Rahim Jaffer appears as a witness at a standing committee on government operations and estimates on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday June 17, 2010.Sean Kilpatrick
Former Tory MP Rahim Jaffer lashed out at the Prime Minister and the Conservative Party today, saying the party that he once represented is unrecognizable and does not stand for democracy.
"We stood for democracy. We stood for freedom," he told a Commons committee this morning, referring to the party he first joined and was elected to as an MP to Parliament in 1997. He was defeated in 2008.
"The way my wife has been treated by your party and your government doesn't represent anything that I have ever … worked for during the time I was an MP."
Mr. Jaffer, clearly agitated, said that his wife, Helena Guergis, isn't even allowed to run as a Conservative for the nomination in her Simcoe-Grey riding.
"You want to talk about disappointment. That's disappointment."
Ms. Guergis is the former Status of Women Minister. She was forced to resign her post and then expelled from caucus over yet-to-be revealed allegations.
The RCMP is also investigating, although Mr. Jaffer said this morning that he has not been contacted by the RCMP.
"The Prime Minister called a process to say that she could clear her name and then proceeded to kick her out of the party. You call that democracy?"
He has also blamed the Prime Minister for causing his wife much stress. She has just passed the first trimester of her pregnancy; she is a high-risk patient. Mr. Jaffer missed a scheduled appearance Wednesday afternoon because he wanted to be at his wife's side during some medical tests; he reported this morning that everything is fine with their baby.
Mr. Jaffer is appearing this morning before the Government Operations committee for the second time. He appeared first last April but he admits he was unprepared at the time, appearing evasive and confused.
Mr. Jaffer, the defeated Edmonton Conservative MP, created a firestorm on Parliament Hill earlier this year as a result of questionable lobbying practices involving his new business.
He wants to try to clear his name before the summer break; the House of Commons is expected to rise today.
In a letter to the committee Wednesday, he apologized for "inadvertently providing incomplete information," explaining that he just wanted to appear immediately to try to help out his wife.
Today, however, things are not much better.
MPs did congratulate him and his wife on the news they are having their first child and then proceeded to grill him - again.
The MPs are on the committee are not making much progress.
Their long and wandering preambles, and constant interruptions of Mr. Jaffer, are providing little in the way of discovering if he was lobbying inappropriately and trying to piggyback off of his former role as an MP.