The minority report is a much stronger and more explicit
document. Its signatories find that the closest intimacy existed between Sir Hector Langevin and Mr. McGreevy. "In 1876, for instance, Thomas McGreevy advanced the late Minister $10,000 for his election expenses, taking as security promissory-notes which are still outstanding ; Mr. McGreevy made Sir Hector's house his home in Ottawa from 1878 to 1880, and used his room in the Parliament building ; both of them contributed to the establishment and maintenance of Le Monde newspaper, McGreevy's contribution amounting to $25,000; and Mr. McGreevy was treasurer of the Conservative Party in Quebec, while Sir Hector Langevin was the party leader, and directed the expenditure for party purposes." The minority find "that the amounts received by Mr. McGreevy from contractors went to form part of this fund, and that his refusal to state how those moneys were disbursed made it impossible to say definitely to what extent Sir Hector Langevin benefited politically or otherwise by the disburse- ment." In conclusion, they say that the enormous sums of public money which were paid to Messrs. Larkin, Connolly, and Co. for extras "show that this firm had acquired a controlling influence over the Minister of Public Works through Thomas McGreevy and the engineers Perley and Boyd. They could have had no motive in defrauding the public unless it was to please Sir Hector, and the fruits of the fraud went either into the pockets of the contractors, towards political funds, or to- the support of Le Monde, Sir H. Langevin's newspaper."
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