Public punishment

last updated 8 January 2015

Montreal

The first person charged in a corruption scandal that has shaken Canada’s ruling Liberal Party pleaded guilty this week, but he won’t go to prison. A judge ordered former advertising executive Paul Coffin to deliver a series of lectures on ethics to business students. Coffin admitted he pocketed $1.3 million in taxpayer money for services the Liberals paid for, but that he never delivered. Judge Jean-Guy Boilard said Coffin had already paid a high price for his role in the $200 million scandal and will spend the rest of his life making restitution. But John Williamson of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said the judge’s leniency was “a slap in the face to taxpayers.”