Guergis launches lawsuit against Harper

By macleans.ca - Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 5:56 PM - 0 Comments

Former Conservative MP Helena Guergis has launched a court action in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, suing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several others for defamation, conspiracy, intentional infliction of mental suffering and negligence. According to a statement of claim obtained by CBC, Guergis’s suit seeks general damages of $800,000 plus punitive damages of $250,000 and aggravated damages of $250,000. Guergis had to leave the Conservative caucus in April of 2010 following allegations against her and her husband, former MP Rahim Jaffer. Guergis was not charged and was cleared by the RCMP. A spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office called Guergis’s claim “groundless.”

CBC

Ethics commissioner finds Guergis broke rules

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 4:05 PM - 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) 

He says, she says

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, April 15, 2011 at 5:12 PM - 111 Comments

When Mr. Harper announced last April that Helena Guergis was the subject of serious allegations, he said that ”pending a resolution, she will sit outside of the Conservative Party caucus.” But though the allegations against Helena Guergus are now confirmed to be those that have already been dismissed, she apparently remains unwelcome.

When asked Friday whether he owed Ms. Guergis an apology – after allegations of drug abuse, wild partying and attempts to secure illegal contracts all proved unfounded – Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was unrepentant. ”There were, as you know well, a range of political problems around this individual,” he told reporters in Thornhill, outside Toronto. “They have been discussed by members of caucus. There is simply no desire to see the return of this individual to caucus…the decision is now in the hands of the riding.”

Ms. Guergis called a news conference today to lay out her version. Continue…

Guergis works the comeback trail

By Charlie Gillis - Friday, April 15, 2011 at 6:10 AM - 76 Comments

Photograph by Colin OConnor

The familiar war colours still grace her signs—white block letters and crimson ribbons, on a background of Tory blue. But the word “Independent” lies spray-stencilled beneath Helena Guergis’s name, while blots of paint covering the Conservative party logo summon to mind a bandage on an open wound. “It’s Conservative against conservative around here,” says Guergis, summing up one of the most bitter constituency battles of the federal election. Not only is she fighting for her political life, says the former junior cabinet minister, she’s doing so against the full might of the Tory electoral machine.

No surprise. Since the uproar surrounding the arrest and lobbying activities of her husband, Rahim Jaffer, Guergis has been one of Stephen Harper’s biggest headaches, demanding that the Prime Minister reveal his reasons for punting her from caucus while insisting she remains a big-C Conservative—in spirit if not on paper. Harper’s office cited unspecified allegations of misconduct on Guergis’s part when it expelled her in April 2010, but a subsequent review by RCMP found no evidence of wrongdoing. Still, the Conservatives refused to re-admit her to the party fold, and last month her old constituency association held a nomination meeting to replace her.

Judging by the campaign muscle they’ve sent the new candidate, a pediatric surgeon named Kellie Leitch, the party brain trust would dearly love to see Guergis gone. At least six Tory heavyweights have swung through the farm country of Simcoe-Grey in recent days, including Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Minister of State for Seniors Julian Fantino. Tory icon Hugh Segal has also dropped by for photo ops. So has Pamela Wallin, the Conservative senator and former broadcaster.

Continue…

Why Baird's lucky his double isn't a prankster

By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, April 4, 2011 at 9:18 AM - 8 Comments

Photographs by Mitchel Raphael

What if the Tories need Helena?

Photographs By Mitchel Raphael

Helena Guergis is running as an “Independent Conservative.” She’s using her old signs for the upcoming election but has removed the Conservative party logo from them and added the word “Independent.” Many have joked with her that if the Conservatives are one short of a majority she could hold the balance of power. If that is indeed the case, she says, she would not return to the party. She notes that as an Independent she is much more aware of every bill that comes through the House for a vote: “Having more Independent MPs is good for democracy.” Guergis has been able to ask the government several questions in the House and offer member’s statements because the other Independent MP, André Arthur, gave her his slots, saying she needed the exposure more than him.

Aren’t you…?

