OTTAWA – RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme is concerned that some of the documents on the so-called “green slush fund” sent to Mounties via a controversial House of Commons order are beyond the normal reach of investigators, putting the force in an awkward legal “grey zone.”
In a wide-ranging interview with National Post, Duheme spoke publicly for the first time on the ongoing logjam in the House of Commons over government documents that MPs ordered to be turned over to the RCMP.
Duheme wouldn’t specify what the RCMP has done with the records but said the Commons’ June motion ordering all government records on the $1-billion clean tech fund known as Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) be provided to the Mounties raised several concerns for the top brass.
“First, it’s a little unusual how they were obtained. Second of all, there may be some documents that are shared with us that we would have no judicial authority to get them, no means to obtain search warrants in order to get them,” Duheme said.
“I am concerned with regards to privacy,” he added. “I am concerned with how these documents were collected. Are there any parliamentary privilege associated with some of these documents? These are just some of the concerns… there’s a lot to untangle there.”
He noted that it’s unprecedented for the government to try to assist the police in an investigation but stopped short of saying Parliament was interfering in the RCMP’s affairs.
“You have the legislative branch and the executive branch, where the legislative branch is actually helping the executive branch get the information, at least for the investigation. So that’s a little unusual,” he said.
“There’s nothing legal to say I can’t take that. There’s nothing legal to say that I have to use it, as well. So, we’re in this grey zone where it’s never happened in the past.”
Duheme confirmed last week that the RCMP had opened an investigation related to SDTC following scathing reports from both Auditor General Karen Hogan and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein into the fund.
When asked what the RCMP was investigating specifically, Duheme said police were exploring a range of theories.
“Could there be a possibility of corruption? … Breach of Trust? Is there anything fraud, any favouritism?
“It was brought to our attention and we felt, as an organization, OK, let’s look into it, and if charges are warranted, charges are warranted. If they’re not warranted, we’ll explain why we’re not charging,” he said.
Hogan found “significant lapses” in SDTC’s governance and handling of public funds. For example, she discovered 90 decisions in which the fund had violated its own conflict-of-interest policies.
She also noted that one out of six projects funded by SDTC (worth a total of $59 million) she audited weren’t eligible and, in some cases, didn’t even support the development of a new green technology.
On the same day Hogan published her report, the Liberals announced they were shutting the fund down and folding its responsibilities into the National Research Council within one year.
While the RCMP investigates, the House of Commons has been at a standstill for the past two weeks as opposition parties and the Liberals spar over how to proceed after Speaker Greg Fergus ruled the government appeared to have violated the June motion to turn over the documents.
The motion demanded the public service, the auditor general and SDTC provide all documents on the troubled fund to the House of Commons law clerk, Michel Bédard. Bédard was to then transfer all the documents to the RCMP in a move Fergus described as “unusual, novel and unprecedented.” A first batch of documents were sent to the RCMP on Aug. 16.
But over a dozen government departments and agencies either provided redacted documents or simply refused to comply with the order and withheld some or all their records.
In late September, Fergus ruled that the government appeared to have violated Parliament’s vast powers to compel the production of documents. Since then, the Conservatives have promised to grind the House to a halt until the government turns over all the unredacted records.
Liberals have countered that Fergus’ ruling was an “extremely dark day” for Parliament and the motion was an “abuse of power.” Government House Leader Karina Gould has argued that the motion is akin to “trampling on the Charter-protected rights of Canadians.”
Justice Minister Arif Virani has also expressed deep reservations, questioning whether the RCMP could even use the documents as part of a criminal prosecution.
That’s exactly what the RCMP is trying to figure out, Duheme said.
“We have to be mindful that as a law enforcement, everything we do and we bring forward in the judicial process… we must have obtained it legally. So that’s what we’re working” towards, he said.
National Post
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