Conservatives push back against Helena Guergis

Former cabinet minister Helena Guergis has served notice she intends to fight her party's decision to remove her as its candidate in the riding of Simcoe-Grey County.

Bruce Campion-Smith
Les Whittington Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA – Federal Conservatives say Helena Guergis distorted the truth during a television interview about her fall from grace when she spoke of being in the dark about the allegations she is facing and of her husband’s business dealings from her office.

The day after Guergis appeared on television to talk about her Apr. 9 ouster from cabinet and caucus, Conservative government staff circulated talking points that took issue with her version of events.

Guergis told CBC News Monday that she pleaded with Harper to tell her about the allegations she was facing.

“And I just kept saying, ‘What have I done?” the former minister of state for the status of women recalled asking the Prime Minister.

In fact, Guergis was told the specific allegations by the party lawyer, according to government officials who circulated the talking points, noting that she issued a statement soon after denying “all of the allegations.”

“Ms. Guergis wasn’t telling the truth about not knowing the allegations,” the talking points said.

As well, Conservatives took issue with Guergis’ claim that her husband – former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer – never used her Parliament Hill office or e-mail accounts for his own business.

“He didn’t use my office for anything work-related,” she said in the interview.

Yet Environment Minister Jim Prentice has confirmed that his aide met with Jaffer in Guergis’ Ottawa office in April, 2009 to discuss business on behalf of another undisclosed company.

And documents provided to a parliamentary committee show that Jaffer repeatedly sent emails related to his own work from an account linked to Guergis’ office.

“We have documented use of her office for his private dealings. . . . we have documented use of her email for his private dealings,” the Conservatives say in their talking points.

NDP MP Pat Martin cited “glaring contradictions” that he said undermined her credibility.

“The fact is, we know there was at least one business-related meeting in her parliamentary office (by Jaffer),” Martin said.

Liberal MP Siobhan Coady, a member of the parliamentary committee examining the Guergis-Jaffer affair, said she was taken aback by Guergis’ statements.

“We do have evidence that her husband did use her office and email for business purposes,” Coady said in an interview. “So I was a bit confused when she said that she wasn’t aware that he was doing it.”

But opposition MPs noted that, in the CBC interview, Guergis said she was told that the allegations that led to her demotion in early April were “criminal” in nature. Seizing on this, they renewed demands that Harper spell out what information he had in hand when he pushed Guergis out and called in the RCMP.

For the past month, the Prime Minister has declined to specify what allegations led to his decision.

“Now we’re in the ridiculous situation where nobody knows what these serious allegations are, not even Helena Guergis. Every Canadian thinks that is crazy,” Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said during a stop in Mississauga Tuesday.

The mere fact she had become a political liability was reason enough for Harper to dump her, said Kory Teneycke, the prime minister’s former director of communications.

“At the end of the day, if you don’t have the confidence of the prime minister or your colleagues, you are gone. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that,” he said.

Guergis is challenging a decision by Conservative party executives to remove her as their candidate in the Ontario riding of Simcoe-Grey.

Yet while the television interview is seen by some as Guergis’ attempt to make a comeback, there’s little sympathy within the party, especially after she called the Conservatives “undemocratic.”