Guergis Broke MPs' Conflict-of-Interest Rules

The government's ethics commissioner says a letter Guergis wrote to a town council could be seen as lobbying on behalf of her husband.

Former Conservative/independent MP Helena Guergis contravened Parliament's conflict-of-interest rules by asking a town council in her riding to consider the plan of a businessman that her husband, former Tory MP Rahim Jaffer, was working with. Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson said Guergis' letter broke the section of the code that bars members of Parliament from using their influence to benefit family members. Guergis, who represented the Ontario riding of Simcoe-Grey, was booted out of the Conservative caucus last year for undisclosed reasons amid allegations that Jaffer had been illegally lobbying. Guergis ran as an independent in the last election and lost.