OTTAWA -
The cast of characters in the melodrama playing out on Parliament Hill may finally get some stage time starting next week.
A parliamentary committee wants to hear from all the main players in the ongoing saga of Helena Guergis and Rahim Jaffer.
The committee on government operations and estimates has invited Jaffer and his business partner, Patrick Glemaud, to appear Wednesday.
Invites have also been sent to Toronto businessman Nazim Gillani and his associate, former CFL player Mike Mihelic, to appear April 28.
The committee clerk was tight-lipped when asked if the four men agreed to show. If they refuse, the committee can order them to come in.
But the real star of the show is Guergis, the ex-cabinet minister at the heart of so much controversy.
The committee will ask her to come in for a grilling, its clerk confirmed Friday.
"We're checking with her when would be the best moment for her to appear," committee clerk Marc-Olivier Girard said.
Guergis' lawyer, Howard Rubel, declined to comment when contacted by The Canadian Press.
Friday saw yet another twist in the Guergis affair.
The federal ethics czar was asked to open a conflict-of-interest investigation after a report Guergis may have used her former position of power to try to score a plum deal for a company with ties to her husband.
It's a claim she forcefully denies.
The Toronto Star reported that Guergis wrote a letter last September to the top politician of Simcoe County suggesting council take a good look at a company called Wright Tech Systems.
The Star said Guergis sent the letter to Tony Guergis, her cousin and, at the time, the senior municipal official in Simcoe.
"I encourage you to consider the request made by Mr. Wright," says the letter, under her MP letterhead.
"I think his ideas will help the county in their future decisions on waste management."
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
