Conservative MP Frank Caputo is accusing Justice Minister and Attorney General David Lametti of threatening his professional reputation in a private email following Caputo’s support for a question put forward in the House of Commons.
In the House on June 12, Caputo
raised a question of privilege saying that Lametti sent him an email on June 8 just minutes after Conservative MP Michael Barrett
asked during question period about presumed “levels of conflict of interest with the government.”
Barrett mentioned in his question that David Johnston, who recently resigned as special rapporteur on foreign interference, previously sought
advice from former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci about whether his acceptance of the special rapporteur position would constitute a conflict of interest because of Johnston’s past connections to the Trudeau family and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
Johnston told reporters on May 23 that Iacobucci, who is also connected to the Trudeau Foundation, assured him there was “no conflict of interest” in the matter.
Barrett posed the question on June 8, the day before Johnston
resigned as special rapporteur.
“The question is about levels of conflict of interest with the government. We have the Prime Minister, who hired his friend, paying him $1,500 a day. That friend then hired Liberals. He hired Frank Iacobucci, from the Trudeau Foundation. He hired Liberal insiders, such as Sheila Block, and now we have this rapporteur, who is taking the same communications advice as the member for Don Valley North is getting,” Barrett
said during his question.
“It is conflict of interest after conflict of interest.”
Caputo said he applauded Barrett’s question and three minutes later received an
email from Lametti which read: “See you clapping on attacks on Frank Iacobucci’s Integrity. I will let the community know.”
Lametti did not specify what “community” he was referring to, but Caputo, who is a former Crown attorney, said in the House it was “presumably the legal community.”
“[Lametti] is Canada’s top lawyer & wields significant power,” Caputo
wrote in a Twitter post on June 12. “It’s wrong to tell me that there will be repercussions for clapping to a point I agree with. I should not be punished in the legal community for my position. Further, MP Barrett didn’t question Justice Iacobucci’s integrity.”
Caputo also told the House on June 12 that he has “never met” Iacobucci, but said he has “always respected” him.
Lametti said in a media statement shortly after that he was referring to the “Italian-Canadian community” in his email to Caputo rather than the legal community.
“In the midst of celebrations across the country for the beginning of Italian Heritage Month, I was disappointed to see the Conservatives questioning the sterling reputation of former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci—a trailblazer of our Italian-Canadian community and a giant of the legal profession,”
Lametti said, according to CBC News.
“The Italian-Canadian community deserves to know where Mr. Caputo stands.”
Prior to serving as a Supreme Court justice, Iacobucci was
appointed as the federal deputy minister of justice and deputy attorney general in 1985. Three years later, he was appointed the chief justice of the Federal Court of Canada.
In 1991, then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed Iacobucci as a Supreme Court of Canada justice, a position he held until he retired in 2004.
