Angry in the Great White North

In what is now being called a scandal by The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star, Ruby Dhalla's problems with live-in caregivers who lived in the Dhalla household has not just cost her the role of Youth and Multiculturalism Critic. 

It is now shaping up to be a scandal at the provincial level, affecting provincial Liberals:

NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo
Image via Wikipedia

Meanwhile, the scandal swirling around Dhalla's nanny problems is now engulfing Ontario's Liberal government. As Dhalla fights for her political life, the opposition Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats charged that the provincial government is protecting a fellow Grit.

Labour Minister Peter Fonseca this morning struggled to explain his actions after hearing the complaints at a public meeting.

Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton) demanded to know why Fonseca and Education Minister Kathleen Wynne, who was the other cabinet minister at the meeting in question, did not immediately notify the requisite authorities.

NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo (Parkdale-High Park) accused the minister of ignoring the illegality right under his own nose.

Fonseca dismissed the criticism as "bluster," but he was visibly rattled during this morning's question period.

No wonder Fonseca is rattled.  There are demands for Fonseca's resignation:

The controversy involving Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla spilled over into the Ontario legislature with the Opposition demanding the labour minister resign.

Ontario Progressive Conservative critic Lisa MacLeod told the legislature that Labour Minister Peter Fonseca personally heard claims from the caregivers that their passports were withheld and they were paid $1.56 an hour.

Mr. Fonseca wouldn't speak directly to the issue, but said he had heard many stories from caregivers and told the federal government to fix the program that brings in foreign workers as live-in caregivers.

Ontario's New Democrats said they wanted to know if Mr. Fonseca would "put Dhalla in jail" or protect his federal Liberal cousins.

It's too early to say that this nanny scandal will change the political channel, but nothing right now suggests it lacks the potential of doing so.  Certainly, if the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois are not eager to have an election in 2009, beating up on the Liberals over the nanny scandal could, for a time, provide a means of standing apart from the Liberals without standing with the Conservatives.  The allegations against Ruby Dhalla personally might not be enough to provide this sort of cover, but if the scandal widens to include questions of Liberal indiscretions being swept under the carpet, then the scandal could take on a whole new dynamic, refreshing memories of the Adscam days.

Imagine a Commons committee looking into this, with NDP and Bloc MPs attempting to compel a provincial minister to testify about what he knew and when, Liberals MPs trying to block those attempts without looking like they were blocking those attempts, and the Conservatives satisfied to run out the clock on the recession, which might be over as early as the winter.

This is not what Michael Ignatieff was hoping for.  I guess it's easy enough to change the leader, but the caucus is still made up the same knuckleheads.

Sulking in his tent: As a way of confirming just what a headache this is turning out to be for Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal leader has decided to avoid the press:

Well here's a twist on the usual state of affairs.

We can't get Michael Ignatieff to come and talk to reporters today. A statement on the Ruby Dhalla resignation will have to do, we're told.

Maybe hiding under your desk counts as leadership in Harvard.