Rahim Jaffer and Helena Guergis May go Down Together But They Won't be Alone

I posted a rather lengthy piece on Rahim Jaffer and Helena Guergis, just to show how close he was to so many members of our current government. The relationship goes back a long way, and the dirty dealing just as long.

I also privately wondered how many more MPs besides his wife, will end up getting tangled up in this.

When you buy someone off for $ 40,000.00 and get away with it, I guess you believe you can get away with anything.

Jaffer's contact with government touched six departments

OTTAWA - Conservative government officials dealt with calls and emails from Rahim Jaffer as a priority and sometimes pushed federal bureaucrats to speed up their response to his queries.

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press show the former Tory MP sometimes used the parliamentary email address assigned to the office of his wife, Helena Guergis, the former minister of state for the status of women. The more than 50 pages show that Jaffer contacted at least six ministerial offices over the past year.

Jaffer emailed Industry staff from Guergis account

Jaffer sent an email to an Industry Ministry official from an account registered to MP Helena Guergis, who at the time was the minister for the status of women. The message inquired about Canada's plans for installing new space satellites and about national ownership rules in that sector.

The information was requested "on behalf of some constituents who are friends of Helena and I," Jaffer wrote in the message. Jaffer hasn't been an MP since he lost his Edmonton-Strathcona seat in the October 2008 election.

In the email, he asks whether the federal government is interested in technology that allows satellites to track ocean vessels. If so, he says, it "would be positive for commercial development and MDA." MDA refers to MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, a B.C.-based aerospace firm that has built several government satellites. David Pierce, the Industry official in question, who knew Jaffer personally, replied the next day, saying he would call the former MP.

GuergisJafferWatch: It's a mini-document dump

Not that we're complaining, mind you. CBC News has obtained the 60-page package of Jaffer-related correspondence delivered to the Government Operations committee earlier today, and -- well, here it is! (I'll add my thoughts when I've had time to go through it in detail)

I'll bet there's not a lot of sleeping going on these days.