UPDATED - GuergisJafferWatch: And that, Prime Minister, is how you submit an official request to the Ethics Commissioner

Hot off the NDP presses, a "formal request to .. investigate the conduct of the Honourable Helena Guergis, former Minister of State (Status of Women)," who, Libby Davies writes, may have, "while a cabinet minister and Member of Parliament ... violated Article 9 of the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of Parliament, Section 4 of the Conflict of Interest Act and perhaps other applicable statutes":  UPDATE - .And, as a bonus, here's how you file a report with the Commissioner of Lobbying, courtesy of Liberal MP Mark Holland, who sent this letter earlier today to back up an earlier complaint filed by his colleague, Marlene Jennings, based on "additional information that would seem to be relevant" that has since "come to light":

Karen E. Shepherd

Commissioner of Lobbying

Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada

255 Albert Street

10th Floor

Ottawa, Ontario  K1A 0R5

Dear Commissioner Shepherd:

I am writing to you in support of calls for you to conduct an investigation into possible violations of the Lobbyist Act involving GPG - Green Power Generation Corp. and its principals Rahim Jaffer and Patrick Glémaud.

I aware that my colleague, Marlene Jennings, our caucus' Government Ethics Critic, sent you a request for such an investigation on April 12, 2010, but additional information that would seem to be relevant has come to light since that letter was sent.

There have been recent media reports which allege that Mr. Jaffer told a group of businessmen last September that his company can help clients obtain government funds.  "I can get it, no problem ... I have access to a green fund, " an April 8, 2010 Toronto Star article quotes him as saying.

More recent media reports indicate that the green fund in question may be the Government of Canada's Green Infrastructure Fund which is administered by the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. An April 14, 2010 article in the Chronicle Herald states that Mr. Jaffer and Mr. Glémaud met with Mr. Brian Jean, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, regarding the $1 billion Green Infrastructure Fund - a fund for which Mr. Jean, in his role as Parliamentary Secretary, had been delegated the authority for approving projects.

An April 14, 2010 article in the Toronto Star reports Mr. Jaffer and Mr. Glémaud's meeting with Mr. Jean took place in June 2009 in Mr. Jean's Ottawa office. The article states that Mr. Jaffer and Mr. Glémaud later submitted three projects to Mr. Jean involving kinetic energy, solar power and a biomass drying system.   

I note that Section 5 and 7 of the Lobbying Act requires individuals to file a return with the Commissioner of Lobbying if, acting either as a consultant or on behalf of their corporation, that "individual, for payment, on behalf of any person or organization ... undertakes to communicate with a public office holder in respect of the awarding of any grant, contribution or other financial benefit by or on behalf of Her Majesty in right of Canada"

I also note that anyone who undertakes  lobbying of public office holders of any kind - be they politicians or government officials - must provide an initial registration when they take on new clients.

There is no current or inactive registration listed on the public lobbyist registry for Mr. Jaffer or Mr. Glémaud or any other representative acting on behalf of GPG - Green Power Generation Corp. for any meetings with Mr. Jean or any other public office holder.

I note in media reports that Mr. Jaffer and Mr. Glémaud have apparently claimed that meetings they had and the proposals for funding that they submitted do not constitute lobbying.  

In my view, your office is best suited to determine whether or not there has been a violation of the Lobbing Act and the Lobbyist Code of Conduct and I support Ms. Jennings' request that you use your authority to conduct a formal review.

Yours truly,

Mark Holland, MP

Ajax-Pickering

A quick, but possibly pertinent observation: Neither Holland nor Davies make reference to the "serious and credible allegations" from that "third party source" -- since tentatively identified as private investigator Derrick Snowdy -- that both the PM and his office have stated were behind the PM's decision to remove Guergis from cabinet, suspend her from caucus and refer the matter to the ethics commissioner and the RCMP. 

Snowdy: I was contacted by the Toronto Star, with respect to some information relating to Rahim Jaffer's -- the night of Rahim Jaffer's impaired-driving arrest. And I held a conversation with Kevin Donovan about that situation. And Kevin took the ball and ran with it. And he's done a hell of a job from my point of view in terms of putting our information together. I didn't provide him with any documents -- I was not in a position to provide him with any documents -- and I only spoke with him after getting consent from my client to discuss certain matters related to Mr. Gillani, in terms of who was present at certain meetings, and to give him the direction to go in.

Seglins: But why is he calling you?

Snowdy: Well, I asked him that. He said he received some information from someone who knew and had been investigating the case, and was on top of it. So, I mean, Kevin had a mutual acquaintance -- actually, several -- and he felt comfortable to call me and ask.

Seglins: OK. So take me through it. What happened?

Snowdy: Kevin called probably, I guess, about a month ago, and I advised him that I'd have to speak with my client. He was very interested in finding out who my client was. I spoke to the client, I got a little bit of direction. I gave him information, and he went off on his investigation. And as I tried to assist him through my client with questions that he had during the course of it. And really, he pursued it. We actually had no idea if he was going to publish anything or when it was going to come out. [...]

Seglins: One of the things you just said was that Mr. Gillani was claiming that Mr. Jaffer was going to have a large equity stake in one of his ventures.

Snowdy: Yes.

Seglins: Did Mr. Jaffer have business interests with Mr. Gillani?

Snowdy: I think you probably have to run that through Kevin Donovan, to be honest with you. Kevin took the business issues and the Jaffer connection to whole new levels of investigation. I have no interest in Mr. Jaffer's business dealings, none at all. And neither do my clients. My clients have interest in Mr. Gillani.

CONFIRMATION:

Late Friday, Dawson's office confirmed its receipt of Davies' letter, with this post on the ethics commissioner's web site:

April 16, 2010--Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson has confirmed that she has received a request from Libby Davies, Member of Parliament for Vancouver East, in relation to the Honourable Helena Guergis. The Commissioner continues to monitor allegations related to Ms. Guergis and is considering the appropriate actions to take. She cannot comment publicly on any actions she is considering.

Under the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons, inquiries can be commenced at the request of a Member or on the Commissioner's own initiative. In either case, an inquiry can only commence after a Member named in a request has had 30 days to respond to the issues raised, and only if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the Member has failed to comply with the Code.

The Commissioner is not permitted under the Code to comment any further at this time.