What is it with Liberal Members of Parliament? Do they honestly believe the rules don’t apply to them?
That’s the question at the top of my mind after news broke that Yasmin Ratansi, Member of Parliament for Don Valley East, hired her sister, Zeenat Khatri, and lied about it.
CBC reports Yasmin Ratansi employed her sister from 2005 to 2011 when Ratansi lost her seat in Parliament, the hired her again in 2017 after she regained her seat in Parliament.
At that point she clearly knew about the revised definition of immediate family, since “Ratansi and Khatri told staff to call her ‘Jenny’ rather than Zeenat — a name she hadn’t used in the office before. CBC News has seen one business card bearing the name ‘Jenny Khatri.'”
“If Ratansi honestly didn’t know that paying her sister with her MP budget broke rules, why use a fake identity and ask staff to keep it hush-hush?” asked Pierre Poilievre.
The answer seems obvious, even for an ethically-challenged Liberal like Ratansi.
The rules are for mere citizens, not Liberals.
“Yasmin told us explicitly — my sister will be coming to work in our office,” said a former employee. “She was going to assume a different name, so she was going to be referred to as Jenny. The idea was we bring her in but try to conceal her identity, keep her hidden, keep her tucked away so that people don’t find out that her sister is employed in the office.”
Yasmin Ratansi posted a statement on Facebook resigning from the Liberal caucus (since removed) that stated, in part:
“Last week, I referred this matter to the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, and I shall follow his recommendations on how I might remediate the situation.”
“I made an error in judgment by employing my sister in my constituency office, and I have remedied the situation, but this does not excuse the error I made.”
An error in judgement is hiring your sister when you don’t know it violates government hiring policy.
Intentional deception is knowing hiring your sister violates government hiring policy, doing it anyway and instructing others to lie about it.
There a big difference between an error in judgement, like wearing BlackFace so many times you can’t remember and ordering staff to call your sister – who you identify to staff as your sister – “Jenny” instead of Zeenat – her real name.
“I am deeply disappointed by the news I heard yesterday from Ms. Yatansi,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Deeply disappointed by the news she got caught, Mr. Prime Minister, or deeply disappointed to learn her ethical failings match your own?
Or both?
Board of Internal Economy Member Bylaws
Members of Parliament are prohibited from hiring immediate family, which the House of Commons Board of Internal Economy Bylaws defines as:
a Member’s father, mother, brother, sister, spouse and children, as well as the spouses and children of the Member’s children.
The prohibition against hiring siblings came into force in 2012.
Gosh Chris, what is the problem? If the PM can load up his family with hundreds of thousands for virtually nothing, what’s wrong with hiring your incompetent sister?? I mean, really….. get with the program!
So sorry, Sir! I’m sure I will tout the approved opinion once the Re-Education Camps get done with me. LOL
How long did Ratansi cheat the taxpayers with this family payment? I am fed up with ethnic immigrants in power who think they are above the law, because they didn’t know or they are special. How many people who knew about this scam were afraid to blow the whistle in fear of being labelled a racist, sexist or islamophobist?
Getting kicked out of the corrupt trudeau liberal caucus is NOT enough. Ratansi must resign, repay the stolen funds and go to jail for fraud and embezzlement. If the sister who got the money is a refugee, ship her back home with the rest of the ungrateful family.
How many instances of corruption and cronyism have now been exposed within this Trudeau government? One needs a 160 row by 18 column Excel spreadsheet just to keep track of each Liberal MP and each of their betrayals of either the public trust or the public purse.
So riddle me this. When a person becomes a Liberal MP (or a Liberal Prime Minister) is there some must-watch video or Powerpoint presentation that provides that individual with the necessary training for how to best betray the public trust, betray the public purse and how to best use your office for personal gain? I have difficulty believing that all the fuckery we’ve witnessed over the past 5 years is all just individual lapses of judgement.
“If you took all the fraud out of politics, there might not be a lot left.”- Thomas Sowell
No, I don’t think there is a specific training program for Liberal MPs on this, Arie, because behaving this way is inherent to the progressive world view. The only “sins” are to lose or get caught. Everything is permissible beyond those criteria.
Indeed, Christopher. Now that you point it out, skulduggery does appear to be the core belief system of all progressives. That being the case, the “progress” that is being championed by progressives isn’t progress at all. We are simply reverting back to the Medieval feudal system with the avaricious, entitled ruling class lording it over the peasants.
So true. Unfortunately only those of us willing to look at history and learn from it understand this. For everyone else, this is all shiny and new.
Well said Arie and Chris. Sadly, Marxism has completely overtaken our Politics, Law, Education and Media. The decades since Pearson started the destruction of Canada and accelerated it by his appointment of literal communist PET who rammed full speed ahead, have given rise to an uncritical mass of ‘gimme’ voters, and ensured enslavement of those who work for a living.
“Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.” ~Doug Larson