Who sandbagged Rahim Jaffer? And why?

It’s certainly an interesting question, possibly an important one.

These facts, as they frequently say in the criminal courts, are not in dispute: On Sept. 11, 2009, the Ontario Provincial Police charged the former Edmonton-Strathcona Member of Parliament with drunk driving, possession of cocaine and speeding after they observed a vehicle he was driving rip through a 50-km/h zone at 93 km/h in the village of Palgrave, northwest of Toronto. Jaffer lived nearby with his wife, MP Helena Guergis, Conservative MP for Simcoe-Grey and Status of Women Minister in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative cabinet. At the time, the OPP said a Breathalyzer test indicated there were more than 80 milligrams of alcohol in Mr. Jaffer’s blood. What’s more, they said they had discovered cocaine in Jaffer’s possession.

Charges of speeding, illegal drug possession and drunken driving quickly followed.

The next big development in this story happened March 9, when the charges were dropped in Orangeville, Ont., and Jaffer was allowed to plead guilty to the much less serious charge of careless driving. He paid a painless $500 fine.

Many Canadians responded with outrage, seeing evidence of special treatment for a pal of the prime minister who had been turfed from office by Edmonton voters in the October 2008 federal election in favour of New Democrat Linda Duncan.

There was irony aplenty in the situation, too, given the Conservative government’s frequent advocacy of long prison terms for drug use as a wedge issue, and Jaffer’s sleazy radio ads during the election campaign that falsely claimed NDP Leader Jack Layton had once advocated legalization of marijuana.

Which brings up to yesterday, when an astounding expose in the Toronto Star pretty well put the final nail into the coffin of Jaffer’s hopes for a political comeback, and gravely damaged his wife’s career as well.

The Star story boldly stated, among other things, that on the night Jaffer was arrested he was at a “booze-soaked dinner” with a shady character suspected of fraud and tax evasion, in the company of “three busty hookers,” and was bragging about his influence in the prime minister’s office. (The Star also reported the PMO vigorously denied Jaffer had any influence whatsoever.)

So, who fed the Star the story that laid waste to Jaffer’s credibility?

Whoever it was, they had an encyclopedic knowledge of Jaffer’s associates, activities and assertions.

Was it the OPP, furious that Jaffer’s legal success made a veteran officer look like a monkey who made rookie mistakes and let the charges slip away, as was suggested by some news coverage at the time? 

Or was it the PMO itself, fed up with the embarrassment caused by Jaffer’s hijinks, not to mention his wife’s embarrassing airport temper tantrums?

One version of this theory now gaining traction holds that Jaffer escaped serious charges because he rolled over on the associates named in the Star story, and the Conservatives are making sure the whole can of worms is opened in public in hopes of avoiding the obvious suggestion they influenced the verdict.

Whether or not this theory holds water — and we will likely never know for sure — this approach is now certain to be a key part of the Conservatives’ upcoming campaign to recapture Edmonton-Strathcona from the New Democrats.

After all, Jaffer’s increasingly squalid public image has become a huge liability for the Conservatives, not just on the riding’s predominantly New Democratic west side, but in the more conservative suburban east as well.

Making Jaffer appear a renegade scofflaw is infinitely superior from the Conservative perspective than admitting he is a symbol of a government that has one set of rules for itself and its friends, and another for the rest of us.

This post also appears on David Climenhaga’s blog, AlbertaDiary.ca.

David J. Climenhaga

David J. Climenhaga

David Climenhaga is a journalist and trade union communicator who has worked in senior writing and editing positions with the Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald. He left journalism after the strike...