Two years ago Prime Minister Stephen Harper kicked out Helena Guergis, his minister for the Status of Women. Yes, right out of cabinet. Out of his caucus, out of the Conservative Party. Harper never told us why.
Guergis says he never told her either.
Harper ordered the RCMP to investigate her. The cops did. They declared Guergis as white as the driven snow.
So why would Harper do this to her?
Her husband Rahim Jaffer was arrested by police with some "coke" in his jacket pocket, drunk as a pot and driving at twice the speed limit?
But since when do we punish wives for their husbands' idiocies? If we did, a lot of women in this world would have to be punished.
Harper did announce that his office was aware of "serious allegations about her conduct.'' Nothing more. He never explained. He never apologized or took her back into cabinet when the cops said she had done nothing wrong.
Guergis is suing Harper for $ 1.3 million for ruining her life.
She accuses him of "conspiracy, defamation, abuse of authority, neglect, and mental suffering." Those allegations have not been proven in court.
The scandal is getting worse . . . . and more expensive.
Harper refuses to be defended by Department of Justice lawyers who are fully qualified and quite willing to defend their "boss." And to do it for free! They are on government salary to do precisely that sort of thing.
But Harper doesn't want them. Instead he has hired an outside lawyer, Robert Staley, of Toronto who is with the Bennett Jones firm of Calgary.
The problem? Staley does not work for nothing. A lawyer like him is easily worth $ 5,000 per day.
The Guergis case could last more than a year.
That's a lot of money. So who pays the bill?
Well, we do -- taxpayers. As usual.
There is nothing we can do. Harper has a majority in parliament.
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