Shawinigate was a 1990s Canadian political scandal in which Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was accused of profiting from real estate deals and government policies in his hometown of Shawinigan, Quebec.
A month after becoming prime minister, Chrétien agreed to sell his personal shares in the golf course to Toronto tycoon Jonas Prince.
The scandal came to light slowly, with information only being released by the governing Liberal Party after a series of newspaper reports and after persistent questioning by members of the Opposition in the House of Commons of Canada, and a formal lawsuit.
[3] In early March 2008, Ontario's top court ordered the National Post, a major Canadian newspaper, to hand over documents in the "Shawinigate" allegations, saying the need to enforce the law should outweigh the need to protect anonymous sources.
In May 2010, the National Post lost its appeal, with the Supreme Court of Canada reinstating the search warrant despite the newspaper's claims of journalist-source privilege under Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.