Confused about the Guergis/Jaffer Affair?

Here's the bottom line: Nobody is taking responsibility for anything (which pretty much sums up everything you need to know about government as well).

And if you're really into making your head explode, you can watch Snowdy's testimony here.
 

Memo to Helena Guergis

Memo to Helena Guergis: If you want to be believed, try telling the truth. Don't rely on crocodile tears about how Stephen Harper isn't your BFF anymore; what a good Christian you supposedly are; tales about how you were working so hard that you had absolutely no idea what was going on in the rest of your life; how you "never" tried illegal drugs - oh, except for that time when you did; faux tantrum explanations like how you actually think airports are "hellholes" - not PEI (even though that's what you apologized for); lies (and there are documents to prove they are lies, Helena) about how your husband never used your office or your e-mail address for his business affairs; stories about how nobody told you why you were turfed except that you admit it had something to do with drugs and the TO Star story (allegations you denied after saying you didn't know what the allegations even were).

Need I go on?

Oh - one more thing: only a fool believes that their spouse would never do anything to hurt them. Happens every day. Wake up and smell reality.

And you don't get to use your tiny mouse child voice (hint: that annoying Meredith character on Grey's Anatomy is not a role model for strong women) to try to win sympathy - not when we know just how vicious you can be when you really want to. You're not fooling anybody who's ever paid any attention to your career.

But, let me add this (and this part is important): you keep fighting it out with Harper and his cronies in the press, in your riding, in the courts - wherever you feel like it - because politojunkies like me have stocked up on popcorn and will keep on munching as long as the Cirque de Helena and Rahim is in town.

Next act: PI Derek Snowdy testifying in committee on Wednesday. I may have to pile on extra butter for that one.
 

This week in Conservatives behaving badly...

- The Cons have stripped Helena Guergis of the chance to run in her riding without, she claims in a letter to the party, providing any reason for the decision. She is also scheduled to testify, along with her husband Rahim Jaffer, at the government operations committee on June 9th. The Cons have been crowing about how the Liberal party has apparently subverted "democracy" by whipping the upcoming vote on the long gun registry (because they've never whipped a vote, now have they?) and then they turn around and refuse to allow the people of Guergis' riding to decide whether she should represent them? Hypocrites.

- Calgary Northeast Con MP Devinder Shory has been named in a suit by BMO alleging "massive mortgage fraud". Will the Cons kick him out of their caucus too? Stay tuned. (Update: the answer to that is no. Shory gets to stay on.)

- "Shut the fuck up" - advice given by Con senator Nancy Ruth to womens' groups. It's not that the Cons actually hate women. It's just that they abhor anything resembling equality for women - especially poor women. They rebooted the culture war over abortion and now they claim that they don't want to talk about it. During the last two weeks, the Cons have cut funding to 24 womens' groups. They should change their party slogan to "Barefoot and pregnant - that's how we like our women". It isn't just a "culture of deceit" being propagated by the Cons - it's a "culture of conceit".

- So, what do the Cons do when they've been caught with their pants down running circles around their own "accountability" law? They blame Liberals, of course - the same Liberals who introduced a motion which passed unanimously in the house on Wednesday to fix the Cons' mistakes. They're like kids who get caught with their hands in the cookie jar and then blame their sister. And that's exactly the image to keep in mind when you watch John "Bully" Baird trying to bluster his party's faults away daily during question period by moving the goalposts whenever an opposition MP points out the Cons' hypocrisy. One would think that anyone who had any actual integrity would refuse to be the token party bouncer but Baird obviously subscribes to the "STFU" policy of his daddy, Stephen Harper.

- "Steeping His Ass Off" Gate.
 

Jaffer - The Victim

Rahim Jaffer, appearing in front of the government operations committee this afternoon - choking back crocodile tears while proclaiming what a victim he is - claimed that he has never lobbied the government on behalf of his business, Green Power Generation Corporation [link to conveniently scrubbed web site], and, speaking about his arrest last fall said, "I have never partaken in any illegal substance" - nor does he endorse it. (Makes you wonder what that cocaine was doing in the car with him then, doesn't it?)

Harper and his cronies continue to insist that it's not really influence peddling if you don't end up getting any government money or contracts. They are, of course, wrong. And if they actually read what's on their own justice department web site, they'd know that.

