Independent MP Helena Guergis speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Feb. 10, 2011.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Six months after being kicked out of the Conservative Party caucus, MP Helena Guergis was called to an after-hours meeting on Parliament Hill and interrogated by party lawyers and a senator on her husband's business dealings, the CBC is reporting.
The broadcaster reported Ms. Guergis was summoned to the Oct. 5 meeting by a letter from Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton, in which he wrote he had been authorized by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to meet with her and ask questions that would help determine if she would be allowed back into caucus.
Representing the party were Mr. Hamilton, lawyer Laurie Livingstone and Marjorie Lebreton, the government senate leader. Ms. Guergis brought with her Calgary MP Lee Richardson and Andy Beaudoin, a former riding official.
She was questioned for roughly two hours, primarily about the business dealings of her husband, former Edmonton MP Rahim Jaffer.
"I felt halfway through that I wanted to leave," she said in a televised interview. "I believe they were trying to find something else to use against me, or to justify their behaviour."
Mr. Jaffer was accused last year of using his wife's office to push private business interests. Ms. Guergis, a junior cabinet minister at the time, was fired from cabinet and kicked out of the party. The RCMP investigated and cleared her.
It was three months after the RCMP wrapped up their probe that the Oct. 5 meeting took place. Ms. Guergis told the CBC that she received a letter three weeks later saying she would not be allowed back into the party.
Mr. Harper has been criticized by some for his treatment of Ms. Guergis, as other MPs who have faced allegations of wrongdoing, such as Maxime Bernier, have been allowed to remain in caucus.
Adrian Morrow