It has been announced that Canadian Conservative Prime Minister Steven Harper is being sued for defamation, conspiracy, intentional infliction of mental suffering and negligence. Also named in the lawsuit is Conservative members of parliament Shelly Glover and Lisa Raitt, the Conservative Party of Canada and a number of other individuals for defamation and other claims. Filing the lawsuit is former MP Helena Guergis who is seeking 1.3 million in damages in remedy for misconduct on the part of several Conservative party members and a law firm.

Helena Guergis was forced to leave the the Conservative caucus in April 2010 when several accusations were made against her and her husband, former MP Rahim Jaffer.

Also being sued is Ray Novak, Harper’s principal secretary, Arthur Hamilton and the law firm he works for, Cassels Brock & Blackwell, Guy Giorno, Harper’s former chief of staff, Axelle Pellerin, a former aide to Guergis, and Derrick Snowdy. Snowdy is a private investigator who made the allegations without presenting any evidence of their existence.

According to the statement of claim, Hamilton told Steven Harper that Guergis was using cocaine and was connected in several illegal activities with video evidence to confirm it. These claims including prostitution, fraud and cocaine use, were handed off to the Royal Canadian Mounted police for investigation. After said investigation, the RCMP found that there was no illegal activity taking place. The police were unable to find any evidence of these allegations whatsoever.

These seemingly baseless accusations stem from an incident involving her husband Jaffer who was stopped for reckless driving and having a bag of cocaine in his car. He was also accused of improper lobbying. What that has to do with accused misconduct on the part of Guergis by the prime minister has yet to be explained. She believes her claim of a conspiracy to have her removed stems from an interview she did with Peter Mansbridge in which she says she was not told why she “was pressured to resign from her position as the Minister of State for the Status of Women”.

A statement from the prime minister’s office called the allegations “groundless” and that they will be “refuted vigorously.”

In my opinion this kind of incident is not unexpected. Previously Steven Harper has had other cabinet members removed for disagreeing with him. He decorated the government lobby with photos of just himself, and not former prime ministers as usual. If a communist, liberal, or NDP did this, they would be called a megalomaniac.

Steven Harper is the first prime minister to have more than a thousand fellow Canadians arrested at once, the vast majority of whom were never even charged with a crime. If any other country did this, it would be called a police state dictatorship.

He is the first and only prime minister to be found in contempt of parliament. That means he has consistently over the years broken rules intended to keep Canada a democracy. That is why the last election was called early, because he violated the rights of Canadian citizens. If Vladimir Putin does this, he’s called a dictator who has subverted democracy.

Making allegations against someone falsely would fit the pattern of fascist behaviour he’s demonstrated so far.

Sources:
Interview excerpt: Mansbridge and Guergis
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/1221254309/ID=2179718618

Page contains actual Statement of Claim
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/12/22/pol-guergis-lawsuit.html?cmp=rss