The Criminal Code prohibits influence peddling not only by government officials but also by anyone who has or pretends to have influence with the government or with a Minister[28]. The application of this provision is limited to those who have, or pretend to have, a significant enough connection to government so that they can affect a government decision, such as the awarding of a contract[29]. The key factor is that the individual offering his or her influence does so in exchange for a benefit, either for himself or for some other person, as consideration for the exercise of influence. Anyone convicted of influence peddling is liable to imprisonment for up to five years[30]

Jaffer got his wrist slapped for using the Conservative party logo on his site long after he was no longer an MP - a tactic clearly meant to show that he had influence with the party. And he insists that any meetings he's had with government officials have been social in nature - "catching up with friends", he says. Sure...

It was also recently revealed that his wife, Helena Guergis, sent a letter to Simcoe county allegedly on behalf of her husband.

Liberal MP Mark Holland demanded to know what the government has done in response to the Star article revealing that Guergis sent a 2009 letter on her MP’s letterhead to senior Simcoe County officials promoting the waste technology products of Wright Tech Systems.

At the time, Jaffer and businessman Nazim Gillani were involved in a plan to take Wright Tech public in a $1 billion deal, the Star reported.

Guergis issued a statement on Friday denying any impropriety in the 2009 letter to Simcoe county officials and asserting that Jaffer had no business ties to Wright Tech.

Ethics complaints. Lobbying allegations.

Also appearing at the committee with Jaffer is his business partner, Patrick Glemaud, who's also under fire.

In question period, Liberal MP Frank Valeriote (Guelph) said that Jaffer’s business partner, Patrick Glemaud, met with a senior aide for minister of state for science and technology Gary Goodyear last fall, seeking federal funding for four projects.

Valeriote said that Glemaud, who is due to appear with Jaffer Wednesday, was working with an Ottawa-based firm called Sustainable Ventures Inc. that was hoping to tap funding from the Southern Ontario Development fund.

Goodyear said it was three projects and that none of them received funding, adding, “This government does not give funding to projects that do not qualify.”

In an e-mail, Anjali Varma, managing partner of Sustainable Ventures said that while they did attend a meeting with Glemaud and the minister’s staff, her company has not been engaged “in any matters” with Glemaud.

Glemaud also stated in committee that he's going to take "legal action" against Kevin Donovan of The Toronto Star.

May they all sue each other for years to come to keep this little story on the front pages.

More to come as the hearing continues...if there's anything worth noting.

Pat Martin (NDP): "You know what I really hate, Rahim? That you're making us all look really bad". "It's a little rich for you to be lecturing us today about raising ethical standards."

Ouch.

Watch online: CPAC

Live blogs:

The TO Star on Twitter.
The CBC: Kady O'Malley
The Globe and Mail: Jane Taber
 

A Fine Mess

It's stuff the caliber of a CTV Movie of the Week. A "B" movie - the saga of Helena and Rahim. Shady business characters, "busty hookers", a former MP found with cocaine in his car, an abrasive tory cabinet minister turfed from her post and caucus allegedly based on revelations brought forward by a card-carrying Conservative private investigator with money problems who claims he never saw the political "snowball" coming because he was focused on snooping into the affairs of Nazim Gillani at the behest of investors who felt ripped off.

Intentional or not, that "snowball" continues to grow as Canadians look more suspiciously at the actions of Stephen Harper and his merry band of denialists who claim to stand for those much overused buzzwords: accountability, transparency, and justice - concepts right-wingers like to pretend they stand for in order to get elected. When the rubber actually meets the road though...well, we know how that story ends all too often.

And Steve, who is infamous for his need to control everything that emanates for his party ranks, seems to be content to have this whole sordid tale play out in the media. Allegations followed by retorts from Guergis through her lawyer. Allegations followed by retorts form Nazim Gillani. Allegations followed by retorts from PI Derrick Snowdy. Allegations followed by retorts for the PM and his toadies that the RCMP and the ethics commissioner are now on the case (even though the ethics commissioner has stated that she didn't get a formal request for an investigation and is learning what she can from the media).

Some political strategist in the PM's office is obviously gambling on the idea that the story will wear itself out and that, automagically somehow, it won't taint the party or the PM. Let's hope that person stays out of Vegas for their own sake.

This is the same strategery they've used to attempt to make the Afghan detainee scandal disappear too. And how's that working for them?

There'll be no proroguing this time, Cons.

The TO Sun Calls Guergis a "Dog"

Politics, Re-Spun has the cover photo (which I won't post here because I don't have the rights to it).

A right-wing rag calling one of their own a "dog". Nasty.

Of course, the fact that Conservatives think women are "dogs" isn't new. Norm Spector called Belinda Stronach a "bitch" back in 2006 in response to Peter McKay referring to her a a dog during Question Period.

Nothing like dehumanizing women to get them to fall in line, right guys?

And we're supposed to believe that you want equality for women why, exactly?

