OTTAWA - Now that the RCMP have closed their file on her, Helena Guergis wants a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
On April 9, Harper took the extraordinary steps of firing Guergis as minister of state for the status of women, kicking her out of the Conservative caucus, and referring her file to the RCMP and Parliament’s ethics commissioner.
Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson quickly decided that Harper’s concerns didn’t merit an investigation from her office and, this week, the RCMP told Guergis the same thing.
“I knew that I had done nothing wrong,” a vindicated Guergis said in a statement released Thursday. “I think it is time for a face-to-face meeting between the PM and I. He can raise his concerns, whatever they are, and I can answer. I have never been afforded this opportunity.” Harper and Guergis last spoke, by phone, for a few minutes the evening before her forced resignation was announced.
She has been sitting as an independent MP since and Conservatives in Ottawa say that’s not going to change.
“The actions by the RCMP and the ethics commissioner are separate from the decisions of the Conservative caucus, which holds its members to a high standard of conduct,” said Sara McIntryre, Harper’s associate press secretary.
