NDP tries to pre-empt expected guilty verdict by ‘kangaroo court’

OTTAWA – New Democrats are attempting to throw open the doors of a secretive House of Commons committee that they expect will find them guilty of improperly spending parliamentary resources for partisan purposes.

NDP members of the board of internal economy, which oversees Commons spending, want the board to hold its proceedings in public and to launch an unbiased investigation into mass mailings from MPs of all parties.

They plan to introduce motions to that effect today before the multi-party board, which has been investigating almost 2 million partisan flyers sent by New Democrat MPs to households in 26 different ridings.

It has also been investigating the use of New Democrat MPs’ Commons budgets to pay the salaries of staffers in satellite party offices in Montreal, Quebec City and Toronto.

The board is expected to order the MPs to reimburse the Commons for the allegedly improper use of their parliamentary resources.

However, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says the party won’t voluntarily repay because the board has been turned into a “kangaroo court,” with Conservatives and Liberals ganging up to unfairly penalize the NDP.