VIA Rail chairman Jean Pelletier was fired Monday after belittling Olympic champion Myriam Bedard, a whistle-blower who questioned how VIA handled federal sponsorship money. "We've announced the termination of M. Pelletier's employment," Prime Minister Paul Martin confirmed in New York, where he was attending a United Nations event.
The fates of two other Crown corporation executives were hanging in the balance for other reasons.

Marc LeFrancois, president of VIA, and Michel Vennat, president of the Business Development Bank, were suspended last week. They were given until Monday to defend their past actions or face possible dismissal. But a senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said those cases would require further review and immediate decisions were unlikely. "There's a due process to follow," said the official.

Bedard, a two-time biathlon gold-medallist, said last week she was forced from her marketing job at VIA after asking questions about the scandal-plagued federal sponsorship program in January 2002.

Pelletier, once the top aide to former prime minister Jean Chr