As politicians fan out across the country, many will try to be in two places at once. One politician almost managed it. House leader John Baird‘s look-alike, Jacques Pinet, who works for an insurance company in New Brunswick, is a dead ringer for the man people refer to as the de facto deputy PM. Pinet happened to be on the Hill last week. “I don’t think a week goes by that I don’t have someone ask me [about the resemblance],” says Pinet. On a previous trip, the New Brunswicker was sitting in the House galleries before a vote and a security guard approached him and said, “Mr. Baird, you need to go down and vote.” And once in Toronto, while Pinet was having a meal alone in a restaurant, Liberal Sen. Colin Kenny walked up to the table and joined him, speaking to him as if he were talking to Baird. While Pinet was in the British capital recently, some backpackers first asked if he was Canadian. Then they followed up with, “Are you in politics?” “I’m not John Baird,” he politely told them. Pinet says his encounters with people who mistake him for Baird have all been positive. Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc, who is a friend of Pinet, jokes that when he is mistaken for Baird and people say, “I voted for you,” he should reply with, “I don’t need your vote.”

Sonny & Cher & Bob & Hedy

Photographs by Mitchel Raphael

In all the election hue and cry last week, Liberal MP Hedy Fry squeezed in a fundraiser to help with the debt she incurred from her leadership run in 2006. It was held at Ottawa’s hot new gay bar, Flamingo. Justin Trudeau sported what he described as a “flamingo pink” dress shirt in honour of the bar’s name, though drag queen and event host Dixie Landers countered that it was really “aggressive salmon.” Lunch with Trudeau raised $300 at the auction. Liberal MP Bob Rae joined Fry on stage and sang the Sonny & Cher duet I Got You, Babe, which was a nice throwback to the 2006 Liberal leadership race: Fry dropped out and went over to Rae’s camp.

The journalists’ mini-revolution

After the opposition leaders rejected the recent budget, Stephen Harper came out to address the media. He was supposed to take four questions. The names of those who got to ask questions had been approved by the PMO and were on the infamous list. But when Harper’s speech was over, journalists, in an act of list revolution, started shouting out questions. Harper took only two of them and then bolted as the Toronto Star’s Tonda MacCharles yelled, “Why won’t you answer more questions?”

Hair to match the budget

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty‘s recent budget fell flat, matching his hair. For the previous budget, Flaherty visited his hairdresser, Stefania Capovilla—who cuts the hair of Stephen Harper and several cabinet ministers—on budget day and showed up with a fresh, sassy blow-dry. This year Flaherty’s wife, Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP Christine Elliott, told her husband he needed to hit the salon the day before, not the day of: hence the flatter look.

The Commons: So it ends

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, March 25, 2011 at 6:55 PM - 140 Comments

Whatever else was discussed within the walls of the House of Commons these last 14 months, the 40th Parliament was about Parliament. From its unprecedented start to its unprecedented end, here was a debate about our democracy—how it works, why it exists and what it means. These were the questions this place wrestled with each day. There are the questions now, implicitly or explicitly, laid before the public.

The events of this day are thus now open to interpretation. By one understanding, a majority of the people’s representatives expressed their lack of confidence in the those representatives who presently form the people’s government, thus compelling the government to resign and the Governor General to call for a general vote of the people. By another understanding, the Liberals conspired with the socialists and separatists to defeat Stephen Harper’s government and force an unnecessary and dangerous election.

Or understand what happened today as a concession. From all sides. An admission of defeat on the part of the 40th Parliament and a plea to the public to sort out what are wildly divergent views on the proper functioning of Parliamentary democracy.
Continue…

Women’s Day chocolate politics and tartan fever

By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 1:26 PM - 14 Comments

Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

Why Laureen Harper’s big on Capt. Kirk

At the 31st annual Genie Awards, held in Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, cabinet ministers Rona Ambrose, Lisa Raitt and Tony Clement arrived just as workers were vacuuming up popcorn from the pre-awards reception. They were late because of votes in the House. The event was hosted by William Shatner, who, joked Tony Clement, “finally came out of his shell.” Laureen Harper told Capital Diary she is a Shatner and Star Trek fan and has seen all the episodes of the original TV series. And her husband, Stephen Harper, and their daughter Rachel Harper, watched all the episodes together two summers ago. “You can learn about leadership from Capt. Kirk,” noted Mrs. Harper. “He had to make some tough decisions.”

Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

After the Genies were over, politicians mixed with filmmakers such as Denis Villeneuve and The Trotsky star Jay Baruchel, who after the show popped by a 24-hour McDonald’s in the rain for a late night snack. Also in the eclectic mix were two past Playboy playmates, Shannon Tweed, a former Miss Ottawa who lives with rock and reality show star Gene Simmons, and Shera Bechard, Miss November 2010, who was promoting her new film Sweet Karma, a drama about human trafficking.

Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

I don’t want your chocolate

For the past three years, Shelly Glover, parliamentary secretary to the minister of finance, has handed out chocolates on International Women’s Day. The first year she put them on the desks of all the female MPs in the House. When she did it the second time in 2010, many opposition MPs returned them with rude notes, she said. So this year she placed small boxes of chocolates on the House desks of only her fellow Conservative female MPs and discreetly handed some to the women in other parties she considers friends.

Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

Our very own tartan

Heritage Minister James Moore has now declared the maple leaf tartan an official symbol of Canada. When reporters jokingly asked whether this was part of the Conservatives’ outreach to “ethnic communities,” Moore turned to National Post columnist John Ivison, who was in the scrum, and teased that the reporter, who is from Scotland, would know if such a strategy would work. Ivison joked that it would take “free booze” to win the Scottish-Canadian votes. Nevertheless, Ivison was spotted the next day on the Hill sporting a tie in the tartan. Moore says that the adoption of the tartan as a national symbol, along with the beaver and maple tree, will allow Canadians who do not already have a family tartan to now have one for events such as Robbie Burns Day. One minister probably won’t be sporting the maple leaf tartan: Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Diane Finley recently created her own tartan. When Moore was asked if he was getting anything made for himself in the plaid, the large MP joked it was “in development” and that it would require “a lot” of fabric. The maple leaf tartan was created by David Weiser in 1964 as part of a lead-up to Canada’s 100th anniversary of Confederation in 1967. Moore wanted it to become a national symbol before Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017. Last December, it was Liberal Sen. Elizabeth Hubley who put forward a bill to have the tartan become an official symbol.

Dear Helena . . .

As part of his preparations for the upcoming budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty sent a letter to MPs asking for suggestions and things they might want to see in it. Former Conservative and now Independent MP Helena Guergis says her letter had “Dear Colleague” crossed out at the top and replaced with “Helena.” Guergis says her main suggestion was that the government should provide volunteer firefighters with a bigger tax credit for their services in order to increase the appeal for people to take up such positions.

'It didn't make sense'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, March 4, 2011 at 12:16 PM - 20 Comments

The Canadian Press tallies four Conservative campaigns, including that of current Conservative MP Dave Mackenzie, who declined to participate in the in-and-out scheme.

Independent conservative MP Helena Guergis — who was turfed from the Tory caucus last year over rumours of wrongdoing that were never substantiated — also says her campaign was approached and rejected the plan.”I was asked but I said no. Something in my gut told me no,” Christine Brayford, Guergis’ sister and campaign manager, said in an email.

Why Laureen Harper might need a professional lobbyist

By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, February 14, 2011 at 10:29 AM - 3 Comments

Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

For the second year, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami presented A Taste of the Arctic, this time in  the Great Hall of the National Gallery of Canada. While there were long lineups for the muskox, halibut and shrimp stations, the one featuring seal meat was less popular. Evan Solomon, host of CBC’s Power & Politics, claimed the seal meat was delicious, if hard to taste because of the heavy sauce. ITK president Mary Simon arrived with her leg in a cast. (Ottawa is plagued with leg injuries: not only is Treasury Board President Stockwell Day in a cast, Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn injured his leg in a snowmobile accident.)

The keynote speaker for Taste of the Arctic was former governor general Michaëlle Jean, now a UNESCO special envoy to Haiti. This was Jean’s first official event since stepping down as GG. Jean, who has bought a house in Ottawa, is happy she was able to stay there for work as it allows her daughter to continue at her school and keep her same friends. Also in attendance was Nick Javor of Tim Hortons, who noted that the company recently opened three kiosks (offering a limited menu) in Nunavut.

Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

The entertainment included Inuk singer Elisapie Isaac. During Isaac’s set, which closed the evening, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq starting rocking out on the dance floor and got people moving. Laureen Harper was so impressed with the singer she quipped she was going to “lobby” Heritage Minister James Moore to have Isaac perform for Canada Day on Parliament Hill. Mrs. Harper joked she might have to hire a professional lobbyist because last year she tried to recommend a band she saw in a bar but nothing happened.

How can I be cool if…

Last week, Liberal MP Massimo Pacetti received his new BlackBerry Torch, the latest handheld device to offer both a keypad and touch-screen option. Pacetti was told by the Commons telecommunications department he was the first MP to get the Torch, which made him feel pretty hip—until he was also told senators had been getting Torches since the end of 2010.

Liberal conspiracy theory

There was much grumbling by Liberals on the Hill when news hit that Rocco Rossi, the former national director of the Liberal party who helped recruit Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff into federal politics, was going to run provincially for Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives in Ontario. At the same time, federal Liberals say quietly that should the Ontario Liberals be defeated before the next federal election it would bode well for them because Ontario would be looking to balance provincial and federal power. Was Rossi’s move all part of some secret plan?

Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

In the last election, Liberal MP Justin Trudeau took the riding of Papineau from Bloc MP Vivian Barbot. With election fever in the air, Barbot, who still works on the Hill  for her party, says she plans to go for round two against Trudeau, but only if there’s an election before she turns 70 on July 7.

Harper’s card to Helena

Officials in the PMO say that when they told Stephen Harper that Helena Guergis and Rahim Jaffer had a baby, the PM instructed his staff to send a card, which they did, sometime in December. (A recent item in Capital Diary had Jaffer reporting he did not get any congratulatory message from the PM.) Jaffer explains that when he and Helena collected items, including flowers from Green party Leader Elizabeth May from Guergis’s Hill office on Jan. 18 (the day Capital Diary went to press), there was no card from the PM, but that one arrived a few days later. It was much appreciated, he says. Apparently there are no hard feelings: his wife, he notes, has put out signals she would be willing to come back to the Conservative party if the PM invited her.

Mitchel Raphael on the Tory who helped Helena Guergis

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 1 Comment

Ignatieff on his eyebrows
A fire alarm during question period had MPs rushing out of the Commons. Conservative MP James Lunney helped a very pregnant former Conservative-now-Independent MP Helena Guergis (due date: Dec. 15) down the stairs and out of the building as they talked about contractions. Lunney is a chiropractor trained to deliver babies. Once outside, MPs kept dry from the rain under the wood shelters attached to the building (thank goodness for smokers, one MP joked). Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay took the opportunity to thank her leader, Michael Ignatieff, for not growing a moustache as part of the Movember prostate cancer awareness campaign. “I thought you were growing your eyebrows,” Scott Brison piped in. Ignatieff laughed and joked, “No. I shave those every day.”

Continue…

How our MPs live

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 10, 2010 at 4:12 PM - 19 Comments

More pressing than the crumbling nature of our democracy may be the crumbling nature of the buildings that house our democracy.

The Commons: Who loves ya, baby?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 6:58 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. As he made his first intervention, Michael Ignatieff insisted on staring down Stephen Harper’s empty chair. Perhaps it’s to the point now that the Liberal leader sees Mr. Harper’s dismissive mug wherever he looks. Perhaps he simply found the green felt of the House seats a soothing sight to gaze upon.

His question this day had to do with the potential sale of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Incorporated to BHP Billiton Limited and all of the national, economic and social implications within and around that transaction. “Mr. Speaker,” he said, “yesterday when the Prime Minister was asked about the possible sale of Potash Corp he basically shrugged his shoulders and said ‘Australia, America, who cares?’”

In full, the Prime Minister had said, “This is a proposal for an American-controlled company to be taken over by an Australian-controlled company.” Whether Mr. Harper was shrugging at the time, I do not remember. But given that he is given to shrugging reflexively at almost all propositions, it is certainly a distinct possibility. Continue…

Gun registry math

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, August 23, 2010 at 12:32 PM - 0 Comments

When Bill c-391, an act to repeal the long-gun registry, came to a vote on second reading last November, it was passed by a count of 164-137. Those 164 votes in favour included 143 Conservatives, 12 New Democrats, eight Liberals and one independent.

