The noose tightens....

Slowly but surely, testimony from the Gomery inquiry is finding more and more links to Chretien.

Today, former Groupaction Marketing employee Alain Renaud said Chuck Guite, the bureaucrat who ran the federal sponsorship program in the 1990s, said Jean Chretien's office approved sponsorship deals later sullied by scandal. He confirmed an unspecified number of contracts crossed the desk of Jean Pelletier, the chief of staff to Chretien.

Renaud testified that Guite often said contracts would be approved only after getting the green light from the country's highest political office.

He also testified that he heard one of Jean Chretien's friends make a pitch directly to the then-prime minister for a culturally themed sponsorship contract.

Its starting to look more and more like Chretien was more hands on than he has been prepared to admit. This testimony is significant as it provides evidence of Chretien's direct involvemnt in the distribution of sponsorship monies, something he expressly denied during his testimony in February. And the more directly involved he was, the more likely it is that he knew of the abuse. However, that link has yet to be made. Stay tuned....