A former Conservative MP has been accused of telling business associates that he can provide them with funds from the Tory government, a scenario the Prime Minister's Office has shot down as being "absurd."
The Toronto Star reported in its Thursday newspaper that a business associate bragged in an email that Rahim Jaffer had "opened up the Prime Minister's Office to us," during a meeting in which the former MP and a group of businessmen discussed means of obtaining government funds for business projects.
The meeting happened on Sept. 10, 2009, the same night that Jaffer was arrested in Palgrave, Ont., last fall, while driving home, the Star report said.
Though Jaffer was initially charged with driving under the influence and cocaine possession after being stopped by the OPP, those charges were later dropped and he pleaded guilty to careless driving in an Orangeville, Ont., court last month.
When asked to comment on the article's allegations on Thursday, Harper spokesperson Dimitri Soudas said the PMO was not doing business with Jaffer, nor his associates.
"I can be pretty unequivocal in saying Mr. Jaffer, or any of his associates, do not have any influence in opening the doors to the Prime Minister's Office," he told CTV's Power Play.
But Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said the allegations call the government's integrity into question, and that the prime minister owes Canadians an explanation.
"What I want to know is who was Mr. Jaffer talking to in the Conservative government? What promises did he make of access? We need the whole story here," Ignatieff said, speaking with reporters in Montreal. "It's not just a matter for Mr. Jaffer to answer; it's a matter for Mr. Harper."
Furthermore, it was found that Jaffer used his wife's official government email to conduct business with CTV's Power Play last year. His wife is junior cabinet minister Helena Guergis.
Soudas said the matter was something the Speaker of the House would have to look into and would not comment on what the PMO thought of the use of the email address.
NDP MP Joe Comartin, speaking from Windsor, Ont., told Power Play that the matter reflects poorly on Guergis.
"It's a government (email) address, paid for by the government, by taxpayers, and it's a facility that the spouse should not be using, nor should a Member of Parliament, for personal financial gain," he said.
"It's bad decision making on her part. I wouldn't allow my wife to do that. It's personal gain that we're talking about here. That coupled with the stupidity of those letters going out … and the incident in Charlottetown -- those are three quite significant incidents that indicate this person should not be a cabinet minister."
Guergis has faced her own personal problems in recent months, after it was reported that had an outburst at the Charlottetown airport, and faced criticism from the public and her parliamentary peers. A few weeks later, it was revealed that some of her staff members had written letters to publications praising her performance, without indicating that they worked for her.
Soudas defended Guergis' record while in office, and said, "The prime minister's view is that Ms. Guergis is doing a good job as minister."
No explanation
The Star report also said that Jaffer has been using business cards that were printed while he was an MP.
CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief, Robert Fife, said the "very, very serious allegations" about Jaffer's conduct require further explanation from the former parliamentarian.
"Mr. Jaffer also has an obligation to come forward here and state on the record what he said and what he didn't say," Fife told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel from Ottawa on Thursday.
Fife said that the office of Guergis said she would not be offering comment on the allegations about her husband.
"I was informed by her office that she would neither be meeting with journalists, nor would there be a statement," said Fife.
More recently, a Liberal MP asked the federal ethics commissioner to examine an $880,000 mortgage Guergis was recently approved for, to purchase a home in an upscale Ottawa neighbourhood.
The 38-year-old Jaffer has not been a parliamentarian since losing his Edmonton-Strathcona seat in the October 2008 election, when he was defeated by NDP MP Linda Duncan.
Prior to his electoral defeat, Jaffer represented the Edmonton riding for 11 years, starting from the time he was 25 years old in June 1997. He served as the Conservative caucus chair from February 2006 until he lost his seat.
Fife said that Tory party members have indicated privately they believe Jaffer is "not taken seriously by anybody within the Harper government."
