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Thursday, May 7, 2009 8:23 PM

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rsilver

I have avoided posting about Ruby Dhalla for a fairly simple reason: To me it is a question of fact, not politics.

Either the allegations against her are true or they are not. If they are true, she has serious legal challenges ahead that will make any political issues seem meaningless by comparison. If they are not true, she has a fine future ahead of her.

I presume she is innocent, because it happens to be a slightly inconvenient feature of our legal system. What else can I possibly blog about on this subject, other than to say the allegations against her are terrible, if true, and the legal system should fully investigate them.

Well, thanks to Aaron Wherry, there's something to write about now.

Of all the venues that should be investigating the allegations against Ms. Dhalla, surely, surely, surely to God, a committee of the House of Commons is not one of them.

Not now. Not while I presume the appropriate officials are investigating her. (And yes, the ethics commissioner is a fairly tenuous "official" given the allegations.)

But I want to be fair. Let me give the Conservative party the benefit of the doubt that this is all about the various serious policy issues at stake and not (God forbid) scoring cheap - actually cheap doesn't event get close to what it is - political points.

Here comes, representing the CPC, some guy named  David Tilson who is, as I just found out, a Conservative MP and chair of the immigration committee:

Tilson says the committee has been planning to examine the issue of migrant workers for some time. "I can't help it if Miss Dhalla just happens to jump in on this issue as we are studying it."

Poor Mr. Tilson. This has been planned for months - if not years - and the week, when all of this broke, just happened to be the same week when he finally got committee time. Man, I guess he's the real victim here, isn't he?

To be crystal clear: I am in no way trivializing the allegations against Ruby Dhalla. See above for how I feel about the allegations.

Mr. Tilson and the Conservative Party of Canada are the ones who are taking a very serious legal issue and turning it into what will almost inevitably turn into a circus.

For shame.

This is what we call overplaying one's hand. A shocking development from the Harper government.

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Robert Silver is a Toronto-based energy lawyer, entrepreneur and consultant. He currently advises energy companies looking to build clean electricity projects in Ontario. He has been involved in projects that have brought more 3,000 megawatts of clean and renewable energy to Ontario. Robert has also been involved in a number of innovative conservation and energy efficiency projects. He is a highly sought after speaker on energy, infrastructure and environment issues.

An active federal and provincial Liberal, Robert was Gerard Kennedy's National Policy Director during the 2006 Liberal Leadership Campaign. Prior to returning to the private sector, he worked for Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty as a special policy advisor. He received his law degree from the University of Western Ontario, where he won two North American and two Canadian National Debating Championships.

 

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Originally from St. John's, Tim began his career as an assistant and advisor to the Honourable John C. Crosbie, then Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. Thereafter, he acted as advisor to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. He also served as the Director of Policy and Research to the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Generally, he has been involved with federal election campaigns in one way or another since the great Free Trade debate of 1988. From handing out leaflets to knocking on doors to TV talking (thankfully his time as a bouncer helped with that) he has had the good fortune of doing a bit of everything.

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