The Gomery Report

Retired Quebec judge John Gomery, who became a national household name after heading a commission in 2005 that looked into the federal Liberal Party's sponsorship scandal, was unapologetic about his findings on former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in an interview with The Chronicle Wednesday night.

"I didn't consider that I was biased or had pre-judged any of the issues. And the parties who were concerned allowed me to continue and to complete my work, and to finish my report," Gomery, who was in Pointe Claire as a guest speaker of the city's library, said.

Last year, a Canadian Federal Court agreed with Chrétien and his former chief of staff Jean Pelletier in finding that Gomery may have made statements during the commission that suggested he was biased against them before the commission publicized its findings.

"Both of those decisions (regarding Chrétien and Pelletier) have been taken to appeal and haven't been yet taken by the Federal Court of Appeal," said Gomery.

However, though he disagreed he was biased, he did concede being too close to the media during the commission's hearings.

"I gave interviews to three journalists during the Christmas break, and I said things that I should not have said during those interviews," Gomery stated. "I was much too careless in my statements, and I publicly apologized."

He refused to comment on current court pressures on Globe and Mail reporter Daniel Leblanc. Leblanc, who broke the story that would eventually become the sponsorship scandal thanks in part to an anonymous source, is now being encouraged to reveal the latter's name or clues to their identity in Quebec Superior Court, but has not done so thus far. "I'm not going to comment on that because it's a matter that's before the courts," Gomery said. "I have views on that," he added, "which I will not state publicly."

During his speech to the public, Gomery did not speak much about the sponsorship scandal or his commission, instead focusing on his career as a judge as well as his ties to Pointe Claire.

"I had a girlfriend who used to live in Pointe Claire," he recalled of his teenage years.

He explained that since the public school system in the West Island at the time used to end in the 8th grade, many West Islanders would later begin to take the train to go further into town and complete their high school education at Montreal West High School, where Gomery was a student. That was how he met his girlfriend. "It was fresh blood," he said with a smile of the new arrivals to Montreal West, eliciting laughter from the audience.

However, he said, he always had to make sure to have his girlfriend back at the train station by 11 p.m. to catch the last train back home. "You couldn't have much of a party," he said.

Gomery was first tapped to be a judge whilst working as a lawyer for Fasken Martineau, a downtown law firm, by a friend with ties to the Liberal Party. "You have some of the qualities that they are looking for," Gomery recalled his friend telling him.

Though it would mean making less money than a lawyer, Gomery ultimately decided to take the job when he passed a successful interview process. He said he had grown tired of being shoe-horned as a family and bankruptcy lawyer. "The practice of law is a commercial operation," he said about one of his other reasons for wanting to change professions, adding the process of constantly tallying every minute of work for bills was tiring.

Some who came to see Gomery at Pointe Claire's council room were old high school friends. "All three of us people dated girls from the West Island," recalled Don Rogers, who used to play opposite Gomery in a rival football team.

However, he said they had never actually dared to tackle the former lineman. "He was a big guy," Rogers said.

Another friend, David Hart, said Gomery seemed the same as he always did. "He hasn't changed at all," he said. "John always did his homework."