OTTAWA — After much kerfuffle, Canada’s consul general in New York, Tom Clark, will finally be testifying in a House of Commons committee as early as September about the $9 million luxury condo purchased by the government to serve as his official residence. At the start of a meeting on Tuesday, the chair of the government operations committee, Conservative MP Kelly McCauley, read a note from Global Affairs Canada (GAC) saying that Clark would be “pleased to make himself available” either September 4 or 12. McCauley said the committee would aim to hear from him on September 12 or work with his office to find a later date that would suit him.
The move comes after Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett threatened to issue a summons to force Clark to appear at committee . Barrett said that he would hold off on the threat unless the consul general finds himself in “defiance” of the committee’s wishes. “If Mr.
Clark doesn’t come on that date, then he’ll have exhausted every reasonable courtesy that this committee could extend to him,” he said. McCauley said it was his understanding Clark was supposed to be available to testify on Tuesday, based on an email exchange between the consul general’s staff and the committee’s clerk on Aug. 8, but GAC denies those claims and said the initial invitation was never accepted.
GAC said the clerk followed up two times — on August 14 and 21 — to verify if Clark was available. In the end, GAC said on August 22 tha.
