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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Taxpayers footing bill for PM's private lawyer
OTTAWA -- The Conservative government has hired a private-sector lawyer -- at taxpayers' expense -- to represent Prime Minister Stephen Harper and three others who are among those being sued for defamation by former Tory cabinet minister Helena Guergis, Postmedia News has learned.
The government could have appointed a staff lawyer from the Department of Justice to handle the case, but chose instead to reach into the private sector to select one of the country's leading litigators -- Robert Staley.
The Toronto-based lawyer is one of a group of private-sector lawyers involved in representing a range of clients -- from Harper to the Conservative Party of Canada -- on a case that is weaving its way through the courts and has the potential to be a political bombshell for the prime minister.
Andrew MacDougall, Harper's spokesman, said the prime minister's "counsel is being paid the standard rate that would be paid to a DoJ (department of justice) lawyer." He did not specify the amount of that rate.
MacDougall said "it was deemed inappropriate" for government lawyers to represent Harper since the litigation is between elected officials and "exempt staff" who were members of the same government.
In December, lawyers for Guergis filed a lawsuit against Harper, the Conservative party, and several other people for $1.3 million over her 2010 ejection from the Tory caucus over allegations of improper conduct.
-- Postmedia News
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 9, 2012 A10
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