Conservative whip orders MPs to stick close to Ottawa so party can step up pressure over India trip
Last week saw 20-hour voting marathon in House of Commons to protest rejected motion
Conservative MPs are being asked to cancel all travel plans to ensure they are in Ottawa this week so the party can keep up pressure on the government to make its national security adviser available to testify about Justin Trudeau's trip to India.
In an email obtained by CBC News, Mark Strahl, the Conservative whip, informed members their travel authorizations were being rescinded.
"We promised that when we returned to Ottawa we would resume the fight for accountability from this government and that is exactly what we will do," the email said.
"I am therefore revoking all authorizations for travel, including for those members currently out of the country, paired with Liberal ministers, on Parliamentary Association travel, and travelling with Parliamentary Committees."
The email also stated the party was prepared to use "every tool in our toolbox" to hold the government accountable.
It then advises members currently out of the country or who have trips planned for the coming week to contact Strahl's office to discuss their returns to Ottawa.
The pressure tactics won't look like last week's 20-hour voting marathon in the House of Commons, but will instead focus on continuing to drill the prime minister with questions on the Jaspal Atwal affair, according to a Conservative party source.
This week's efforts would follow the voting that stretched overnight Thursday and into Friday, as the Conservatives put forward 250 budget motions to vote on in response to the Liberals voting down a Tory motion to have Daniel Jean, the prime minister's national security adviser, testify in front of a committee about the Jaspal Atwal affair.
Fallout from Atwal presence at event persists
Atwal was a member of an illegal Sikh separatist group and was convicted of attempting to assassinate an Indian cabinet minister in 1986. He was also charged — but not convicted — in the 1985 attack on Ujjal Dosanjh, who later became B.C. premier and a federal Liberal cabinet minister.
While the prime minister was in India in February, Atwal was photographed at an event with Justin Trudeau's wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, and Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Amarjeet Sohi.
In a background briefing arranged by the Prime Minister's Office during the trip, a senior government official with knowledge of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's security protocols suggested to reporters that factions within the Indian government were involved in Atwal's presence in India at the time of Trudeau's visit in an effort to make the Canadian government appear sympathetic to Sikh extremism.
The Conservatives later identified the official as Jean. Backbench Liberal MP Randeep Sarai also claimed responsibility for the invitations made to Atwal.
The Privy Council Office said the government has offered a briefing on the India trip to Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, something he categorically denied while taking reporters' questions in Toronto on Friday.
With files from the CBC's Katie Simpson and Hannah Thibideau