C-391 is now due to return to the House for a final vote when the House returns this fall and the vote seems set to be very close.

How close? Well, let’s see. Continue…

If the people do not support you loudly enough, create your own people

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 20, 2010 at 12:35 PM - 0 Comments

Helena Guergis, March 30. Mr. Speaker, with respect to the staffer in question, she called me today. She advised me of the situation. We discussed it. We did discuss that it was inappropriate. She apologized and assured me that it will not happen again.

Sandra Buckler, last month. “Have your campaign manager write it,” she replied. “You have your wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, child, next door neighbour, treasurer …. And I’m a fan of letters to the editor, it’s good to have them printed, because then you can send them out as a campaign piece.”

Helena Guergis in conversation

By Peter C. Newman - Friday, August 6, 2010 at 8:16 AM - 0 Comments

Photography by John Major

Ottawa remains hypnotized by the blood feud between Stephen Harper and Helena Guergis, who resigned as minister of state for the status of women on April 9 amidst allegations involving her husband, former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer. The Prime Minister then kicked her out of the Conservative caucus. In July, the RCMP cleared Guergis of criminal wrongdoing, but the Prime Minister’s Office continues to exclude her from caucus.

Q: About 50 ministers have resigned or been forced to resign since I started to write about Canadian politics in 1957. But seldom have any of those ministers also been expelled from caucus. So, why this firing squad?
A: I would like to think I haven’t done anything that would warrant being treated worse than convicted criminals. But everybody is just piling on. I’ve always believed it had to do with my husband. In the phone call on April 9 when it all started, I said to the Prime Minister—and I believed he was a friend—that I thought he didn’t care for my husband. I said—and this is something I haven’t disclosed before—that I was going to be taking some time away from my husband, because I needed to figure out what the truth was. At the end of that conversation, the Prime Minister said, “Helena, you shared something with me about your marriage. From one friend to another, you need to know what your husband is doing.” So I firmly believe that he has done this to me because of my husband, and I don’t think that’s right. This is kind of high school, really.

Q: So he wanted you two to be apart?
A: That’s right. I’ll be honest with you, I was really reluctant to do this interview. Just about every single time I have talked to the media, it’s portrayed as though I’m being combative with the Prime Minister, or firing shots at him. I didn’t pick a fight—I simply stood up for myself and answered questions when the pressure was mounting. And I had to. It’s time to put it behind us, for me to be back in caucus and just move on. I really want that, but somehow my request for a meeting with the PM has been turned into me demanding explanations.

Q: Your husband was chief of the Conservative caucus and an MP for a dozen years, going back to Reform days. How did he get along with Mr. Harper?
A: He’s always spoken about the Prime Minister with respect.

Q: How long were you and your husband apart after April 9?
A: I didn’t pull apart from him. I stuck with him—we had a raucous time. I needed to figure out if there was substance to the Toronto Star story [alleging that financier Nazim Gillani boasted that Jaffer “opened the Prime Minister’s Office to us”]. I went up one side of my husband and down the other for weeks, months on end, to make sure that he was not lying to me, that he had told me the truth. I needed to go through that process with him. I’d wanted time away to figure things out, but it was more appropriate for me to stay and to work through it. You don’t just walk away when things get tough.

Q: How long have you been married?
A: In October, two years. So it’s still new, but I didn’t leave. There was a lot of yelling and screaming going on, a lot of questions, but we made it through that process. I wasn’t feeling the greatest because I was pregnant, and I needed his support. There were a lot of people who were telling me I should get rid of him. They kept saying, you know, “If you want to save your career . . . ” Some were even suggesting I should stage it. That’s not happening. I’m not playing those games.