You can contact the TO Sun's editors here.
 

See you later, Helena

I think it's safe to say that we will soon be informed that airport tantrum queen Helena Guergis' stint as minister of state for the status of women has come to a much-anticipated end.

The Toronto Star has published a telling account of the nite her husband, Rahim Jaffer, was arrested for speeding, DUI and cocaine possession (charges he skated on with a slap on the wrist a few months later). It seems Mr Jaffer thinks he has a lot of influence with the tories to secure government grants for people like the rather nefarious character, Nazim Gillani - even though Jaffer is not a registered lobbyist.

Forced to remove the Conservative party logo from his site over these revelations, the PMO has also had to weigh in with a denial - a move that only moves Guergis' ministerial career closer to the abyss.

That denial, as are most things that come from the mouth of Dimitri Soudas, is laughable:

“Any accusation that the PMO has opened doors for Mr. Jaffer or his business associates is false and it is also absurd,” PMO spokesman Dimitri Soudas said in an interview Thursday. “I can tell you that the doors to the Prime Minister’s Office are padlocked to anybody who wishes to peddle influence.”

Adding on to the pile-on, the Ottawa Citizen is raising questions about some of Guergis' election expenses. Add that to previous stories about her staffers sending off supportive letters to various newspapers and reports that virtually no one in the Conservative caucus is willing to defend her anymore and I'd say political death by a thousand newspaper cuts is a fait accompli.

The fat lady has sung, Helena.

Related:

Tory MPs snubbed Rahim Jaffer in row over petty cash, sources say
First a plea bargain, now a tax break for Rahim Jaffer
Liberals want Guergis's mortgage probed
Guergis Attacks Dead Student's Mother

UPDATE:

Guergis resigns, now faces RCMP probe

"Last night my office became aware of serious allegations related to (Guergis)," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper Friday, before adding he has referred the allegations to the RCMP and the federal ethics commissioner.
[...]
“Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson has confirmed receipt of a letter from the Prime Minister’s Office about the conduct of the former Minister of State for the Status of Women, Helena Guergis,” her spokeswoman Jocelyne Brisebois wrote in an emailed statement Friday. “The Commissioner is currently reviewing the letter.”

She's being replaced by another tory loser - Rona Ambrose
 

Iggy Accuses Guergis of Lying

Airport tantrum queen Helena Guergis is in hot water again. This time, she's being accused of lying about not knowing that her staffers have been sending "glowing letters about her to newspapers while posing as regular voters.".

CTV's Robert Fife has the latest.

Fife: "There's nobody in the Conservative caucus that supports her. They're all shaking their heads."

See you later, Helena.
 

Conservatives Behaving Badly

Helena Guergis - airport tantrum:

According to the account, Guergis and aide Emily Goucher arrived a few minutes before the scheduled takeoff of an Air Canada flight from Charlottetown to Montreal.

In the pre-boarding area, Guergis refused to remove her boots despite being informed that they might set off the security alarm in the metal detector, according to the letter received by Easter. When the alarm sounded, she was asked to sit down and remove her footwear.

Guergis "slammed her boots into the bin" provided by security personnel and then, according to the account, said to one of the airport staff: "Happy f---ing birthday to me. I guess I'm stuck on this hellhole."

Guergis, the MP for Simcoe-Grey, turned 41 on Feb. 19.

After her boots cleared the X-ray conveyor, Guergis, according to the account, yelled at Goucher: "Get those for me. I'm not walking around here in sock feet."

Guergis then allegedly tried to force open the locked door that separates the pre-board screening room from the area where the aircraft was waiting.

When a few moments later the minister was reminded that most passengers are asked to arrive at the airport two hours before boarding time, Guergis shouted back, according to the account: "I don't need to be lectured about flight time by you. I've been down here working my ass off for you people."

"Entitled twit" comes to mind.

Meanwhile, there's been some sort of plea bargain reached in the case of Rahim Jaffer [Guergis' husband] which will be revealed in court on March 9.

Maxime Bernier - climate change denier.

In a letter to La Presse newspaper, Bernier argued there is no scientific consensus on the matter and he applauded the Harper government for taking a go-slow approach.

"The debate over climate change, stifled for years by political correctness, has finally broken out in the media," he wrote in a letter published Wednesday.

"The numerous recent revelations on errors by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have supplemented the alternative theories put forward for many years.

"We can now see that it's possible to be a 'skeptic,' or in any case to keep an open mind, on just about all the main aspects of warming theory."

"alternative theories" = pollute with reckless abandon!

Next...

