OTTAWA - Brian Mulroney will endure one last humiliation on Monday in the tawdry tale of his dealings with shady German-Canadian arms lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber.

But the former prime minister won't waste any time trying to rehabilitate his tarnished reputation following release of the Oliphant inquiry's final report into the seamy saga of cash-stuffed envelopes surreptitiously exchanged in hotel rooms.

Within hours, he'll be making a show of putting it all behind him at a sold-out Toronto fundraising event, basking in company considerably more respectable than that of Schreiber, who was recently convicted of tax evasion and now faces eight years in a German prison.

Mulroney is to moderate a panel discussion Monday evening on freedom of speech featuring Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel and internationally acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie.

The fortuitously timed event is sponsored by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a non-profit group dedicated to fostering tolerance.

But while Justice Jeffrey Oliphant's report may provide some long-sought closure for Mulroney, it's not likely to provide much satisfaction for long-suffering taxpayers who've shelled out $14.1 million for the commission of inquiry and another $1.8 million to cover the former prime minister's resulting legal fees.

Oliphant is precluded by the terms of reference crafted by the Harper government from making any findings of criminal or civil liability.

He's specifically barred from revisiting allegations that Mulroney and Schreiber were involved in a kickback scheme at the time of Air Canada's $1.8-billion purchase of Airbus jets in 1988.

Nor can he revisit the $2.1 million libel settlement Mulroney won from the federal government in 1997 as a result of the RCMP's Airbus investigation -- all the while insisting he barely knew Schreiber.

Rather, Oliphant's two-year inquiry was limited to 17 questions surrounding Mulroney's involvement in the so-called Bear Head project, which would have seen German firm Thyssen AG set up a plant in Canada to build and export armoured military vehicles.

The questions included:

  • What were the business dealings between Mulroney and Schreiber?
  • Was Mulroney still prime minister when he agreed to do work for Schreiber?
  • What payments were made and what was the source of those funds?
  • What services, if any, were rendered?

Contradictory testimony will make it difficult for Oliphant to give definitive answers to many of those questions in his report, which is expected to come in at some 850 pages.

Mulroney admits that shortly after leaving office in 1993-94, he accepted $225,000 in cash from Schreiber to promote the project in foreign countries. He says he considered the money a retainer and didn't declare it for tax purposes until 1999 and, even then, only paid tax on half the amount.

Schreiber maintains he gave Mulroney $300,000, that the deal was struck while Mulroney was still prime minister and that Mulroney was supposed to lobby the Canadian government -- which would have run afoul of federal ethics rules.

A forensic accounting investigation conducted for Oliphant found that commissions Schreiber earned as a middle-man in the Airbus deal were probably put into a Swiss bank account. Schreiber maintains he later drew on that account to pay Mulroney.

But without a paper trail, the investigation couldn't make a definitive link between the Airbus account and Mulroney.

Lawyer William Kaplan, who wrote two books on the Mulroney-Schreiber affair and first revealed the payments, doubts Oliphant will attempt to deduce the truth from the conflicting versions of events from the two principal players --neither of whom Kaplan found credible.

At best, he expects Oliphant to chide Mulroney for failing to uphold the ethical standards expected of high public office holders. Given that Mulroney himself has admitted accepting cash from Schreiber was "an error in judgment" and "inappropriate" for a former prime minister, such a conclusion would hardly be earth-shattering.

"What is the commission going to tell us that's new? That from now on we expect high ethical standards?" Kaplan wondered in an interview.

"I thought that's always been the case."

Indeed, Kaplan suspects the inquiry will turn out to have been little more than a public shaming of Mulroney. Even so, he believes it has served one useful purpose.

"And that is it puts all sorts of other people who are in positions of power on notice that if they engage in misconduct, one day . . . someone's going to say, 'Give us an account of your activities.' I think that's useful in a democracy."

Kaplan is hopeful that the affair will not overshadow Mulroney's legacy as prime minister.

"I hope historians judge him fairly. I hope they look at this episode in his life but I hope they look at all the good things he did for Canada too."

Mulroney's onetime pollster, Allan Gregg, predicts the taint from the former prime minister's "monumental lapse of judgment" will put a permanent stain on his legacy.

"It blots and it distorts and, in come respects, kind of overarches but it doesn't extinguish or remove those other accomplishments," Gregg said.

Doubtless, the Mulroney-Schreiber tale will never be laid to rest entirely. Indeed, CBC journalist Harvey Cashore is launching a new book on his 15-year investigation into the two men's relationship.

But as far as Kaplan is concerned, Oliphant's report will mark the end of a story that will never be fully told.

"I think this is the final chapter on this story and we'll all move on. I certainly plan to."