By David@Sixthestate.net
While the media was playing up the make-believe, non-ethical, non-scandal of the fact that Justin Trudeau used to charge (gosh!) speaking fees for public lectures, those of us who are actually concerned with the real-life rule of law in this country were watching a trio of Conservative MPs petulantly refuse to file corrected campaign returns with Elections Canada on the grounds that if they did, said returns would show that they had exceeded their expense limits during the 2011 election and thus broken the law.
Refusing to file your forms can get you suspended from the House of Commons, and, playing the ever-faithful puppy, House Speaker Andrew Scheer sparked a minor Constitutional crisis — the significance of which was also largely ignored by the media as it gleefully bounded after much more important baubles and trinkets — by refusing to table the official notifications from Elections Canada that said MPs should have their House privileges suspended until the matter was worked out. In the meantime, said MPs also rushed to court demanding that the court system intervene on their behalf.
Anyways, one of those MPs, Shelly Glover, has just conceded defeat on the matter. I’m sure this is in no way related to the fact that the House of Commons just broke for the summer. And in the middle of CBC’s coverage of the issue, we find this extraordinary statement:
Scheer said Mayrand wrote him on June 17 to say Glover had provided a corrected return as required under the law.
Glover is seen as a strong performer as parliamentary secretary to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and as a contender for a full cabinet seat in a shuffle expected sometime this summer.
This is frankly unbelievable. But it gets worse, because CBC also says:
Glover, at least, has filed the corrected campaign returns that had been at the centre of her dispute with the electoral agency, which could mean her case is on the verge of being officially closed.
Right. Um, maybe, in the rush to print, something has been forgotten here. At least as it was originally reported, Glover’s corrected campaign return shows that she violated the elections law by overspending. So the fact that the return has now been filed, if its contents are as predicted, shouldn’t result in her case being “closed.” It should result in her case being opened.
If the media coverage to date is correct, Glover has effectively just admitted to breaking the elections law, making her electoral victory in 2011 illegal.
Which, in Canada, apparently, makes you a plum pick for Cabinet.
