Lovick tells inquiry he was 'asleep at the switch' at NCHS board meetings

The aboriginal affairs minister said Dave Stupich was seldom questioned because he was an icon to the New Democrats.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Dale Lovick said Monday he was asleep at the switch when it came to watching the financial dealings of the Nanaimo Commonwealth Holdings Society.

Lovick was on the society's board of directors between 1981 and 1984 when charity money was diverted to society investors.

He told an inquiry into the charity-skimming scandal that his eyes glazed over when he attended society board meetings.

"This was a duty I had to go through and I thought we were going through the motions and I thought most of it was horribly boring and didn't really have much relevance to what I was there for," Lovick said in a statement to RCMP in 1997.

"So I apologize in retrospect for that because, as I say, I may well have been asleep at the switch."

The society was set up in the 1950s to finance charitable and social democratic causes.

It raised about $18 million between 1970 and 1997, under the guidance of former cabinet minister and federal MP Dave Stupich.

The inquiry was called to look into how almost $2 million was diverted away from the Nanaimo-area charities it was intended for.

Lovick told the inquiry Stupich shouldn't have gotten away with financial misdealings.

He said that when Stupich was asked about where the money was going, he would simply say the society was operating within legal requirements.

Stupich was given two years' house arrest for his part in the charity scandal. His lawyers argued he should be spared a jail sentence because he has dementia.

Lovick said he never questioned a $150-a-month expense cheque he got from the society.

The money was supposed to be used for out-of-pocket expenses for "furthering socialist education."

But Lovick told the inquiry there's no need for him to pay back the $4,100 he got from the Nanaimo Commonwealth Holding Society because that money wasn't taken from charities.

He said if he believed that money had been inappropriately taken from charities he wouldn't have any hesitation in paying it back.

Lovick said Stupich told him the cheque was standard practice.

"It was rather something that was accepted and we had lived by for many, many years."

Stupich was seldom questioned because he was an icon in the party, Lovick said.

"The presence, the stature, of David D. Stupich were such that he effectively could get away with a report that in retrospect one would surely agree he should not have got away with," Lovick said.

"But he was not questioned, quite frankly, he was not questioned to all intents and purposes."

(article accompanied by photograph of Dave Stupich, captioned:

DAVE STUPICH: Former cabinet minister now under house arrest.)

(article accompanied by photograph of Dale Lovick, captioned:

DALE LOVICK: Aboriginal affairs minister didn't question expense cheque.)

(text of December 14, 1999 Vancouver Sun article)

-I HOPE THAT VISITORS TO MY AWARD-WINNING WEBSITE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST TRYING TO KEEP OPEN MINDS ABOUT WHAT ITS CONTENTS INDICATE ABOUT SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE PUBLIC EYE DURING THE DURATION OF CONTINUATION OF MY "INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC WORK...ON A DIRECT BASIS" FOR THE WORLD'S CHILDREN.
SO HERE IS THIS ACCOUNT OF HOW STUPICH DIVERTED "ALMOST $2 MILLION" FROM THE CHARITY AND LOVICH MADE "$150-A-MONTH" TO A TOTAL OF "$4,100"--THAT HE HAS DECIDED "THERE'S NO NEED FOR HIM TO PAY BACK" BECAUSE THE MAN WHOM HE SAYS "WAS SELDOM QUESTIONED [ABOUT HIS FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT OF THE CHARITY FUNDS] BECAUSE HE WAS AN ICON IN THE PARTY" TOLD HIM THE MONEY HE WAS GIVEN "WAS STANDARD PRACTICE."

THERE IS A STRIKING SIMILARITY BETWEEN THAT AND ANOTHER "ICON" (AT LEAST IN THE MINDS OF HIMSELF AND HIS SUPPORTERS) WHO HAS BEEN GETTING A FREE RIDE ABOUT HOW HE MAKES HIS MONEY--AND HOW HE HAS AFFECTED MY INCOME SINCE 1981.

BUT HEY.
MAKE UP YOUR OWN MINDS.
TAKE YOUR NEXT FOOTSTEP HERE.