News

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will create a "crisis" unless he backs down from his refusal to co-operate with Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro's inquiry into how David Emerson, the former Liberal industry minister, was persuaded to join the Conservative cabinet, opposition MPs said yesterday.

Mr. Harper must respect the role of a parliamentary officer even if Mr. Shapiro himself has been criticized, the MPs said. If the Ethics Commissioner cannot police the government's conduct, no one else can, they said.

"That is the vehicle . . . that is the institution that exists," New Democrat Peter Julian, one of three MPs who asked Mr. Shapiro to investigate, said yesterday. "It is, I think, a bold slap in the face to Canadian voters." He said that if the Prime Minister's Office does not back down, "the crisis will deepen."

Mr. Shapiro said last week he would launch an inquiry into both Mr. Harper and Mr. Emerson, after receiving complaints from Liberal and New Democratic MPs that the Prime Minister may have offered Mr. Emerson an inducement to cross the floor. Mr. Emerson was elected as a Liberal on Jan. 23 but joined the Conservative cabinet on Feb. 6.

Mr. Harper's spokeswoman, Sandra Buckler, said Friday he would be "loath to co-operate" with the inquiry. She called Mr. Shapiro a "Liberal appointee" and argued that the Ethics Commissioner was applying a double standard because he refused to investigate the land dealings of Liberal minister Tony Valeri during the election campaign because the House was not sitting.

Liberal MP Wayne Easter said that refusing to co-operate with the Ethics Commissioner is akin to refusing to co-operate with the Auditor-General. "Does Prime Minister Harper have something to hide?" he asked.

A spokesman for Mr. Shapiro said his office has not received "any formal communication that leads us to believe that we will not receive full co-operation."

Mr. Shapiro has come under fire in the past from MPs of all parties for his decisions, but not for partisanship. A Commons committee censured him last fall for making public comments on a continuing inquiry, but one committee member, Bloc MP Michel Guimond, said his party still has confidence in Mr. Shapiro.

Mr. Shapiro's nomination was reviewed by a House of Commons committee in 2004. Mr. Harper's Conservatives did not demand a recorded vote when the appointment was approved by the entire Commons in April of that year.

Mr. Shapiro, the former principal of McGill University, was a senior bureaucrat under Liberal and NDP provincial governments in Ontario in the 1990s, and has been appointed to head inquiries by the province's Conservatives.

The code of conduct for members of Parliament requires all MPs to co-operate with an inquiry by the Ethics Commissioner. By law, the commissioner is empowered to police the separate code of conduct for public office-holders such as cabinet ministers.

Ms. Buckler said yesterday she would call later to respond to The Globe's questions about whether Mr. Harper would be violating the MPs' code if he refuses to co-operate. She did not call back. A spokesman for Mr. Emerson, Jennifer Chiu, referred questions to Ms. Buckler.

Last fall, Mr. Harper dodged Mr. Shapiro for four months while the Ethics Commissioner was investigating Liberal efforts to get former Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal to cross the floor.

In his report on that case, Mr. Shapiro said it would be a breach of the ethics code to offer an MP "a reward" to change his or her vote. The report did not make it clear whether it would be considered improper to offer an MP a cabinet job to cross the floor. Mr. Harper's decision to refuse to co-operate also raises questions about whether the Prime Minister will try to force Mr. Shapiro out of his job.

Former New Democraic MP Ed Broadbent moved a motion of no-confidence in Mr. Shapiro last spring, questioning his judgment but not his integrity. Last fall, the Commons committee on procedure and House affairs found him in contempt for speaking to a reporter about a continuing inquiry into Tory MP Deepak Obhrai.