Jean Carle (born July 16, 1962)
[''Canadian Who's Who 2000'', edited by Elizabeth Lumley, Volume XXXV, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000 page 207.] is a Canadian former civil servant, business executive and
Liberal Party operative noted for his close relationship with former Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003.
Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...
. Carle was described by ''
Maclean's
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian perspe ...
'' in 1998 as being so close to Chrétien as to be almost a member of the Chrétien family.
Carle was born in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, the son of Robert and Gervaise (née Loignon) and was educated successively at
Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf
, motto_translation = I chose the path of truth
, established =
, type = Private secondary school and Collegiate
, religious_affiliation = Non-denominational, formerly Jesuit
, endowment =
, dean ...
,
Collège André-Grasset
Collège André-Grasset is a private college in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located near the Quebec Autoroute 40 and the Crémazie metro station.
The college was founded in 1927 by the priests of Saint-Sulpice Seminary (Montreal)
The Sa ...
and the
Université de Montréal
The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-de ...
.
He served one of the vice-presidents of the Liberal Party in 1983-84, as president of the Quebec wing of the Young Liberals in 1984-85 and as an aide to Chrétien between 1984-1986.
In 1984, Carle had supported
John Turner against Chrétien, but when Chrétien asked him at a meeting why he had supported an Anglo against a fellow Québécois, leading a guilt-stricken Carle to defect over to the Chrétien camp.
[Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 page 199] Chrétien soon grew fond of Carle, and hired him on as an assistant.
On February 27, 1986, Carle attended the meeting between Chrétien and
John Turner when Chrétien resigned, leading Carle to break down in tears.
Starting in 1986, Carle worked as a public affairs consultant with MediaProfile, and served as the public affairs director for BCP Advertising between 1987-89.
When he was short of money in the 1980s, Chrétien allowed him to live rent-free in his basement at his Ottawa house. On 7 October 1989, he married Marie Elizabeth Thorne and has two children.
Starting in 1990, Carle resumed his career as Chrétien's special executive assistant following his patron's return to politics when he became leader of the Liberal Party.
Carle was so close to Chrétien that he was widely seen within the Liberal Party as Chrétien's "surrogate son". When Chrétien became prime minister, he appointed Carle to be his director of operations at the
Prime Minister's Office, a post that Carle held until he retired from the PMO in February 1998.
As the director of operations at the PMO Carle was described as very efficient to the point that one Liberal complained that Carle gave the impression that he was working in a dictatorship rather than a democracy.
In 1997, Carle was named Commander of the
Victorian Order by
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
.
During his time at the PMO, Carle was responsible for organizing the security for the November 1997
APEC
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. summit in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
that saw the
RCMP
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...
crush demonstrators protesting against human rights abuses in China and Indonesia.
On 7 August 2001, a report was issued by Judge
Ted Hughes
Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...
, which cleared Chrétien of wrongdoing at the APEC summit, but stated that Carle had improperly pressured the RCMP to attack the protesters.
[Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 page 328.] Judge Hughes accused Carle of "throwing his weight around" and attempting to interfere with security arrangements. Hughes concluded that the RCMP had used excessive force that was in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as the purpose of the RCMP actions were to silence the protesters, thereby violating the freedom of speech guaranteed by the Charter.
After leaving the PMO in 1998, Carle took up a post as vice-president responsible for corporate affairs at the
Business Development Bank of Canada
The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC; french: Banque de développement du Canada) is a Crown corporation and national development bank wholly owned by the Government of Canada, mandated to help create and develop Canadian businesses thro ...
(BDBC).
Patrick Lavelle, the chairman of the Business Development Bank, tried to block his appointment on the grounds that he was unsuitable for the post, but after a meeting with Carle's patron Chrétien, felt he had "no choice", but to accept Carle. Carle played a role in the
Sponsorship scandal. Carle admitted to the
Gomery Commission
The sponsorship scandal, AdScam or Sponsorgate, was a scandal in Canada that came as a result of a federal government " sponsorship program" in the province of Quebec involving the Liberal Party of Canada, which was in power from 1993 to 2006.
