Dhalla Not A Target: Conservative Minister
Posted May 10, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Liberal MP currently facing allegations that she mistreated her immigrant caregivers is not being targeted, a Conservative minister insists.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney denied allegations made by the lawyer for Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla, saying Dhalla is not a political target – and there’s no conspiracy.
Dhalla has already had to resign as the opposition multiculturalism critic over the affair.
Kenney also wondered why she would ask the federal ethics commissioner to look into the affair, saying the matter appears to fall outside the commissioner’s mandate.
Last week, three domestic workers came forward alleging they were paid next to nothing while they worked for the MP’s family and that she supposedly seized the passports of two of them.
They claim they were made to perform all kinds of labourious chores and were forced to toil long hours for little return, and that when they brought their concerns to Ontario Labour Minister Peter Fonseca, they were given a complaint phone number to call that didn’t work.
The opposition cried cover-up but both Fonseca and Dhalla have denied the charges.
Dhalla’s lawyer, Howard Levitt, has called the allegations false and suggested they are part of a deliberate campaign to undermine his client’s political career.
With files from the Canadian Press.
