We're Not All Solemn Commentators

The Federal Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro found Gurmant Grewal's actions in taping Ujjal Dosanjh and Tim Murphy “extremely inappropriate”.

Ujjal Dosanjh was cleared of breaking the Ethics Code as there was no evidence he offered a Cabinet position to Grewal or an Ambassadorship to Grewal's wife in order to switch over to the Liberal Party in time to vote in a no confidence vote.

According to today's Globe's report "Mr. Shapiro wrote that Mr. Dosanjh and Mr. Murphy should have stopped the "conversational dance" with Mr. Grewal -- who did not seek re-election in Monday's federal election -- when he repeatedly asked for a reward for switching sides.
[...]
However, Mr. Shapiro also said that while the practice of secretly taping fellow MPs isn't illegal, it isn't “consistent” with the code governing parliamentary conduct."

Many of us in the blogosphere had problems with those tapes - mostly what they revealed about the potential of the Liberals modum operendi. The Ethics Commissioner should have mentioned that if there is any dealing in offices that it's a criminal offense and those who may be in the position to offer them should be aware of the serious implications involved.

Harper spoke to the R.C.M.P about his knowledge of the tapes but should have spoken to Shapiro (it's not known that Harper felt confident that Shapiro was un-biased). The RCMP press release confirmed they spoke to individuals involved and "determined that no criminal investigation is warranted at this time."

Well that leaves it open for future investigations.

Blind faith isn't one of my redeeming qualities as I didn't exactly support Grewal in these posts here, and here.