Minister denies leak on Indo-Canadian MP's family row

Joe Volpe has denied that he leaked the allegations made against the Indo-Canadian MP, reports Gurmukh Singh.

The family dispute involving Indo-Canadian MP Deepak Obhrai took an interesting turn today when minister of citizenship and immigration Joe Volpe, in a letter to him, denied that he leaked to the media the allegations made against the Indo-Canadian Member of Parliament by one of his relatives in India.

HT Image

The mainstream media has reported this week that the immigration minister had forwarded to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Ethics Commission the allegations made against the Indo-Canadian MP by the husband of Obhrai's sister-in-law.

In his letter to Obhrai, the minister says, "On Friday evening, a CTV News report alleged that I had asked for an RCMP investigation into a Member of Parliament based upon an affidavit I had received anonymously.

"For the record, I did not ask for an RCMP investigation in this matter. I only performed my duty, and forwarded (on) information that contained allegations of wrongdoing to the proper authorities. I informed you I was doing so, and I further informed you I would not be going public with these allegations. I never publicly named the member in question.

"I must, as a Minister of the Crown (Queen), forward any such information on to those authorities, no matter what my personal opinion -- I have done so in the past, and will do so in the future if necessary.

"Unfortunately, the information reached CTV News through circumstances neither I nor anyone in my office had any part in. This story was then repeated and rebroadcast through a broader variety of media outlets, all of whom repeated the earlier allegations. These stories named a Member of Parliament, and it is unfortunate that they did so.

"I note that you said this allegation is the result of a family dispute, and I have no reason to doubt your word. I can only hope that your reputation is not needlessly harmed by the repetition of these allegations."

The minister's letter follows after Obhrai, who is the three-time MP from Calgary East for the opposition Conservative Party, protested that Volpe leaked the allegations to the media to make political mileage before his government faces the no-confidence motion this week.

Narrating the sequences of events in the family feud, Obhrai told the hindustantimes.com that his sister-in-law Laxmi and her husband Aman had come to Canada as immigrants in September 2003. "However, Aman, who was running small pharmaceutical business in India, found it difficult to adjust in Canada and wanted to go back. But my sister-in-law wanted to wait for more time," says Obhrai.

After this, according to him, Aman became violent, and threatened to kill his wife (Laxmi) if she didn't accompany him back to India. "After his violent behaviour, the police and hospital authorities told his wife that if she wished they could deport him to India. But she told them to give her three more weeks to convince her husband."

But Amand got even more violent after this, says Obhrai. "When their 14-year-old son complained to the police against his father, the court issued restraining orders against Aman to go nowhere near Laxmi. Quietly, he left for India and started harassing his wife and me. He thought if he made life miserable for me, I would probably ask his wife to leave for India."

The Indo-Canadian MP alleges that Aman called his parliament office and left 'dirty' messages. "I had to ask the House of Commons for security," he adds.

According to Obhrai, "When all these pressure tactics failed, then just before the June 2004 elections Aman started making the allegations that I took money from him and wrote to my political opponents. I asked the RCMP to look into the matter and informed the Indian High Commission in Ottawa about it."

Obhrai says nobody raised the issue before the last year's general elections because there were no substances in these allegations.

When the government faced this crisis, says Obhrai, the immigration minister informed him that he had received some documents making allegations against the Indo-Canadian MP. "Volpe told me that he is forwarding these documents to the RCMP and the Ethics Commission and that he will not speak to the media about it. I was taken by surprise, and initiated legal action against Aman in India."

Then one day, Obhrai says, he found the allegations against him all over the media. "The Liberals want to make political capital out of these false allegations to survive the no-confidence vote. I told the minister that this is unfair. The sufferer is my sister-in-law. So today, Volpe sent his clarification," says the Indo-Canadian MP.