Volpe: Grewal asked that I back-off

Volpe has now commented on his role. A snippet:

Grewal was making "a series of requests, including some nice things to be said by me," Volpe said Murphy told him.

"I said, 'Look, I'm not going to say anything that's going to interfere with an impartial third-party investigation."

Volpe, who was in Toronto to deliver a luncheon speech to an audience at the University of Toronto, said Murphy didn't ask him to take any action regarding Grewal.

Instead, Murphy simply conveyed that Grewal had "a series of requests on the table," and had expressed concerns with respect to "initiatives" that had come the minister's office, he said.

Volpe's statement confirms Murphy's version of events. (But that may only confirm that Liberals stick together.)