Busty hookers and blackmail

It's a story that has everything: busty hookers, blackmail, drugs, ties to the Hell's Angels, an office in the VIP room of a strip club. No, not the Bada Bing, but the Club Paradise in Etobicoke (above). It's beginning to sound more like an episode of the Soprano's than Canada's usual humdrum political fare.

We don't know who he or she is, but at least we know what the mysterious third party is: a private investigator looking into Nazim Gillani's alleged criminal activities,. CTV reported that the allegations were brought forward by a private investigator, who informed a Conservative lawyer about a possible threat of blackmail related to allegations about the purchase of drugs. Blackmailing who? We don't know, but we can certainly guess by who has taken the fall.

Glemaud comes out swinging
Patrick Glemaud is Rahim Jaffer's business partner in Green Power Generation, a company hoping to cash in on government grants using their insider connections. Both Glemaud and Jaffer are former Conservative Party candidates. Both failed to win their seats in the 2008 election. Glemaud, a lawyer, has worked for the Federal Natural Resources Dept reviewing and approving government grant contracts. Jaffer is the former chair of the Conservative caucus (2006 - 2008).

Glemaud came out swinging today, saying this story is ruining his life.

It's a real shame that this poor innocent man and his business are being so tarnished. After all, who would ever get the idea that a man called "Big Daddy G" who surrounded himself with hookers, strippers and a steroid-peddling bodyguard and who conducted his business from the VIP lounge of a strip club was anything but legit? No red flags there.

And why, just because Rahim Jaffer was being chauffeured around Ottawa on the taxpayers dime, meeting with John Baird, parliamentary secretary  Brian Jean, federal environment minister Jim Prentice and other high-ranking Tories, would anyone get the idea that he was lobbying?

Said Glemaud, "Brian Jean goes and tells us it’s the bureaucrats who have to decide and do the assessment of the project, and the bureaucrats send the assessment of the project after to Brian Jean and then Brian Jean says, ‘OK, all right, let’s go ahead with that,’ " he said. "We didn’t even get to the stage of that. None of the people we are dealing with submit any claims, any applications."
Jean said that’s not accurate. He said Glemaud and Jaffer submitted proposals. "I’ve got the paperwork right in front of me."

It's not simply the possibility that Jaffer was lobbying without having registered as a lobbyist. There's actually a clause in the Federal Accountability Act that prohibits senior public officials from lobbying government for a period of 5 years. As chair of the Conservative caucus from 2006 - 2008, is Jaffer a senior public official? If so, it means that he's not eligible to become a lobbyist until 2013.

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