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J. Charles (Chuck) Guité is a Canadian civil servant who was in charge of the federal sponsorship program, and is one of the main figures in the sponsorship scandal. He has been described as the man 'truly' behind the excesses of the program.
On April 2, 2004, previously confidential testimony from a 2002 inquiry into suspicious Groupaction contracts was made public. In it, Guité admits to having bent the rules in his handling of the advertising contracts but defends his actions as excusable given the circumstances, saying, "We were basically at war trying to save the country... When you're at war, you drop the book and the rules and you don't give your plan to the opposition."
On May 10 2004, Charles Guité was arrested by the RCMP along with Jean Brault, president of Groupaction, and charged with fraud in connection with the sponsorship scandal. He was once described by the Head of the Commission into the Sponsorship Program (Mr. Justice John Gomery) as a "charming scamp."