EX-ADDICTIONS FOUNDATION EXEC PLEADS GUILTY

Perry Fontaine, the man at the centre of the Virginia Fontaine
Addictions Foundation scandal, has pleaded guilty to charges of theft
and mischief.

Fontaine, the foundation's former executive director, had been set to
stand trial next month, but instead entered guilty pleas to the charges.

The Crown and defence will jointly recommend a sentence of between two
and three years in prison.

Police launched an investigation seven years ago after accusations the
centre spent $115,000 to take employees on a Caribbean cruise,
claiming it was a training seminar. The police probe uncovered
millions of dollars in fraudulently obtained funds, kickbacks and
inflated expenses.

In 2005, former Health Canada director Patrick James Nottingham was
sentenced to two years house arrest after pleading guilty to fraud and
influence peddling. Nottingham accepted nearly $1 million in kickbacks
in exchange for approving excessive funding at the Sagkeeng First
Nation treatment centre and $186,000 in "hush money" once allegations
of fraud and corruption surfaced.

That same year, former assistant deputy health minister Paul Cochrane
was sentenced to a year in jail for accepting more than $200,000 in
bribes to boost funding to the centre.

The Crown alleges between 1992 and 2000, at least $3.6 million in
inflated funding was diverted to Fontaine, Nottingham and Cochrane,
with Fontaine pocketing $2.3 million.

In 2006, the federal government won a civil judgment ordering Fontaine
to pay back $459,000. He will be sentenced in December.