of Alberta. I stated quite bluntly
that what we are dealing with here is
treason. The reaction has been
extraordinary. I sincerely believe that
the book you are preparing on NEW WORLD
ORDER: CORRUPTION IN CANADA should be
published as soon as possible: that is
the way we can reach more Canadians.
Mr. Kealey: They may have their
implementation schedule and have set
dates by which certain phases of the
deal had to be completed, but it is a
fraudulent contract and a fraudulent
contract does not have legal validity
once it has been proven it's a fraud.
Whatever dates, therefore, that have
been arbitrarily set, are not ultimately
important.
Shelley Ann Clark: I have been
wanting to cross Canada, to tell
Canadians what I know, and try to get
them to do something about this. A
hundred or two hundred letters are not
enough. What is needed are massive
demonstrations, hundreds of thousands of
letters. Once they realize on Parliament
Hill that the entire country knows then
they will have to do something.
I thought in the last election that I
could do something with the backing of
the National Party, that a person like
Mel Hurtig would make maximum use of
someone like myself. I have the
information first-hand: I did the
fraudulent act under orders. What did
Mel Hurtig and the National Party do?
Nothing! I was provided with $1,000 for
my fee, but nothing for advertising or
all the other considerable expenses that
are necessary in order to get your
points across to the voters. I went into
my riding to be asked: "Why, with what
you have to tell, can you not get any
backing? Why aren't you on those
billboards all over the place?"
Mr. Kealey: We already know why,
because after the election we received
some documentation and I've been in
touch with a number of National Party
candidates. I found out. I got the
evidence that the National Party
manipulated certain ridings to keep
their candidates from winning. If they
didn't have much of a chance they were
given four or five thousand dollars. If
they had a chance of winning they were
limited to one thousand dollars.
The documentation we now have is that in
1972 Mel Hurtig was a candidate for the
Liberals. He had also been in
association with the Canadian Institute
for International Affairs [NOTE:
Canada's "twin" to the CFR in the
States]. He was on a programme following
recommendations of the Bilderberger
meetings that had been held both in the
Laurentians and in Vermont. When you
link Mel Hurtig directly with the New
World Order Gang, you arrive very
quickly at the reason why he was where
he was during the recent election. He
was delivering the Canadian West to the
same group that Mulroney and his Gang
had given away the rest of the country
to.
Then you have Bill Loewen. We have
evidence that Bill Loewen, who owned a
company called Comcheq, sold his company
to the Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce For $16O million just a year
before the election. I would be prepared
to bet that Bill Loewen sold his company
for $150 million and got $10 million
from the Bankers to set up a political
party with one purpose - to remove the
free trade dissent from the NDP party in
the West so that the Liberals would be
able to squeak through.
This is exactly what happened all across
the West and why today the Liberals have
a majority. It's because of the amount
in votes taken away from the NDP by the
National Party which allowed the
Liberals to squeeze by.
I know Bill Loewen personally because he
paid my rent for six months. He stopped
paying when he asked me to join his
political party. He acted just like a
banker: when you do the things he wants
you to do he will support you; otherwise
he won't.
I have, as I said, spoken to a number of
National Party candidates and there is
general consensus out there that they
were manipulated in a way as to prevent
them from being successful.
What are we left with? With Brian
Mulroney equipped with the cash he stole
from Canadians during his years in
office, he was able to buy the entire
1993 election. Here in my view is how he
went about doing it:
1.He introduced Lucien Bouchard to
Quebecers and made him into a separatist
hero by faking a public fight with him
over Quebec's role in Canada. Bouchard
eventually became the most loved
politician in Quebec and led his Bloc
Quebequois, with Mulroney's financial
support, to victory in Quebec. The Bloc
even became the Official Opposition in
the Canadian Parliament following the
1993 elections.
2.He used his considerable influence and
money to convince all the Tory "big
guns" to drop out of the 1993 election.
This guaranteed the Liberals (TEAM 2)
under Mitchell Sharp (the banker's man
in Ottawa) and Jean Chretien (a Charlie
McCarthy dummy like Ronald Reagan) a
really good shot at majority government.
3.He collaborated with Conrad Black's
plan to finance the Reform Party in
Ontario (while limiting its chances and
influence there) by allowing Preston
Manning (a leader with links to the CIA
in 1967-68) to address the Canadian Club
and others on the condition they warn
Quebecers to act just like the other
provinces or "go away". This message was
a total reversal of Alberta's position
during the 1981 referendum on separation
in Quebec when Quebecers were told they
were loved and wanted).
4.He collaborated with bankers (CIBC) in
order to finance Bill Loewen's creation
of the new National Party. This new
political party, with Mel Hurtig its
leader (a 1968-72 former member of the
elite Canadian Institute for
International Affairs), would mislead
200,000 anti-free trade Canadians away
from the NDP thereby allowing the
Liberals and Refonmers to win many key
NDP ridings.
5.He destroyed Kim Campbell, the new
Tory leader, by using the controlled
Media to, at first, build her to heights
of popularity she could not be expected
to maintain, and then, along with his
sleazy team of Montreal Tories, he
produced the famous anti-Chretien TV
spots to destroy whatever credibility
she had left. The end result was that
only two Tories were elected, and the
most hated politician in French Canada
led the only political party with
members from coast-to-coast to majority
government in Canada.