...
in 2005 that he had created a $125, 000 phoney paper trail to hide a sponsorship deal while at the BDBC. Carle transferred money from the Public Works Department through the BDBC to a Montreal TV producer so that the public would not learn the federal government had spent $125,000 dollars on the TV series ''Le Canada Millennaire''.
When Justice
John Gomery
John Howard Gomery (August 9, 1932 – May 18, 2021) was a Canadian jurist from Quebec. He was a Justice of the Quebec Superior Court from 1982–2007, and appointed Commissioner for the Royal Commission investigating the Sponsorship scandal in ...
asked Carle that "If this were a drug deal, it would be called money-laundering", to which Carle replied "You're not wrong".
Carle argued that his actions were justified because: "I felt it was a benefit for the bank to get an extra $125,000 in advertising without having to pay its own money, I did not do this in bad faith. We were kind of a transmission belt."
In September 2001, Carle became chief of operations at the
Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, which received a doubling of federal sponsorship money by the Public Works ministry headed by
Alfonso Gagliano
Alfonso Gagliano (; 25 January 1942 – 12 December 2020) was a Canadian accountant and politician.
Early life and family
Born in Siculiana, Italy, Gagliano immigrated to Montreal in 1958. His political career began in 1977 when he ran for a s ...
, and then what the journalist
Lawrence Martin called a highly unusual retroactive grant of $100,000.
In April 2002, Carle left his post at the Just for Laughs festival for "personal reasons".
Besides attracting controversy for his role in the sponsorship scandal, Carle was also involved in the
Grand-Mère Affair. Carle was involved in the firing of François Beaudoin, president of the BDBC, in 1999 after he attempted to call in the loan to the Grand-Mère Inn.
Beaudoin sued for wrongful dismissal following his sacking. In February 2004, Beaudoin won his wrongful dismissal suit against the Business Development Bank of Canada.
Justice Andre Denis ruled in favor of Beaudoin's claim that he was fired for political reasons in 1999 for trying to call in the loan on the Grand-Mère Inn, ruled that Carle was guilty of making false criminal and civil charges of wrongdoing against Beaudoin to discredit him for suing the bank, accused Carle of committing perjury during the trial and declared given the "unspeakable injustice" Beaudoin had suffered, told the government not to appeal his ruling because they would be wasting taxpayers' money if they did.
In March 2004, Carle was named as someone involved in the sponsorship scandal.
Charles Guité
J. Charles (Chuck) Guité (born 1943 or 1944 in Dugas, Quebec, on the Gaspé peninsula), raised in Campbellton, New Brunswick, is a former Canadian civil servant, appointed by Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative government. He held hi ...
claimed in 2004 that he regularly met with Carle when the latter was chief of operations at the PMO together with
Jean Pelletier, Chrétien's chief of staff, to discuss what events to spend sponsorship money on, and how much. During the Gomery commission hearings in 2005,
Lucienne Robillard testified that she was very surprised that Carle had been put in charge of Treasury Board policies on communication, public opinion polls and advertising, saying such a job was not normally performed by "political staff" from the PMO such as Carle. In his report on responsibility for the sponsorship scandal, Justice Gomery ruled that Guité's claim that he received his instructions from Pelletier and Carle was indeed the truth, and Carle in 1995 had helped Jean Brault of
Groupaction
Groupaction Inc. is a Canadian advertising agency at the centre of the 2004 Canadian sponsorship scandal. It was incorporated in 1983 as Groupaction Marketing Inc. and received its first federal advertising contract in 1994 with the Canadian Rad ...
advertising firm get in touch with Guité. During the 2008 election,
Stéphane Dion told the media that Carle had some sort of role with the Liberal campaign, through he himself was not entirely sure what it was, only to have that statement denied later the same day by one of his aides, Nancy Girard.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carle, Jean
1962 births
Living people
French Quebecers
Canadian people of French descent
Canadian corporate directors
People from Montreal
Université de Montréal alumni
Jean Chrétien
Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order
20th-century Canadian civil servants