Rahim decides to show up and talk some more

Apparently, Mr. Jaffer decided to show up today for yesterday's appointment before the Commons Government Operations Committee. He was too busy yesterday tending to his wife, Helena Guergis and her medical appointment; he felt it was more important to be with his wife than it was to spend quality time with his former colleagues from the House. Had that been you or I that ignored the summons from Parliament, I suspect we would not have been given a second chance to appear before someone showed up at our door with handcuffs. Most likely he suspected that yesterday's announcement would win him a few sympathy votes from the members of the Committee.

A new allegation that cropped up was that it appears that he may have travelled on his special government-issued green passport for his own personal business. According to the Passport Canada website, a green passport is only issued to persons holding office (i.e. MPs, Senators and to persons employed by the government in non-diplomatic capacities who are travelling on official government business. Why Mr. Jaffer even had this passport in his possession after being turfed from office is beyond me. Mr. Jaffer denied having used the passport but when asked to produce it so that the stamps could be checked, he claimed that he had lost the passport. He certainly appears to be a responsible fellow! Luckily, he seems to have his pockets full of his old MP business cards should he need to prove his identity.

Mr. Jaffer also claimed that he took his entire personal website down when he was asked to remove the Conservative Party logo; unfortunately, that is not true because the website remained up for several days without the logo before the site was taken down in its entirety. A copy of the two websites is available on the cbc.ca website here and on the Globe and Mail website here. Apparently, Mr. Jaffer's memory has not improved with time. It would also appear that he does not understand that everything that has ever been posted on the internet seems to exist forever. The truth is out there and it will be discovered.

When Mr. Jaffer was asked by NDP MP Nathan Cullen (Skeena - Bulkley Valley) if he knew what the penalties for "influence peddling" were, Mr. Jaffer reminded him that he didn't actually have any influence. I think all Canadians know that, I'm just not certain that Mr. Jaffer actually believes it. Not when he was handing out his old MP business cards a year after he was defeated in the 2008 election.

To cap the whole performance off, Mr. Jaffer laments that he no longer recognizes the Conservative Party after the Conservative members of the Committee picked on him again today. Unfortunately, Mr. Jaffer just doesn't seem to have grasped the concept that his old chums in the Conservative Party of Canada regard him as a liability, not an asset. More's the pity.