Canadian prime minister says police will investigate conduct of minister despite resignation

Canadian PM says police to investigate minister

TORONTO — Canada’s prime minister has asked the national police force to investigate what he called “serious allegations” against one of his cabinet ministers.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement Friday moments after Conservative Party member Helena Guergis said she was resigning.

Harper did not disclose the nature of the allegations against the junior minister but said that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been called in to investigate Guergis’ conduct.

She was minister of state for the status of women.

“Last night my office became aware of serious allegations regarding the conduct of the Honorable Helena Guergis,” Harper said during a surprise news conference Friday.

He said that the allegations — which he did not disclose — did not involve any other cabinet minister, member of Parliament, senator or federal government employee.

The RCMP confirmed it has been asked to investigate the undisclosed allegations but would not say if a criminal investigation was under way.

Harper also said Friday that Guergis was being suspended from the ruling Conservative Party’s Parliamentary caucus pending a resolution into the matter, and will sit for now as an independent member of Parliament.

The Toronto Star reported this week that Guergis’s husband, Rahim Jaffer, boasted to businessmen he could help them secure federal money and provide them with access to officials in Harper’s office.

The report also alleges that Guergis gave him a Parliament BlackBerry that he might have been using for his environmental consulting business.

The story further suggested that Jaffer, a former Alberta Tory member of Parliament, had been handing out Parliament business cards even though he lost his seat in the 2008 election.

Jaffer had been charged with drunk driving and cocaine possession in September. He pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving and was ordered to pay a 500 Canadian dollars ($498) fine, but the more serious charges against him were dropped.

Guergis has also caught media attention several times in recent months.

A Liberal member of Parliament recently asked the ethics commissioner to examine an CA$880,880 ($878,500) mortgage Guergis got and used to purchase a house in an upscale Ottawa, Ontario, neighborhood with no down payment.

That followed a February incident in which Guergis reportedly threw a temper tantrum at a Canadian airport. She allegedly verbally abused security and airline staff after she was asked to remove her boots while passing through a routine security checkpoint.

Following that incident, members of Parliament became aware of a number of letters written by a Guergis aide to the media lauding her without revealing that the aide worked for the junior minister.

Guergis’s 2008 election expenses are also under investigation.

In her letter of resignation, Guergis says, “The past nine months have been a very difficult time for me. I have made mistakes for which I have apologized.”