Liberal MP put business affiliate on India guestlists
Liberal MP Raj Grewal helped secure invitations for his own business affiliate to attend events in India during the prime minister’s recent trip, apparently without clearance from the federal ethics commissioner.
The head of a Greater Toronto Area construction company from which Grewal profits went to receptions attended by senior government officials in India last month, posing for photos with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, who is responsible for managing Canada’s massive infrastructure portfolio.
In the company’s photo album on Facebook, Yusuf Yenilmez, CEO of Zgemi Inc., also appears in photos with Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, House Leader Bardish Chagger and Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, along with Grewal and other Liberal MPs.
Trudeau’s office has been questioned for the past month about how closely it vets guest lists.
Liberal MP Randeep Sarai took responsibility for including Jaspal Atwal, a man who in the '80s was convicted of the attempted murder of an Indian cabinet minister, on a list of guests forwarded to the High Commission in India. Atwal’s presence led to concerns the Prime Minister’s Office was not adequately aware of who was allowed to shmooze with Trudeau and his senior ministers.
A firestorm in Parliament, worsened by the suggestion by a senior security official that the Indian government could be behind Atwal’s presence, hasn’t abated.
Grewal began a relationship with Zgemi Inc. about a year ago, well after he was elected as MP for Brampton East in 2015. In a statement to the National Post Thursday, he said the ethics commissioner cleared this activity. Grewal said he provides legal services to the company on a contract basis, and there had been no previous relationship with Yenilmez.
“All legal work involves only private legal disputes and does not interact with any government files,” he said. “Yusuf, the CEO, registered for the India trip to expand Zgemi business in India, (and) registered through the Canada-India Business Council to attend the business seminars. He also reached out to my office to be invited to the High Commissioner’s receptions in India.”
Yenilmez provided a statement to the Post Monday night. “I went to India for business and signed up to attend the Business Networking sessions offered by the Canada India Foundation. I signed up independently as a Canadian business looking to partner with Indian business looking to expand in Canada,” he said.
Yenilmez also confirmed that Grewal’s work “only involves private legal disputes; we do not have any files with the federal government.”
Grewal would not give a yes-or-no answer when asked if the ethics commissioner had reviewed whether the invitations from his office were appropriate.
“As is common practice, I invited a diverse group of more than thirty supporters and stakeholders to participate in events around the India trip,” he said in an email this weekend. "(Yusuf) is the head of a local company that employs over 300 people, as well as a supporter. But I included anyone who came to me who was interested in attending.”
A similar process had been described by Sarai to justify Atwal’s invitation. In an interview with his local newspaper, Sarai said earlier this month he had forwarded the names of 25 to 30 people from various industries. “All we did is forwarded anybody that wanted to attend, that had expressed interest in the office,” he told the Surrey Now-Leader.
Grewal said Yenilmez would have gained access to receptions through the Canada-India Business Council, even if his office hadn’t put his name on the list. Yet he was on the list.
Grewal added that a conflict-of-interest screen had been put into place by the ethics commissioner. “I have and will continue to follow the screen,” he said.
Although Zgemi Inc. has appeared on Grewal’s ethics disclosures since April 2017, no formal screen appears on the public registry, where all such screens are published — these, according to Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion’s office, are authorized under the Conflict of Interest Act, which only applies to ministers and parliamentary secretaries.
The Conflict of Interest Code for MPs, which does apply to Grewal, says members are responsible for arranging their affairs “in a manner that bears the closest public scrutiny,” and “so that foreseeable real or apparent conflicts of interest may be prevented from arising.”
The PMO would not provide a comment on the record. An official would only say, under the condition that their name not be revealed, that they had nothing to add to Grewal’s response.