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For Escazu Costa Rica,
Christmas Won't Be Merry with
Jean Lafleur
By Judi McLeod,
Canadafreepress.com
In the postcard-perfect town of
Escazu, Costa Rica, all some
residents want for Christmas is
an end of party boy Canadian
Jean Lafleur in their midst.
Late-night bacchanals starring
Lafleur and his constant
companion "Larry" have launched
Lafleur as "Costa Rica’s most
unpopular gringo". ¹
And it looks like Costa Rica’s
most unpopular gringo, missing
for the last month and a half,
is heading back their way for
Christmas.
"Given his well-known role in
Canada’s AdScam scandal and the
$15 million he was paid, you’d
think this guy would want to
maintain a low profile, but it
was his almost nightly wild
parties here that exposed his
whereabouts," a town resident
told
canadafreepress.com.
In the latest sequence of
events, Lafleur’s companion
Larry, a 30-year-old Tico (Costa
Rican) returned last week to
Escazu alone.
"It made us so happy when word
leaked out that Larry had only
come back to pay the bills, and
check on their other properties
in the country," said the Escazu
resident. "When it was
discovered that Lafleur’s brand
new Toyota Land Cruiser Prado
was missing, we naturally
assumed that Larry had taken the
vehicle to a more secure
location."
But Larry’s return soon turned
from relief to anger and
frustration when his parties
without Lafleur were just as
wild and when residents heard
both revelers would be back in
time for Christmas.
In round one of
townsfolk-versus-Lafleur, staff
at the apartment complex which
became his post-AdScam
hidey-hole, complained about
cartons of empty liquor bottles.
Neighbours described Lafleur and
Company as "rude and crude" and
said the ad exec was "drowning
his sorrows" much too loudly.
Round two has them suspecting
that Lafleur is not back in
Costa Rica only temporarily due
to possible new developments in
the AdScam scandal. They are
looking for reassurance that the
Canadian government is "really
serious" about prosecuting
Lafleur.
A new development to Costa
Ricans is the recent knowledge
that Lafleur’s son, Eric has
also been implicated in AdScam.
Lafleur Communication managed
more than $30 million in
sponsorship contracts in the mid
to late 1990s, and Eric earned
more than $1.1 million in salary
while his firm acted as his
father’s sole supplier of
federally branded promotional
items. Like his father, Eric
reaped huge windfalls after the
sponsorship’s creation in 1997.
In testimony before the Gomery
Inquiry, Eric, an ex-Liberal
campaign worker, placed
responsibility for apparent
billing irregularities at the
feet of his father and sister,
Julie.
In fact, Eric spent his first
day at the sponsorship inquiry
attempting to distance himself
from his father and the
patriarch’s claims that
taxpayers always received value
from the family’s lucrative
sponsorship work.
Costa Ricans who want a
Christmas without Lafleur and
Larry are worried that the
"handclap of civil suits" will
only send the party boys
straight back to Escazu.
"A mere slap of the hands is no
big deal particularly if the
money is already out of the
country."
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Canada Free Press founding
editor Judi McLeod is an
award-winning journalist with 30
years experience in the media. A
former Toronto Sun and Kingston
Whig Standard columnist, she has
also appeared on Newsmax.com,
the Drudge Report, Foxnews.com,
and World Net Daily. Judi can be
reached at:
[email protected].
¹
Editor's note: According to
Wikipedia, in most
parts of Latin American
countries gringo means
white-skinned person speaking a
non-Romance language, especially
Germanic languages like English.
In Argentina, it generally
refers to an immigrant –
especially from Italy, but not
from Spain. However, influenced
by the Mexican meaning, many
people now apply this term only
to people from the United
States. The term can be
derogatory.
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