6.Once Quebec separates from Canada he
will be in position to fund the
construction of Simon Riesman's Grand
Canal project ($10O-200 billion dollars)
and other northern water diversion
projects. He will own, control and move
fresh water for a price, down into the
USA and Mexico.
So what we have here is a plan for the
break-up of Canada put together by
Mulroney and the Bankers: The first step
is to get Quebec to separate; the second
to integrate the rest of Canada into the
US; the third to get the natives of
Northern Quebec to revolt; the fourth to
send in the Military from Fort Drum with
blue berets; and the fifth to build the
Grand Canal.
Shelley Ann Clark: Some of this I
have seen confirmed in documents. In
March'88 a Memo was circulated around
the Free Trade office ordering that all
documents used in the negotiating
sessions be given to this particular
person who was going to catalogue them
for the archives. Within an hour of
receiving that memorandum, Germain
Denise brought me into his office, told
me to shut the door, to sit down and pay
very close attention to what he was
going to say: if I deviated in any way
he declared he would destroy me within
the Government service within Ottawa -
everywhere!
MC: Do you not feel you are in a
rather tenuous position?
Shelley Ann Clark: My life is
apparently in danger at all times. If I
were in the United States now, everyone
believes I would be dead [It so happened
that Marcel Masse and Stephen Lewis
tried to get her transferred to New
York]. But you have to understand that
we're not part of the United States yet,
that we still live in the blessed
country of Canada. Apart from Mulroney,
Germain Denis, and Gerald Shannon (at
the time the Deputy Minister in
International Trade), I do not know who
else knew, but I do know now that behind
the scenes things are happening, that
people do want me disclose what I know.
That might actually include the RCMP, or
maybe even CSIS - I am not sure.
Messages have been sent to me that I do
not understand: that the safest thing
that I could do was to disclose.
MC: Maybe you are being set up to
be some sort of sacrificial lamb.
Shelley Ann: Maybe. By August or
September of last year I gave up fear. I
had lived in fear for six years, more
than fear - absolute horror: I feared
for my children, I feared for myself. It
reached a point where I preferred to be
dead rather than livinq. Mere existence
reaches a point where you can't see how
you can go on. I mean, if you are going
to be killed, you are inclined at a
certain point to say, "Do it now. I am
not going to worry about it." It took me
six years to reach that point. And then
I began to think to myself that we have
a duty to the people who brought us into
the world, to the people we will leave
behind, and to the land that has
remained constant. I made a decision not
to be frightened any nore, and suddenly
I had no fear. I decided to let the
world around me know what I know.
George Kralik: You passed the fear
barrier?
Shelley Ann: I went through the
fear barrier. Now I am back with the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a very
high profile position, where if anything
happens to me with the way I am known
across this country now, can I be so
bold as to say that revolutions would
break out - I mean there is a limit.
Mr. Kealey: By putting Shelley
Ann back in position, the liberals are
now saying, "We had nothing to do with
it."
Shelley Ann: Within a month of
being elected, the Liberals were
attempting to rectify my situation. I
met a Reform Party MP on the Hill and
realized that I had to do this because I
had promised Canadians that I would do
this.
The full story may never be told. When
we got the Memo to send all material
relating to the negotiations to the
archives Germain Denis ordered me to
remove all the negotiating documents
from his vault to the trunk of his car.
He handed me his car keys. I was told to
remove them at two-hour intervals and if
I found the speed too slow to increase
it up to one-hour intervals, but not to
get caught or to say anything. "When
they come around to you, Shelley Ann,
and ask you to give up the documents for
the Archivist..." "Yes, what happens
when I have nothing to give her?" "You
say, Sorry, we started to shut down
before the memo came around. Monsieur
Denis ordered me to shred everything."
These were my orders and sure enough it
took me from about 10:30 in the morning
till about 6:30 at night. I removed a
total of seven big xerox boxes to that
official's trunk. On the first trip I
ran into Simon Riesman's chauffeur who
happens to be a gentleman. He asked what
I was doing - whether I had found
another job, or was moving out of the
office. In any case, he asked to carry
my box. I refused. He insisted, and when
he took the box, he said "What the hell
do you have in here?" I replied. "Seven
major proof readers have been assigned
to read the final text as it was going
to legal text. I am one of the seven,
and that I am bringing home the full
selection of Random House dictionaries
with me." I had to make up that story,
but, of course, I was going to Germain
Denis' car. What do you do when you have
Ambassador Reisman's chauffeur carrying
the boxes to the wrong car? We reached
my car: I just slapped myself on the
forehead and said: "Oh God, Phil, stupid
me, I'm so exhausted and run down that I
have come all the way down here and I've
forgotten my car keys. I can't put the
box in my car." What else could I have
said?
I then realized that I would have to
make up a line in order to get rid of
Phil. That is when I told him that Simon
Reisman was probably looking for him at
that very moment since I had overhearsd
Simon's Executive Assistant say that
Ambassador Reisman had an appointment
with the Prime Minister that very
morning. Phil, being the gentleman that
he still is, insisted that he remain at
my car with the box while I went to get
my car keys - this is when I told Phil
to put the box under the front of the
car that was up against the back wall -
there it would not be seen and would be
safe from theft. Finally, he left. I
proceeded with the illicit deed.
What else do I say now? That truth has
an indirect but steady course; sooner or
later, like a mountain spring, it shakes
itself free from its underground
imprisonment and runs down the hillside.
A few minutes ago someone was talking to
me about conspiracy theories. Theory?
This is fact. I was there.
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