Guergis wants delay before committee testimony

OTTAWA – MP Helena Guergis has asked her parliamentary colleagues to hold off asking her about the business dealings of her husband, former MP Rahim Jaffer, until she finds out what the RCMP and ethics commissioner want to do about separate allegations involving her.

Guergis’s request to delay her appearance at the House of Commons government operations and estimates committee comes on the eve of Jaffer’s appearance Wednesday at that committee.

It will be the first time Jaffer has spoken publicly since explosive allegations surfaced earlier this month that linked him and his wife to prostitutes and cocaine users. Those charges prompted Prime Minister Stephen Harper to fire Guergis from cabinet, suspend her from caucus and call in the police and the parliamentary ethics commissioner.

"It has not been determined what action will be taken, if any, by these organizations but I plan to co-operate fully as I have always maintained no wrong doing with relation to these matters," Guergis said in a letter, obtained by Canwest News Service, that she sent to to MPs on the government operations committee.

"Until this situation has been determined, it would be prudent that the committee delay my appearance as a witness to their study in order to avoid any prejudice that may develop from such appearance with regard to the aforementioned matters," Guergis wrote. "I would be happy to appear in front of the committee and answer any questions relating to this study at such time once the organizations reviewing these allegations have determined their course of action."

Like her husband, Guergis has not made any public appearances since Harper fired her on April 9.

The RCMP are collecting information about the allegations referred to it by Harper’s office but, so far, have not made any determination what to do.

"The RCMP is looking into the letter we received," said RCMP Sgt. Stephane Turgeon, "and we may or may not initiate an investigation."

Guergis said in her letter that she hopes the RCMP and the ethics commissioner will have made some decisions in time for her to appear before the committee on May 12.

The ethics commissioner, though, can only move as fast as Guergis does.

On Monday, ethics commissioner Mary Dawson said in a letter to NDP MP Libby Davies that she had no grounds to investigate Guergis on a complaint by Davies that Guergis violated the federal Conflict of Interest Act.

But Dawson told Davies that she was applying standard procedure with a separate complaint by Davies that Guergis violated the conflict of interest code for MPs. Dawson has given Guergis until the week of May 19 to respond to Davies’s complaint. Then Dawson will take up to 15 days after that to decide what to do.

That means it could be June before the ethics commissioner makes a decision on that complaint.

As for the complaint referred to her about Guergis by Harper, Dawson has already said that that investigation is "on hold."