New in Ethics report (5): Grewal claims specific consulate offered

From the Ethics Commissioner's report:

The testimonies of Mr. Dosanjh and Mr. Grewal are relatively consistent as to the nature of their discussions that evening. Mr. Dosanjh spoke of his own political career and noted that the Prime Minister had made no commitments or offers to him when he agreed to stand as a Liberal candidate in the 2004 election. They also discussed Mr. Grewal’s Parliamentary pension entitlements. However, their accounts differ in one important way. Mr. Grewal indicates that Mr. Dosanjh specifically offered him a Consul General position in Boston or in Seattle or an ambassadorship to a small country. Mr. Dosanjh, on the other hand, indicates that no offers were made. There is no further evidence to corroborate either of these claims.

This is somewhat new. We knew already that Grewal claimed that he'd been offered a diplomatic post. Apparently he made these same claims, in a more specific fashion to the Ethics Commissioner. Here he alleges that he'd been offered the position of Consul General in Boston or Seatle or to some small country.

The Commissioner clearly disbelieves Grewal, which is probably correct. In the tapes from the next day's meeting with Dosanjh and Murphy, Murphy tells Grewal that other Conservatives 'have asked for a reward outside of politics and I just don't think that's—the Prime Minister does not think that's the right thiing to do' (see the transcript here, together with the edited version). Since we now know from the commissioner's report that Grewal had been asking for a diplomatic posting, both through intermediaries and during the pizza date, this amounts to a clear 'no' on the part of the Liberals.