Since the arrest and subsequent leniency afforded former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer, the Prime Minster and his office have continued to stumble, losing control of the media message they have been so good at orchestrating.  It wasn't even the arrest of a former Minister and the fact that he was and still is, the husband of current, although now independent, Minister Helena Guergis.  Rumblings began when the prosecutor agreed to drop the drunk driving and cocaine possession charges to a lower charge of careless driving and a $500 fine. 

While that incident may have been frustrating for Canadians who believe that the rich and influential get to play by their own rules, it wasn't really a reflection on the Prime Minister and his leadership yet.  It wasn't until a private investigator who had been investigating another matter entirely discovered that both Rahim Jaffer and Helena Geurgis were involved with the target of his investigation, conman Nazim Gillani.

The Toronto Star did an investigative piece on the connection between Gillani and Rahim Jaffer which revealed that Mr. Gillani was bragging about how Jaffer could open up the Prime Minister's office to us.  On top of that Mr. Jaffer and his business partner met with the Conservative parliamentary secretary who is in charge of a billion dollar green energy fund, to submit proposals without registering as lobbyists.  However, even that wasn't enough to dislodge the Prime Minister's iron grip on controlling the message and maintaining confidence in his government.

What tipped the scales wasn't so much the scandals themselves, but that the Prime Minister mysteriously kicked Ms. Guergis out of the Cabinet and even the party caucus, based on third party information.  It turned out that the third party was a private investigator, but this was the moment that the Prime Minister stumbled hard.  Prime Minister Harper said that he had taken the appropriate actions by referring the matter to the RCMP as well as the parliamentary ethics commissioner, but it turned out that he didn't ask for an official investigation of either the RCMP or the ethics commissioner.  The commissioner decided not to investigate because she said that the Prime Minister didn't ask for an official investigation, then when officially asked by the NDP she declined a second time saying that the NDP had to give her more evidence for her to initiate an investigation.  Isn't it the job of the investigator to look into finding further evidence?

Watch Harper announce the removal of Helena Guergis:



Anyway, the important question as to the Prime Minister's leadership finally came up in question period when it was asked, why would the Prime Minister take the word of an unknown third party and kick Helena Guergis out of the party, while at the same time disparaging and even trying to discredit Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin who, when testifying before a parliamentary committee on Afghan detainee torture after being handed over by Canadian soldiers to Afghan intelligence agents, said that government officials ignored his warnings of torture?  It really is a serious discrepancy as to the judgment of Stephen Harper, or simply an indication, or glimpse into what is more than likely political and professional hypocrisy.

Today we'll see Rahim Jaffer testify before a parliamentary committee as to his role in these serious allegations, although his wife has asked for a delay so that she can hear what, if any, charges the RCMP will be levelling against her.  Yay corruption.

UPDATE:  Mr. Jaffer appeared on Parliament Hill to testify about his lobbying activities towards obtaining Green energy funding from the Federal government, all without registering as a lobbyist.  His opening remarks began with a bit of a sob story about his Muslim roots in Uganda and his family's immigrant status before launching into an attack on his having to testify to the committee before charges are laid against his wife by the RCMP for being involved in as of yet undefined ways in her husband's lobbying efforts.  The reason I'm so down on the religious and ethnic background opening is because it had never come up before, ever, that and the fact that it's a well known tactic to try and get public sympathy when testifying on live TV.  His business partner gave his own back ground story about how hard his life was and and how he has been victimized too.

To be fair, he denied all allegations against him, complaining loudly about personal attacks against him and his family, but then he sort of ruined it by talking about his arrest, denying he ever used any illegal substance even though he was found to have had cocaine in his possession.  I don't think his fake indignation worked out so well because the second person to question the duo cut to the chase, asking if they had registered as lobbyists, to which they said, "No."

As a side note, anything anyone says to a Parliamentary committee is protected, so it can't be used against you for any reason, or if just you feel like saying libellous things, that's all good too.  Whatever happens to Mr. Jaffer and his wife will resolve itself eventually, but the question still remains if the Prime Minister makes his decisions based on politics, or good judgment?

In any event watch Rahim Jaffer's opening statement below: