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'If the liberals don't want to play fair game, be transparent and be responsible, voters will eventually have to remind them about that,' NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice said

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OTTAWA Opposition MPs once again lambasted the Liberals for devaluing, disrespecting and being in defiance of Parliament after blocking a second staffer from testifying in front of the federal ethics committee on the WE Charity scandal.

By blocking witnesses from testifying, ordering witnesses to testify against an order of the House of Commons, the government is devaluing and disrespecting Canadas Parliament, an outraged Michael Barrett, a Conservative MP, said during the Wednesday meeting.

NDP and Bloc Qubcois MPs were equally vocal in their critiques of the Liberals decision to send Associate Finance Minister Mona Fortier to testify instead of the finance ministers Senior Policy Advisory, Amitpal Singh.

This is serious Were talking about a decision to oppose an order from the House of Commons. This is defiance, said Bloc Qubcois MP Rhal Fortin.

If I was one of the ministers who had ordered one of my staff not to testify, I would be very uncomfortable. Id even be uncomfortable in front of my family, he added.

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In an interview after the 20-minute meeting, which oppositions MPs voted to end before Fortier could say a word, NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice said the Liberals decision meant they had something to hide from Canadians.

Its completely ridiculous and ludicrous. If the liberals dont want to play fair game, be transparent and be responsible, voters will eventually have to remind them about that, he said.

The latest clash between opposition parties and the Liberal government stems from a Conservative motion passed by the House of Commons last week that summoned a series of Liberal staffers to testify during the ethics committees WE Charity study (as well as another to the national defense committee on an unrelated topic).

The ethics committee study has largely focused on the Liberal governments and Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus familys close ties to WE Charity, to which Ottawa sole-sourced a $912-million student volunteer grant program last summer before the charity organization pulled out of the deal.

Rick Theis, director of policy to the prime minister, was scheduled to testify on Monday, and Singh was slated by the committee to appear on Wednesday.

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Both were directly involved in the creation of the Canada Student Service Grant and subsequent deal with WE last spring.

But last Sunday, Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez wrote to the committee informing them that Theis was instructed to ignore the summons.

Staff are not elected members of the House, they do not have the same rights and privileges as MPs. Calling staff to testify at committee is at odds with the long-standing principle of ministerial responsibility, Rodriguez wrote.

Accordingly, Mr. Rick Theis, director of policy to the prime minister, has been instructed to not appear before the committee. In his place, I will attend the meeting on behalf of the government.

The decision was ill-received by opposition members at the time, but they still accepted to grill Rodriguez, who ultimately deflected most questions on the WE deal because he was never involved in it.

Then, on Tuesday, Minister Mona Fortier wrote a similar missive to members regarding Amitpal Singhs planned Wednesday appearance, all the while accusing opposition parties of playing political games.

Cabinet ministers are accountable to the House of Commons for the decisions of the government, and of their trusted political staff, Fortier wrote. Mr. Amitpal Singh has been instructed to not appear before the committee. In his place, I will attend the meeting.

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She also argued that multiple federal committees had already held countless meetings over the last nine months and received thousands of pages of documents regarding the WE Charity deal.

An order from the House is serious, Bloc MP Rhal Fortin retorted to the letter Wednesday, while noting the irony of how the Bloc a Quebecois separatist party was defending the authority of the federal parliament.

Democracy is a cardinal value, he continued. I always thought that Canada was a democratic country in which decisions were taken in a democratic way.

In the wake of the governments refusal to allow Theis and Singh to testify, Fortin brought forward a new motion Wednesday that would advise the speaker of the house of commons of both mens absence, despite the will of the committee.

Members of the ethics committee are expected to vote on the motion during their next meeting.

Email: cnardi@postmedia.com | Twitter: ChrisGNardi

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Opposition MPs blast Liberal 'defiance' after second staffer blocked from testifying on WE - National Post