General

Tale of the Tape: Unspooling the Timeline

UPDATE: Courtesy of Une femme verte: The Cadman scrum/QP highlights reel

Note: All dates taken from the Notice of Motion submitted by the Conservative Party of Canada.

April 1, 2008

Liberal Justice Critic Dominic Leblanc holds press conference calling on the Prime Minister to “testify on the Cadman affair, and without [his] consent or authorization, played the doctored audiotape.” (Affidavit of Prime Minister Stephen Harper dated June 2)

April 17, 2008

  • The first appearance of the Cadman “Explain the Tape” Van: “Several Young Liberals played the audiotape while driving around downtown Ottawa in a van with my photograph painted on the side of the van.” (Harper affidavit)
  • Gowling Lafleur Henderson lawyer Wendy Wagner asks forensic audio expert R. Alan Gough if he can determine “what caused” the “interruption of the recording” at the 1:45 second mark. Note: This is a new, unplayed wire-to-wire audio tape of the interview. In her letter to Gough, Wagner notes that author Tom Zytaruk had “previously” provided the firm with a duplicate audiotape of the interview “that has an interruption of the recording at about the one minute-45 second mark.” (Affidavit of Alan Gough)

April 18, 2008

Gough begins his analysis of the tape received from Gowlings.

April 28, 2008

Gowlings Lafleur Henderson associate Richard Dearden, Harper’s lawyer for his defamation lawsuit against the Liberal Party of Canada, asks forensic audio expert Thomas J. Owen of Owl Investigations to “provide [his] opinion” on whether the wire-to-wire copy of the tape provided to Gowlings by Zytaruk “records the entire interview by Mr. Zytaruk of Prime Minister Harper?” (Affidavit of Thomas J. Owen)

April 30, 2008

Owen begins his analysis of the tape received from Gowlings.

May 3, 2008

Owen ships the tape back to Gowlings via FedEx.

May 12, 2008

Owen receives “a GE-Model 3-5377-3622CG” – a cassette recorder – for “examination and analysis”.

May 15, 2008

Gough prepares a report of his findings.

May 19, 2008

Owen transcribes the conversation from the Memorex tape.

May 22, 2008

Gough receives an email from Dearden asking if he can “identify the source of the loud burst of noise that is heard at the very beginning of the wire-to-wire copy of the audiotape provided to [him]?”

May 23, 2008

Affidavit sworn by Dona Cadman

May 26, 2008

Affidavit sworn by Dan Wallace, former legislative assistant to Chuck Cadman

May 29, 2008

Affidavit sworn by forensic audio analyst Tom Owen

June 2, 2008

  • Gough files a supplementary report in response to the May 22 request from Dearden, in which he concludes that “the burst of white noise or static at the beginning of the recording is not an acoustic event” but an “electrical event”; and, that “the source of the loud burst of static or ‘white noise’ at the beginning of the copy provided is unknown.”
  • Affidavits sworn by: Prime Minister Stephen Harper; Executive Assistant Ray Novak; Press Secretary Carolyn Stewart-Olsen; Conservative Research Group video specialist Jeffrey Ballingall; Forensic audio analyst Alan Gough

June 3, 2008

Affidavit sworn by Gowlings articling student Vicky Edgecombe

June 4, 2008

Conservative Party of Canada files notice of motion (Injunction Restraining the Use of An Audiotape) with Ontario Superior Court

September 16, 2008

Motion for injunction to be argued before Ontario Superior Court (projected)

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