Sue the Prime Minister for defamation ($1 million) Ms Guergis!
Good Day Readers:
With the recent announcement Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was being sued for defamation why not Stephen Harper too? Laugh as you will it could still happen - then we could cover the trials. Have we got a defamation lawyer for you Ms Guergis!
Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk ________________________________________________________
With the recent announcement Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was being sued for defamation why not Stephen Harper too? Laugh as you will it could still happen - then we could cover the trials. Have we got a defamation lawyer for you Ms Guergis!
Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk ________________________________________________________
Guergis accuses PMO of smear campaign; Harper remains unapologetic
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
Globe and Mail Update and The Canadian Press
Friday, April 15, 2011
Helena Guergis blames the Prime Minister's Office communications office that was on a destructive campaign penetrating the false allegations that have damaged my reputatuion," she said.
“It was the Prime Minister's Office communications office that was on a destructive campaign perpetrating the false allegations that have damaged my reputation,” she said.
In a sometimes-teary news conference in Collingwood, Ontario in her Simcoe-Grey riding, Ms. Guergis said she begged Mr. Harper for an explanation for her ejection from the party, to no avail.
“I pleaded with Mr. Harper to tell what he thought I had done wrong in order to be able to address these allegations head on and to be able to defend myself.
“Unfortunately, he refused.”
The RCMP cleared Ms. Guergis and her husband, Rahim Jaffer, but Ms. Guergis was never asked back into the Tory fold.
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.”
The Conservatives are running a candidate of their own against Mr. Guergis in Simcoe-Grey.
Well before the unsubstantiated allegations, Ms. Guergis had courted controversy over an alleged temper tantrum at Charlottetown Airport, reported confrontations with staff, and allegations that Mr. Jaffer had used her office for his own business purposes.
Ms. Guergis says her life has been turned upside down unfairly and without due process.
On Thursday, the CBC published a letter from Ray Novak, a secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, forwarding concerns to RCMP Commissioner William Elliott regarding Ms. Guergis's behaviour.
“The allegations are numerous and include fraud, extortion, obtaining benefits by false pretences and involvement in prostitution,” the April 9, 2010, letter reads, according to the CBC.
But Mr. Novak added the Prime Minister's Office had “no first-hand knowledge of these allegations.” “Information was given to us,” he said. “We passed that information to the authorities. The authorities dealt with it.”
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff weighed in Friday, saying the Guergis affair illustrates Mr. Harper’s poor judgment.
“The issue is not Helena Guergis. The issue was the lobbying conduct of her husband [former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer],” he said at a campaign stop in Ottawa.
“The thing that is astounding to me is the Prime Minister’s judgment. You cashier a member of your own caucus, but you keep in your inner circle, in the Prime Minister’s own office, a man five times convicted of fraud – Mr. [Bruce] Carson - who then gets accused of influence peddling.
The issue here in the Guergis and in the Carson affairs is the judgment of the Prime Minister of Canada and he’s shown astoundingly pour judgment in both cases.”
Mr. Harper, who asked Ms. Guergis to resign from her post as minister of state for the status of women in April, 2010, said at the time he did so acting on “serious allegations about the former minister's comportment” forwarded to him by private investigator Derrick Snowdy.
Mr. Snowdy told a parliamentary committee in May he had no evidence linking Ms. Guergis to criminal activity, however.
“The concern here is optics,” Mr. Snowdy said at the time.
He raised his concerns with Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton late in the day April 8, but said later he was “not very happy with the characterization of that conversation.”
Mr. Hamilton wouldn't comment on the story Friday.
“I have never made a public comment about this case and that will have to continue,” he said. “Someone else is going to have to make their own determination on [whether reports on the allegations are correct].
With reports from John Ibbitson and Bill Curry
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
Globe and Mail Update and The Canadian Press
Friday, April 15, 2011
Helena Guergis blames the Prime Minister's Office communications office that was on a destructive campaign penetrating the false allegations that have damaged my reputatuion," she said.
“It was the Prime Minister's Office communications office that was on a destructive campaign perpetrating the false allegations that have damaged my reputation,” she said.
In a sometimes-teary news conference in Collingwood, Ontario in her Simcoe-Grey riding, Ms. Guergis said she begged Mr. Harper for an explanation for her ejection from the party, to no avail.
“I pleaded with Mr. Harper to tell what he thought I had done wrong in order to be able to address these allegations head on and to be able to defend myself.
“Unfortunately, he refused.”
The RCMP cleared Ms. Guergis and her husband, Rahim Jaffer, but Ms. Guergis was never asked back into the Tory fold.
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.”
The Conservatives are running a candidate of their own against Mr. Guergis in Simcoe-Grey.
Well before the unsubstantiated allegations, Ms. Guergis had courted controversy over an alleged temper tantrum at Charlottetown Airport, reported confrontations with staff, and allegations that Mr. Jaffer had used her office for his own business purposes.
Ms. Guergis says her life has been turned upside down unfairly and without due process.
On Thursday, the CBC published a letter from Ray Novak, a secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, forwarding concerns to RCMP Commissioner William Elliott regarding Ms. Guergis's behaviour.
“The allegations are numerous and include fraud, extortion, obtaining benefits by false pretences and involvement in prostitution,” the April 9, 2010, letter reads, according to the CBC.
But Mr. Novak added the Prime Minister's Office had “no first-hand knowledge of these allegations.” “Information was given to us,” he said. “We passed that information to the authorities. The authorities dealt with it.”
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff weighed in Friday, saying the Guergis affair illustrates Mr. Harper’s poor judgment.
“The issue is not Helena Guergis. The issue was the lobbying conduct of her husband [former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer],” he said at a campaign stop in Ottawa.
“The thing that is astounding to me is the Prime Minister’s judgment. You cashier a member of your own caucus, but you keep in your inner circle, in the Prime Minister’s own office, a man five times convicted of fraud – Mr. [Bruce] Carson - who then gets accused of influence peddling.
The issue here in the Guergis and in the Carson affairs is the judgment of the Prime Minister of Canada and he’s shown astoundingly pour judgment in both cases.”
Mr. Harper, who asked Ms. Guergis to resign from her post as minister of state for the status of women in April, 2010, said at the time he did so acting on “serious allegations about the former minister's comportment” forwarded to him by private investigator Derrick Snowdy.
Mr. Snowdy told a parliamentary committee in May he had no evidence linking Ms. Guergis to criminal activity, however.
“The concern here is optics,” Mr. Snowdy said at the time.
He raised his concerns with Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton late in the day April 8, but said later he was “not very happy with the characterization of that conversation.”
Mr. Hamilton wouldn't comment on the story Friday.
“I have never made a public comment about this case and that will have to continue,” he said. “Someone else is going to have to make their own determination on [whether reports on the allegations are correct].
With reports from John Ibbitson and Bill Curry
posted by Clare L. Pieuk at 9:04 AM
1 Comments:
Helena Guergis would probably go with a Toronto lawyer or someone who is better with national polics
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