Dimitri Soudas, the Prime Minister’s director of communications, has been subpoenaed by the House of Commons ethics committee to appear to testify after he openly defied the committee’s request last month.
Chairman Paul Szabo, a Liberal MP from Mississauga, confirmed this morning that he issued the summons yesterday afternoon after Mr. Soudas had not responded to repeated requests to appear.
The summons is for Mr. Soudas to appear June 10 before the committee.
It is not clear yet how Mr. Soudas will handle the subpoena. He has not commented yet as to whether he will appear.
Mr. Soudas’ decision follows the Harper government’s recent edict that government political staffers would no longer be testifying before Commons committees, setting up another confrontation between the government and the opposition.
Government House leader Jay Hill explained the decision, arguing last week that staffers were being subjected to abuse and intimidation by the opposition.
Instead, the staffers’ ministers would appear in the spirit of ministerial accountability.
It is believed there is more behind this than the explanation provided by the government. Rather, it may to avoid allowing a number of aides, who have also been asked to testify before the committee investigating the Jaffer/Guergis affair, from appearing.
UPDATE: A senior government official says it is “a safe bet” that Mr. Soudas will not appear June 10th despite the summons. The government, says the official, has made the decision that ministers appear for their staffers. As well, the official questioned the invitation to Mr. Soudas as he has not had involvement in access requests. Guy Giorno has already testified in his role as chief of staff to the Prime Minister.
The official also objected to the fact that the Chair, Mr. Szabo has been publicly speaking about the subpoenas, adding that this is a partisan exercise, validating the government's point that this is a “kangaroo court.”
Mr. Soudas was asked initially to appear last Tuesday to testify about access to information issues and whether there was any political involvement in the release of access documents.
He refused; Transport Minister John Baird came instead and the committee was reduced to political wrangling with Mr. Baird saying very little.
This morning, Mr. Szabo, the chair, said Mr. Soudas and several other staffers were invited to appear again last Thursday.
“No response was received,” he said. “Last Friday they were asked again to confirm attendance. As no responses were received from any of the three by noon yesterday, I issued a summons for … Soudas yesterday afternoon. The Committee had authorized me to issue the summons if necessary.”
If Mr. Soudas does not appear June 10 the committee can then issue a report to the House of Commons, leaving the decision up to the Speaker as to whether there should be a finding of contempt and sanctions.
Sanctions can range from fines to imprisonment.
Mr. Szabo said this morning that this is “very serious.”
The committee today is speaking to access to information co-ordinators from various departments.
NDP MP Bill Siksay, a member of the committee, said this morning that he has some concerns about the way in which this government is handling access requests.
“The concern is about political interference from ministers’ offices with this process,” says Mr. Siksay. “The fact that we have to push so hard to get people to appear and that the government has pushed back so hard on preventing people to appear lets me think that there is more going on.”
