Harper failed to meet ethics czar on Grewal

[CHIMO]

OTTAWA — Stephen Harper failed to meet federal Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro despite repeated attempts over four months to interview him for an inquiry into the Gurmant Grewal affair, Mr. Shapiro noted in a report released yesterday.

Despite a code of conduct that says it is an MP's duty to co-operate with an inquiry by the commissioner, Mr. Harper's office told Mr. Shapiro he could not find time in his schedule to answer his questions between August and November of last year. Instead, Mr. Shapiro spoke to an aide.

The report was ready last Friday but delayed to prevent accusations of political favouritism in the last days of an election campaign. In the report, Mr. Shapiro wrote that he wanted to ask Mr. Harper when he knew about the surreptitious recordings of conversations that Mr. Grewal, then a Conservative MP, had with senior Liberals about switching sides for a crucial no-confidence vote.

In the end, Mr. Shapiro concluded that it is unclear whether Mr. Grewal was really seeking a reward for crossing the Commons floor, or whether he wanted merely to entrap the Liberals -- but that at the very least, his actions flew in the face of the principles of the code of conduct for MPs.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060126.wxethics26/BNStory/National/

Ethics eh. Mr. Speaker, there is ....

[SidDithers]

1. So, instead, Dosanjh has to run with a "scandal" hanging...

over his head.

Just release the damn reports when they're done. Delaying for any reason can just as easily be construed, by one side or another, as playing "political favouritism".

Sid

[ClusterFreak]

2. During Harper's news conference just now....

...a female reporter did bring this up. But I think only to suggest he didn't fully cooperate with the ethics commissioner or something...not specifically that he failed to meet with him personally. Harpo brushed it off. She let him. It was sickening. A man who has Harped over and over and over about accountability and transparency, fails the test himself. And, they let him get away with it. I want to hit somebody.:mad:

[glarius]

3. Earlier I heard a reporter on CBC Newsworld talk about this and she said

that the reporters would be "pounding" (her word) Harper about it. Apparently nobody told the reporters!
P.S...I'm sorry I don't remember the reporter's name. I'm terrible about names. She's the reporter, with the auburn, shoulder length hair.
P.P.S...It just came to me, she was Carolyn Dunn.

[daleo]

4. This will be a first indication of the media's relationship with Harper

At least it was mentioned in the Globe and Canwest papers. But, will they pursue it?