The editorial this morning in the excellent Calgary Sun says, “We deserve answers in alleged vote-buying affair” and calls the story a “Deep, dark hole”. I couldn’t agree more.
Canadians could be forgiven for feeling they’ve missed something in the ongoing story of the now infamous tapes of Liberal bigwigs apparently trying to buy the favours of Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal.
That’s because there’s a hole in the story big enough to sink a government.
Grewal, who blew the whistle on the sleazy, perhaps even illegal tactics employed by the Liberals to desperately cling to power, has been put through the media ringer.
While Grewal has been accused of everything but stealing candy from a baby, the prime minister’s chief of staff and one of his top cabinet ministers have been treated with kid gloves.
While the national media (with notable exceptions) had a feeding frenzy on Grewal, they seemed to employ a virtual hands off policy toward the actions of the PM’s key lieutenant Tim Murphy and Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh.
The Conservatives have now released a report from an audio recording expert who says the tapes are clean and unaltered, contradicting the opinions of other experts who claimed the tapes were altered.
That’s interesting, but really only a technicality.
There are huge swaths of taped conversations that make it more than apparent what is going on.
The tapes are clear enough that the Bloc has requested a criminal investigation on the basis of Criminal Code provisions that make it an offence to seek or offer inducements to a parliamentarian to influence government business.
Admittedly, Grewal’s motives and behaviour in this affair aren’t completely clear, but that shouldn’t take the heat off the very serious actions of Liberals at the very top of the party.
Yet many in the media have behaved as though Paul Martin and Co. are the aggrieved victims.
No wonder John Reynolds has described it as a “one-sided hatchet job.”
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe has a more accurate perception of the seriousness of this affair.
He says he’s asked the RCMP to find out when Martin authorized Murphy to talk to Grewal about joining the Liberals.
Duceppe says that because it’s a criminal offence for an MP to sell his vote, it’s crucial to find out whether Martin authorized Murphy to continue negotiations after he found out Grewal was willing to switch parties in return for a reward.
Continuing the talks would show Martin was complicit in the matter, Duceppe says in a letter to the RCMP.
NDP Leader Jack Layton has asked Parliament’s ethics commissioner Bernard Shapiro to investigate Martin’s role, too, after Shapiro concluded Murphy is not a public office holder and is therefore out of his jurisdiction.
We’d go even further and urge an outside investigation into this whole sordid business.
On the tapes, Murphy even suggests he might be able to help Grewal by speeding up the ethics commissioner’s independent probe of the Tory MP.
Murphy is heard saying that getting Shapiro to issue an interim report might be helpful.
Shapiro claims such an approach by the PM’s staff would not be countenanced, but Murphy’s taped suggestion that he could influence Parliament’s ethics czar must be investigated further.
A offence appears to have been committed here that rocks the very foundation of our democracy.
It’s time to call the cops.
It’s time for Murphy and Dosanjth to step down until an investigation into their actions is complete.
And most of all, it’s time for Canadians and especially the establishment media to start asking some tough questions of the PM, health minister and the PM’s top aide.
Were they involved in buying the votes of our elected representatives in an attempt to save the government’s hide?
We must not relent until we get the answer.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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