Q: What are your political options now?
A: I will continue to ask for a meeting with the PM—not demand, just ask—you know, as one member of Parliament to another, as former colleagues . . . as colleagues, sorry. We still are colleagues in the House. I just think it would be the right thing to do to sit down, to talk, and put this all behind us. I want to be able to go forward with my pregnancy without the stress, I want to continue to work as an MP because I enjoy my job and I work really hard. My community deserves some closure and some answers. Maybe it’s time to change some of the election laws because right now it’s like the Prime Minister is the ultimate, supreme ruler. When you look at Canada as a flourishing democracy, it shouldn’t come down to one person who can just decide that the rest of my life I’m going to be marked. Even the stuff that’s coming out of the Prime Minister’s Office now suggests that I don’t meet the standards [of the caucus]. What’s that about? They don’t have a right to treat anybody that way. It’s against the basic human rights in this country. I don’t know what they expect me to do. Am I going to live on fresh air and sunshine?

Q: On one occasion, Mr. Harper came over to you in the Commons and sounded encouraging. Can you remember his exact words?
A: I said, “If you sit here I don’t know if I’m strong enough to not start crying,” and he just sat quietly for a minute. Then he said there had been a lot of bad stories written about him in the past and that I should just keep my head up high and I’d get through this sort of thing. He was trying to reach out to me, at least that was what I thought.

Q: One of the theories floating around is that you didn’t get along with Guy Giorno, the PM’s chief of staff.
A: My former chief of staff had tried to meet with Mr. Giorno on several occasions [before April 9] and I still have the email exchanges between them. She was very frustrated that he would not meet with her. She was the only chief who had not met with Mr. Giorno since he joined the PMO [in July 2008]. It seems that he doesn’t care for me very much.

Q: When you were removed from caucus, the Prime Minister specifically stated you should “sit outside caucus pending a resolution.” Why, since the RCMP charged neither you nor your husband with any wrongdoing, are we spending more time on this charade?
A: I was so relieved when I thought all this was behind me, but I do think I have a right to know why I was investigated, and have my name truly cleared.

Q: The only error in judgment that’s been proven is that your husband borrowed your BlackBerry. Is that a capital offence?
A: I’d love to answer that one. Lots of caucus members have given their BlackBerries to their spouses. That’s a fact. When he was caucus chair, Rahim received a number of emails from spouses that clearly identified they were using a parliamentary account. He still has all those emails.

Q: What about this office we’re in? The accusation was that your husband was holding meetings and working here.
A: Did you go through security downstairs? Yeah? Well, anyone who comes here has to go through. They have a log; it shows there was no business here at all. This is nonsense. Somehow I’ve become an enemy of the state, for some reason. I don’t understand at all.

Q: One story going around is that your money is running out because your legal costs have been so high. Is that true?
A: Oh yeah, I have spent a significant amount trying to figure out what I’ve done wrong. When the Prime Minister calls in the federal police force, you have to take it seriously, you have to get a criminal lawyer.

Q: Another accusation was that your husband was using your emails for his business.
A: I saw three emails on the CBC website which showed the documents. One was between him and Brian Jean [parliamentary secretary to John Barrett] where it’s actually kind of comedic, though there was a section in the middle that did deal with his business. I said to him, “Rahim, why did you do that?” And he says, “I was in the middle of a conversation with him on something else and so I just asked him and wasn’t paying attention.” Another one had to do with a constituent who doesn’t want her name in lights but is happy to tell the Prime Minister’s Office that she didn’t do business with Rahim, he did it on behalf of a constituent for me—he’s helped a lot of constituents, because spouses do that. Spouses attend luncheons, they do a lot of things for us as MPs, that’s the way it is. In the third email, he actually directed the political staff person to his business account, so he did take the initiative to say, “Don’t do this.”

Q: If the PMO won’t talk to you, what will you do?
A: I will run as an Independent, Conservative Independent. My name will be on the ballot. It’s hard because the Elections Canada Act doesn’t allow Independents to collect money except during the campaign.

Q: Do you still believe in the Conservative party?
A: I don’t believe in some of the people in the Conservative party. I believe that the Prime Minister has been given some really, really bad advice. I don’t know who or why—clearly Mr. Giorno is a part of that. I think there are a few people who need to be removed from the situation and the Prime Minister needs to have a sit-down, heart-to-heart, one-on-one with me. I think that would be very good, not only for both of us but for the party. I have written to him and asked him personally [for a meeting], and he had agreed to sit down and talk to me. Then I sent a message that I’m not prepared to talk about my husband. I’m fair game—anything you want to ask—but I’m not going to discuss my husband’s case or any details. He cancelled the meeting.

