Government Ops. Committee - June 17 2010 - Siobhan Coady

In a hastily-arranged special meeting of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, Rahim Jaffer appeared once again to answer questions concerning allegations of illicity lobbying on behalf of his firm Green Power Generation.


From the Globe and Mail: http://bit.ly/b0RMgY

Former Tory MP Rahim Jaffer lashed out at the Prime Minister and the Conservative Party today, saying the party that he once represented is unrecognizable and does not stand for democracy.

"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 is appearing this morning before the Government Operations committee for the second time. He appeared first last April but he admits he was unprepared at the time, appearing evasive and confused.

Mr. Jaffer, the defeated Edmonton Conservative MP, created a firestorm on Parliament Hill earlier this year as a result of questionable lobbying practices involving his new business.

He wants to try to clear his name before the summer break; the House of Commons is expected to rise today.

In a letter to the committee Wednesday, he apologized for "inadvertently providing incomplete information," explaining that he just wanted to appear immediately to try to help out his wife.


Here, Siobhan Coady tries to nail down the fact that Mr. Jaffer was "friends" with various people in government, and that was the foundation for his allegedly illicit activities. That is to say, he had access routes that ordinary Canadians would not have. She then tries to get him to discuss his work at GPG -- Mr. Jaffer stonewalls like crazy at this point, basically implying that Mr. Glemaud was in charge of the whole deal.


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