Edmonton PC MP Goldring slams Louis Riel

Goldring posted the letter in response to a request from the federal New Democrats who wanted Louis Riel to be recognized as a father of confederation and wanted a conviction that saw him hanged for treason overturned.

In his letter Goldring wrote, "Riel didn't father confederation; He fought those who did."

Riel, a politician who fought for Metis rights in the late 1800s and also helped found the province of Manitoba, led two violent rebellions against the Canadian government and was hanged for treason.

The letter went on to say, "To un-hang Louis Riel and to mount a statue to him on Parliament Hill would elevate anarchy and civil disobedience to that of democratic statesmanship."

Somebody needs to take a remedial grade school history lesson.

And, in yet another example of Con hypocrisy, take a look at the fat cat government pensions Harper and his ex-Reform cronies are in line for.

It looks like Steve will have a lot of splainin' to do when he finally gets back to work next week after his months-long prorogation holiday.

Meanwhile, Half of Canadians unhappy with PM, Ignatieff: poll - so it looks like we're stuck in this political wasteland for some time to come.
 

Guergis Attacks Dead Student's Mother

From Monday's Question Period:

Mr. Serge Ménard (Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, BQ):

Mr. Speaker, Suzanne Laplante-Edward, mother of Anne-Marie Edward, who was killed when just 21 years old in the École Polytechnique massacre, deplores the fact that the Conservative government is perversely dismantling the firearms registry. By relaxing firearms controls, the Conservatives are attacking, and I quote, “the monument erected in memory of our young women.”

When will this government acknowledge that the firearms registry helps prevent violence against women?

Hon. Helena Guergis (Minister of State (Status of Women), CPC):

Mr. Speaker, any suggestion that any member in this House would not want to see an end to violence against women is not only wrong, it is hateful. The ineffective Liberal gun registry has done absolutely nothing to protect Canadians and it has done nothing to make Canadian women safer. The hon. member will know this if he looks deep inside himself.

Last week, Guergis refused to denounce Saskatoon MP Maurice Vellacott's ridiculous comments about abortion, responding in the house that members are "required" to have their opinion. Obviously not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Then again, neither is Vellacott:

Vellacott's release also says the current abortion process in Saskatoon is "conducive to abuse," and says "aborted women tell stories of being badgered, harassed and coerced into getting their abortion by boyfriends, partners, parents and employers."

He says pro-life feminists view abortion as "part of a male agenda to have women more sexually available," and adds abortion has been used to cover up the sexual abuse of young girls.

And here I thought Guergis didn't like crazy stories.
 

Rahim Jaffer: Busted

So, former Con MP and husband of ever-annoying Helena Guergis - Minister of State for the Status of Women (what a joke that is) - Rahim Jaffer has been arrested for drunk driving and cocaine possession.

Don Martin:

He [Jaffer] was a charter member of the Snack Pack, six young Reform MPs with some growing up to do who patronized Ottawa restaurants and bars in the late 1990s, hungering for the day when their party could pry power away from the Liberals.

If the allegations are true, it seems Jaffer's choice of snacks should have been limited to Doritos™.

Once again, we're left asking, 'will the real Rahim Jaffer please stand up?'

Adam Radwanski:

Although evidently prone to spectacularly bad decisions, he always struck me as one of the more human of our parliamentarians. Younger MPs, in particular, tend to be an off-puttingly hyperpartisan and hyperambitious breed (see Poilievre, Pierre). Jaffer always seemed like a fairly normal guy who was a little surprised to be walking the chambers of power. The "would you want to have a beer with this guy" test has become a cliché, and it really shouldn't be the standard when you're choosing someone to run a country, but it's nice to have at least a few of our 308 federal representatives fit the bill. The fact that he was fully prepared to have a beer with people from other parties, not just his own, helped matters considerably.

Umm, Adam. The fact (allegedly) that he was fully prepared to have a beer and drive a car is the issue here.
 

Quote du Jour: Crazy stories

From Thursday's Hansard:

Hon. Anita Neville (Winnipeg South Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government scrapped the national child care agreement. It scrapped the court challenges program. It scrapped the Kelowna accord. It made cuts to women's advocacy and literacy. It bargained away women's rights to pay equity. It took meaningful equality out of the mandate of Status of Women Canada and continued to defy international commitments. That does not sound like a government that stands up for the rights of women.

When are we going to see any real commitment from the government for the women of Canada?


Hon. Helena Guergis (Minister of State (Status of Women), CPC):

Mr. Speaker, it does not matter how many times the member makes up crazy stories, they are not believed by women across the country.

This quote brought to you by The Department of Irony.
 

Afghanistan: The Denials Continue

What the hell is going on?