Q: Where will it all end?
A: I really hope I’m not pushed further away from the caucus, or from the Prime Minister. I know that I’m not being 100 per cent complimentary, but I think you know I could say a heck of a lot more. If I were inclined to be that kind of person, I could be on the attack, I really could.

She just wants to talk

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 3:51 PM - 0 Comments

Helena Guergis is publicly asking for a little chat with the Prime Minister. In the meantime, she seems fairly satisfied with the independence that has been thrust upon her.

I still hold my conservative values and when the House resumes in Ottawa on September 20th I will continue to vote conservative. However, I now have a stronger voice to address the concerns of my constituents. I am free to ask tough questions on matters that are important to the residents of Simcoe-Grey.

'No substance'

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 4:10 PM - 0 Comments

Helena Guergis’ lawyer says the RCMP has effectively cleared his client.

At last report, the ethics commissioner was still investigating “a letter of support for a private company that the Honourable Helena Guergis, Member of Parliament for Simcoe-Grey, wrote to municipal officials.”

A fitting end

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 3:52 PM - 17 Comments

The last day of committee hearings into the dealings of Rahim Jaffer ends in bafflement, contradiction and scorn.

“We stood for democracy. We stood for freedom,” he told a Commons committee this morning, referring to the party he first joined and was elected to as an MP to Parliament in 1997. He was defeated in 2008. “The way my wife has been treated by your party and your government doesn’t represent anything that I have ever … worked for during the time I was an MP.”

Mr. Jaffer, clearly agitated, said that his wife, Helena Guergis, isn’t even allowed to run as a Conservative for the nomination in her Simcoe-Grey riding. “You want to talk about disappointment. That’s disappointment.”

The honourable member for Simcoe-Grey has a question

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 4:16 PM - 73 Comments

The last query posed in QP this afternoon.

Hon. Helena Guergis (Simcoe—Grey, Ind. Cons.): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister told Canadians he was aware of serious criminal allegations against me and he called in the RCMP. His chief of staff, Guy Giorno, wrote a letter to the Ethics Commissioner outlining these specific allegations. The ethics office spoke with Derek Snowdy and read him the letter. He denied having said these things. Snowdy testified under oath before a committee that he provided no information about any illegal or inappropriate actions on my part and called the party lawyer to complain about this misrepresentation. If the Prime Minister is so confident that the party lawyer outlined these allegations to me, will he table this letter in the House?

Hon. John Baird (Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the government has forwarded the serious allegations to the relevant independent authorities and to the member. We will let those independent authorities do their work.

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 4:02 PM - 15 Comments

Our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses. Continue…

Viva Guergis

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 8:30 AM - 15 Comments

So, apparently, it was also Rahim Jaffer, in Cuba, with the special passport and the Castro administration. And maybe even that isn’t the entirety of it.

Sources close to the controversy say Harper was told Jaffer used the passport on a trip to Cuba promoting green technology to the Castro regime. That raised immediate fears that Cuban officials could have been misled that Jaffer carried Canada’s seal of approval…

It’s not clear when the Prime Minister first learned about the passport issue or if it is part of unspecified information still being withheld about the case. More certain is that Harper was justifiably riled by the combination of the visit to a country loaded with Canada-U.S. diplomatic sensitivities, as well as the abuse of privilege. Even so, both the warnings and the Prime Minister’s reaction are being kept under unusually tight wraps. That suggests there’s more to an incident that on the surface seems little more serious than a breach of protocol.

All who are here, please say "present"

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 3:29 PM - 21 Comments

As MP attendance is apparently of some concern, I am perhaps obligated to report that Helena Guergis, the independent MP for Simcoe-Grey, was in the House of Commons today for Question Period, taking her seat in the far right corner of the room. It was, if memory properly serves, her first appearance since resigning her cabinet post in early April.

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, May 23, 2010 at 6:45 PM - 1 Comment

Our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses. Continue…

At last, justice

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 6:20 PM - 6 Comments

Seems Ms. Guergis did not report her mortgage to the ethics commissioner in the necessary time allotted. She’s been fined $100.