Prime Minister Jean Chretien has abandoned his plan to appoint
former Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano ambassador to the Vatican
after the Holy See took the unusual step of rejecting
Gagliano as Canada's representative.
Chretien wanted to give the plum patronage post to Gagliano,
who is serving as Canada's ambassador to Denmark.
Gagliano left cabinet under a cloud of suspicion in January
2002, at the height of a scandal over cronyism and
patronage in his department and was shuttled off to Copenhagen.
The scandal was rekindled yesterday by media reports that Gagliano's
son, Vincenzo, profited from federal business that was given to
the printing company that employed him. This, even though his
father had insisted there was no possible conflict of interest
because his son was not "involved directly or indirectly with
government contracts."
In the House of Commons, Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde
asked Chretien whether he planned to go ahead with Gagliano's
appointment to the Vatican, given the cloud of scandal over
his head. Source.
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