Categories: Need to know

Ethics commissioner finds Guergis broke rules

Former Conservative MP lobbied on behalf of company with ties to her husband

by macleans.ca on Thursday, July 14, 2011 4:05pm - 8 Comments

Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson has concluded former Conservative cabinet minister Helena Guergis violated her ethical obligations by endorsing a company that had ties to her husband’s firm. In 2009, Guergis wrote to the town council in Simcoe to recommend the a waste disposal firm, Wright Tech, that maintained business links with Rahim Jaffer, Guergis’s spouse. Guergis had said her goal was to offer an alternative to a municipal plan she opposed—a scenario Dawson acknowledged was “a significant part of her motivation”—but the ethics commissioner nonetheless concluded Guergis should have ceased lobbying on Wright’s behalf once she learned of its ties to Jaffer.

CBC News

Ethics report (Government of Canada)

Tags: Helena Guergis

Anonymous

Now come on Mary Dawson! You can’t expect poor Helena to talk to her husband and find out what companies he is in bed with. I wonder if Peter Mansbridge will have Helena on so she can lament how it isn’t her fault that she didn’t understand how promoting her husband’s business interests was not in her job description as MP.

Claudia Lemire

No kidding! I am not sorry, not one little bit, to see her gone from Parliament!
Anonymous

This must somehow prove that Harper is a Nazi and a dictator. After all, I keep reading that on these comment boards.

Anonymous

OK; I’ll play along:

Harper hates Guergis so obviously this ruling means the Commissioner is not truly independent and merely handed out the report Harper gave her to distribute.

That kinda what you had in mind?

Anonymous

You can’t be serious, Keith! Did Harper also program Helena to freak out at the Halifax airport? Did he convince her aide to phone in “anonymously” and pretend she was someone from Helena’s riding and give glowing reports about Helena’s performance as an MP? Lastly, did Harper rig the election so Helena running as an independant would come in last? Can’t you liberals just except that your first impressions of Helena were dead on…..when you guys demanded she resign after her blow-out at the Halifax airport. You were right about her then. Just bask in the glow of that victory.

Anonymous

No, I’m not serious. That one was very much tongue in cheek. I’m no fan of Harper, but neither am I a fan of Guergis. Nor do I have any evidence of any rules-bending or kowtowing on the part of the Ethics Commissioner.

Orson asked for a specific type of comment (based on his – and apparently your – expectation of what an anti-Harper type would say) and so I gave him what he was looking for. Nothing more. ;-)
Anonymous

No, I’m not serious. That one was very much tongue in cheek. I’m no fan of Harper, but neither am I a fan of Guergis. Nor do I have any evidence of any rules-bending or kowtowing on the part of the Ethics Commissioner.

Orson asked for a specific type of comment (based on his – and apparently your – expectation of what an anti-Harper type would say) and so I gave him what he was looking for. Nothing more. ;-)
Anonymous

No, I’m not serious. That one was very much tongue in cheek. I’m no fan of Harper, but neither am I a fan of Guergis. Nor do I have any evidence of any rules-bending or kowtowing on the part of the Ethics Commissioner.

Orson asked for a specific type of comment (based on his – and apparently your – expectation of what an anti-Harper type would say) and so I gave him what he was looking for. Nothing more. ;-)
Anonymous

No, I’m not serious. That one was very much tongue in cheek. I’m no fan of Harper, but neither am I a fan of Guergis. Nor do I have any evidence of any rules-bending or kowtowing on the part of the Ethics Commissioner.

Orson asked for a specific type of comment (based on his – and apparently your – expectation of what an anti-Harper type would say) and so I gave him what he was looking for. Nothing more. ;-)