A former Olympic athlete says she was pushed out of her job at Via Rail after she raised concerns about exorbitant costs of advertising work done by Groupaction Marketing Inc. — a company at the centre of an investigation into the sponsorship scandal.
Myriam Bédard, who was an Olympic biathlete, says she was asked to leave her job in the marketing department at Via in January, 2002, after she asked questions about why Groupaction was charging thousands of dollars for jobs that other advertising agencies would have billed a few hundred.
"For example, if they (Groupaction) were asked to remove a logo from an ad and reprint it, they billed us (Via) $4,000 when other firms would have only charged $200 or $300," Ms. Bédard told Montreal's LaPresse Thursday.
"I started to ask questions," she said in an interview with reporters on Friday. "It's mostly the amount of work that was paid compared to the work that was done...[I have] many, many examples. I don't want to explain because if I start I'm going to explain a couple of days," Ms. Bédard told reporters Friday.
Treasury Board President Reg Alcock responds to questions concerning the sponsorship scandal during Question Period Friday. (Tom Hanson/CP)
Internet Links
Via Rail chairman Jean Pelletier denounced her claims, telling LaPresse that she was "feeling the tension of being a single mother who has financial responsibilities." He called Ms. Bédard's move a call for "pity" from a "poor, single woman."
When asked about those comments, Ms. Bédard said: "I feel this is a very low level of speaking and I don't expect that of someone who is the president of a company.. [would] talk against women who are [single parents]."
Hours later Mr. Pelletier issued a statement of regret, admitting that his choice of words was inappropriate and offering an apology to Ms. Bédard.
"[I] want to apologize sincerely to Ms. Bédard for any embarrassment or hurt I may have caused her," the statement read in part. Ms. Bédard said she was hired in January, 2001, to work in Via's marketing department. She told La Presse her relationship with the company began to deteriorate in November, 2001, after she spent two months performing advertising work for Via at Groupaction's offices. She said Groupaction announced on Nov. 26 that she had been hired as an intern to work in their offices on behalf of Via Rail.Finally, on Jan. 11, 2002, Ms. Bédard said she received a call from Via Rail president Marc Lefrançois asking her to leave Via or she would be forced to work for Groupaction. She quit working for Via soon after.
But late Friday, Via refuted her account of the events.
"It is not correct that Ms. Bédard was asked to leave Via. Ms. Bédard was hired by Via's marketing department in January 2001, but it soon became clear that the working relationship did not suit her needs and she resigned voluntarily from the corporation to pursue a career as an independent consultant on January 18, 2002," the company said.
Ms. Bédard said she went public with the matter on principle.
"I have nothing against Via Rail. For me it's just a matter of principle. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time and you lose your job because of that, this is not correct."
(Mr. Lefrançois was one of three Crown corporation presidents suspended in connection with the sponsorship scandal earlier this week.) He told La Presse that Ms. Bédard's allegations were not true.
The former Olympian said she took Prime Minister Paul Martin's comments about the sponsorship scandal earlier this month seriously — that if anyone had any information on wrongdoing, they should come forward.
She recently wrote a letter to Mr. Martin to ask that her job be reinstated.
Opposition parties in the House of Commons took up her cause during Question Period Friday as they picked away at the government's handling of the sponsorship scandal.
They demanded that Ms. Bédard get her job back.
"This is outrageous behaviour. How can the government permit the reputation of an Olympic gold medallist to be sullied by this sponsorship scandal?" Conservative Party of Canada MP Peter MacKay said.
Industry Minister Lucienne Robillard said that Mr. Martin has received the letter from Ms. Bédard and has referred it to the Transport Minister Tony Valeri and the Treasury Board President Reg Alcock.
"We intend to look seriously at the allegations made in this letter and actions will be taken as appropriate."
Ms. Robillard said that the government would look into the allegations and if the comments were made, "we are of the view that such comments, such remarks are completely inappropriate."
Montreal's La Presse, quoting a source in Mr. Martin's office, said government lawyers had been informed of Ms. Bédard's allegations and planned to meet with her to gather more details.
The Liberals are trying to turn the focus away from the sponsorship scandal and toward other items on the agenda such as health care and improving the situation for municipalities in Canada.
However, they scandal has dominated Question Period and newspaper articles ever since an Auditor-General's report earlier this month said that the money was being funnelled to Liberal friendly advertising agencies by the federal sponsorship program, often for little or no work.
With reports from Canadian Press
