Investigative journalist Stevie Cameron denies that she was an informant for the RCMP in the Airbus affair.
Cameron told a Commons committee today that she only ever provided publicly available information to the Mounties as she tried to get details from the force.
She said she spoke with the RCMP up to six times in 1995, and that other journalists were also interviewed.
Cameron has said she only learned in 2003 that the Mounties had considered her a "confidential informant.''
And this from the globeandmail.com story:
Stevie Cameron
Ms. Cameron said she could offer MPs little more that what is already on the public record in her books The Last Amigo, Blue Trust and On the Take. She said she believes to this day that there was political interference in the sale of 34 Airbus jets to then Crown-owned Air Canada, although she said she knew of no sitting politician who received money from secret commissions associated with the sale.
She said her knowledge of Mr. Mulroney's relationship with Mr. Schreiber goes up to 2001, when she and CBC producer Harvey Cashore tracked $300,000 that was withdrawn from the “Britain”* account. The account had been set up by Mr. Schreiber for Mr. Mulroney.
* I believe that should be 'Britan'
In 2003, Ms. Cameron learned that the RCMP had considered her a “confidential informant” for providing the force with published materials during its 1995 investigation of Mr. Mulroney, Mr. Schreiber and the Airbus sale.
It was that 1995 RCMP investigation which resulted in Mulroney's libel suit and eventual $2.1-million settlement from the government of Canada.
Ms. Cameron told MPs Thursday she met with the RCMP fewer than six times and only provided investigators with clippings and information that had already been published.
Ms. Cameron also provided the committee with notes from her 1993 interview with former Mulroney chef François Martin. In her book On The Take, Mr. Martin claimed that he was regularly asked to carry envelopes of cash from the PMO to Mr. Mulroney's wife, Mila, at 24 Sussex. But Mr. Martin refuted those claims at his appearance before the committee last week.
In response, Ms. Cameron tabled notes and summaries that back up her version of the interview.
She also posted notes of the interview on her blog. Here's a Feb. 7 post she made on Francois Martin.
In 2005, she had a blog post about Airbus, the Mounties and her, but it's since been deleted. Other stuff from her website about the Airbus-Mounties affair has also apparently been deleted.