General
Ethics commissioner finds Guergis broke rules
Former Conservative MP lobbied on behalf of company with ties to her husband
Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson has concluded former Conservative cabinet minister Helena Guergis violated her ethical obligations by endorsing a company that had ties to her husband’s firm. In 2009, Guergis wrote to the town council in Simcoe to recommend the a waste disposal firm, Wright Tech, that maintained business links with Rahim Jaffer, Guergis’s spouse. Guergis had said her goal was to offer an alternative to a municipal plan she opposed—a scenario Dawson acknowledged was “a significant part of her motivation”—but the ethics commissioner nonetheless concluded Guergis should have ceased lobbying on Wright’s behalf once she learned of its ties to Jaffer.