During question period on Monday, Stockwell Day told parliament that Canadian corrections officers have been monitoring Afghan detainees in that country since February, 2007. That conflicts with what the Afghan ambassador to Canada said just this past weekend:

OTTAWA - Urging an end to the "political circus" over Afghan detainees, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada says no Canadians, including corrections officers, have monitored treatment of prisoners turned over by Canadian military forces.

However, Ambassador Omar Samad said in a Global National interview that Canadian officials will soon have "unrestricted access" to prisons under an agreement currently being worked out with Canada in the wake of political uproar over alleged torture of detainees.

Samad contradicted assertions by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day that Corrections Canada officers have been monitoring prisoner treatment - an assertion Day repeated in the Commons Friday, saying they are there "to see if there are cases of torture."

Samad said Corrections Canada officers have for many months, under their mandate to help build Afghan police capacity, had access to some prisons in Afghanistan and may have come across prisoners.

"It doesn't mean those were detention centres of people who were arrested by Canadian forces," Samad said. "So if this has created confusion, I think that we all need to take a step back and define what we're talking about and to bring some clarity to this instead of turning it into a political circus."

"From the Afghan point of view, it's clear there was no followup or monitoring of detainees caught by Canadian forces turned over to Afghans, especially to the NDS (National Directorate of Security) that took place prior to this current time."

Just how long will Day keep lying in the house? And where is O'Connor? He seems to have disappeared.

Day had said Thursday that corrections staff had made 15 visits to Afghan jails. But his spokeswoman, Melissa Leclerc, had said later they have no mandate to monitor prisoner treatment.

On Friday, Day told the Commons "they are there to support the Afghan officers by training them in the work that they do in the prisons and also to ensure, to see if there are cases of torture."

Pure fabrication.

Day needs to resign.

In fact, all of the tories who have spun these allegations since they were brought to light should be turfed immediately. An obviously angry Denis Coderre slammed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Helena Guergis for smiling smugly when she answered a question about this situation in the house on Monday. And rightly so.

The Conservatives seem to think this is an opportunity to play political games - claiming they're somehow morally superior to the opposition parties because they are "dealing" with these allegations when they are actually doing everything they can to deny them and to offer political cover for their party colleagues. It's nothing short of disgusting - not to mention inhumane. If we had pictures, this would be their Abu Ghraib moment. They don't seem to get that.

Via the Globe and Mail, we also learn that O'Connor is whining instead of taking responsibility for his duties as defence minister:

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has also complained privately that he felt that he was left isolated by other departments on the issue of the detainees.

Is that what qualifies as leadership in this so-called "new" government? No one seems to want to step up to deal with any of this. No wonder they have no idea what's going on.

Meanhwile, in a related story about how this government washes its hands of allegations of torture by other governments, the US Supreme Court refused to hear appeals on Monday on behalf of Canadian Omar Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan (of the Hamdan v Rumsfeld case):

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear an appeal by two Guantanamo prisoners who face trial before a military tribunal and who sought review now of an anti-terrorism law that President George W. Bush pushed through Congress last year.

The high court sided with the Bush administration, which argued that the trials should be allowed to take place first before the two men could bring an appeal.

Justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer said they would hear the appeal but it takes four votes for the nine-member Supreme Court to do so.

Just one vote shy. More conservatives who refuse to protect human rights.

And don't expect our tory government to intervene on Khadr's behalf. During question period, Harper and his cronies laughed at an opposition party suggestion that Taliban prisoners be brought to Canada. That would obviously include Khadr as well, despite the fact that he has repeatedly calimed he has been tortured in Gitmo.

The bottom line is that this government just doesn't care. This is all about politics to them and they seem to believe that this track they're on, which is so wildly off the mark, is actually going to boost their shoddy reputations. The more they open their mouths, the more they lie. While it's satisfying to watch their complete and utter ineptitude as they dig themselves deeper into a hole every day, it's also incredibly maddening that it's at the expense of people who are allegedly being abused and tortured. They need to stop immediately and face reality. This isn't going away no matter how hard they wish they could wave their partisan wand to make it so.

Related: The Globe and Mail has a quick review of just some of last week's tory statements:

The government's changing story

Officials of our government will be following up these allegations with officials of the government of Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday

[We're] taking this matter seriously

Brigadier-General Al Howard on Tuesday

We have heard these allegations. We always take these allegations seriously.

Primer Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday

... to make that suggestion [of torture] solely based on the allegations of the Taliban, I think is the height of irresponsibility.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper later on Wednesday

If they have a specific name, we'd be happy to have it investigated and chased down.

Government House Leader

Peter Van Loan yesterday