The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee met in camera yesterday, and when the members emerged, this appeared in the minutes:
“It was agreed, — That the Committee ask Gérard Latulippe, President of Rights & Democracy, and the Chair of the Board of Directors, Aurel Braun, to appear before the Committee on Thursday, December 16, 2010; and that members of the Committee be provided with the forensic audit report from Samson Bélair-Deloitte & Touche and the investigative report prepared by Sirco, no later than Monday, December 13, 2010.”
That gives our friends a bit more than two weeks to cough up the reports.
The “Sirco” report refers to the report of a private investigator who was brought in to investigate the theft of computers from the Rights & Democracy offices , a theft which apparently took place on the day of Rémy Beauregard’s funeral. I’ve never found the assorted contradictory speculation about who might have done that theft very useful, and since there have been no arrests, one presumes the Sirco investigation was inconclusive. That report will not be without interest, however. The first time the staff of Rights and Democracy heard of the firm was after three staff members had been questioned by R&D board appointee Jacques Gauthier in the presence of Sirco principal Claude Sarrazin — whose business affiliation and role was not disclosed to the staffers when they were questioned. They were later fired and are suing for wrongful dismissal.
This is, by my count, at least the fourth time the committee has asked for the Deloitte audit (and, I believe, also the fourth time it has asked for the Sirco report, about which I have written less often). Now they have put a time limit on their request. We’ll see how the Rights and Democracy board responds.
