Jaffer Grilled by MPs Over Lobbying Scandal

Rahim Jaffer was blasted by MPs from all parties in an explosive committee hearing on Parliament Hill.
Jaffer Grilled by MPs Over Lobbying Scandal
Matthew Little
4/22/2010
Updated:
4/22/2010

OTTAWA—Rahim Jaffer, once a rising star in the Conservative Party, was blasted by MPs from all parties in an explosive committee hearing on Parliament Hill Wednesday over allegations that he had used political connections from his former position as an MP and chair of the Conservative caucus to carry out illegal lobbying.

Jaffer and business partner Patrick Glémaud denied any wrongdoing in the operations of their company, Green Power Generation Corp, at times trying to frame the allegations against them as a Liberal smear campaign.

But as the committee members took turns grilling the pair, MPs from all parties, including the Conservatives, questioned the two businessmens’ honesty and denigrated Jaffer for tarnishing the reputation of elected officials.

Neither Jaffer, Glémaud, nor their company are registered to work as lobbyists on Parliament Hill, raising concerns about work both men did on behalf of clients they refused to name during the hearing.

Among the people Green Power Generation worked with was Nazim Gillani, an alleged conman being pursued by authorities for fraud or tax evasion. Gillani boasted in an email that Jaffer would open doors to the Prime Minister’s Office after the two had a meeting last September.

It was after that meeting that Jaffer was pulled over by police and charged with drunk driving and cocaine possession. The charges were dropped last month when crown prosecutors decided the case would fail due to problems with admission of evidence as a result of questionable police work.

The strongest allegations of the hearing put that issue front and centre when NDP MP Pat Martin asked Jaffer whether the cocaine was payment for lobbying services.

Jaffer and Glémaud repeatedly stated they received no funds to lobby the government and that their company has never received government grants or other money. Jaffer said their business with Gillani went nowhere because there was “no synergy” between the two companies.

Martin, however, suggested otherwise.

“You left with ‘no synergy’ and a pocket full of cocaine ... he was left with the impression that you were going to be great business partners,” he said.

Jaffer’s wife, Helena Guergis, was ejected from the Conservative caucus and fired from her role as Minister of State on the Status of Women when the PMO was tipped off that she might be entangled in the Gillani affair.

Green Power Generation bills itself as a business that can help bring new green energy companies to market but to date the company has made no money despite working with several companies—at least three looking to secure funds from the federal government.

Glémaud was pressed and later ordered by the committee chair to name the three companies whose projects he submitted for consideration for the Green Infrastructure Fund. However, he said that he could not remember after earlier saying that two of the companies were not Wright Tech Systems, but he could not remember who the third company was.

Wright Tech has attracted specific attention because the owner of the company has a home in Guergis’ riding and it was Wright Tech that Gillani was talking about when he boasted that Jaffer would open access to the PMO. There are also reports that Wright Tech was about to be taken public, and the Toronto Star has reported on Gillani’s reputation as a “pump and dump” conman that inflates the price of a company so the stock can be sold off for a lucrative profit.

One of the most contentions points in Wednesday’s hearing was how Jaffer described himself on his personal website and whether he was presenting himself as someone with personal connections in the government and able to exploit those connections for potential clients.

Jaffer flip-flopped over specific wording, at times saying a key phrase suggesting he could secure support for projects from the government was not on his site, at other times saying it was on his personal website but was being taken out of context.

Conservative MP Chris Warkentin was incredulous when, after quizzing Jaffer on this specific point, he was later given a print-out from the website which contradicted Jaffer’s previous denial.

“This kind of behaviour sullies all of our names,” said Warkentin.

While the Liberals have continued to try to link the scandal to the PMO due to allegations Guergis’s involvement and Gillani’s boast that Jaffer had access there, news commentators were saying after the hearings that Jaffer received no help from his former colleagues.

Jaffer himself said after the hearing that he felt like he had been hung out to dry.

There were some emotional moments during the hearing, particularly at the beginning when Jaffer was close to tears while describing his sorrow for the “almost insufferable” pain he had brought to his family—especially Guergis—over the drunk driving incident.

“She is the most important person in my life and I love her dearly. And it is very unfortunate that her good name has been dragged into my problems so unfairly,” he said.

However, he denied ever using drugs, making no allusion to or explanation for the cocaine found in his car.

Jaffer, who was the only Conservative MP in Alberta not to get elected in 2008, said he was confident his wife would be cleared of any wrongdoing as the commissioner of lobbying looked into the matter.