OTTAWA — Lawyers for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and a handful of Tory MPs and aides spent much of Wednesday picking apart what they argued were "bald allegations," "fiction" and "gibberish" in a million-dollar lawsuit filed by former Conservative cabinet minister Helena Guergis.

"This whole claim is based upon a fiction, in my submission. It just doesn't work," Harper's lawyer Robert Staley told the court. "Everyone was part of a conspiracy, in the plaintiff's mind."

A central theme in Staley's argument is that the prime minister's decision to dismiss Guergis from cabinet and caucus is a Crown prerogative and parliamentary privilege.

In other words, that decision is non-justiciable, or not up to the courts.

A decision by the Canadian Human Rights Commission in November 2011 found the same thing and dismissed Guergis' complaint, Staley pointed out. Since these "protected" decisions are the same decisions at the centre of the alleged conspiracy, he said, the same principles should apply in this case. "The plaintiff has chosen to recast her complaint and dress it up," said Staley, who is also representing Raymond Novak, Shelly Glover and Lisa Raitt.

"These are good ways of saying, 'I don't like what you did to me.'"

Staley was among the lawyers who began arguments Wednesday in the Ontario Superior Court on whether Guergis's lawsuit should be allowed to proceed.

Guergis, the minister of state for the status of women and MP for the Ontario riding of Simcoe-Grey, was dumped from caucus in April 2010 after Harper announced that his office had become aware of "serious allegations" regarding her conduct.

He did not publicly identify the nature of the allegations, and Guergis says she was not told by the prime minister.

That expulsion from the Conservative caucus occurred the day after the Toronto Star reported that her husband, Rahim Jaffer, and business associates had partied with escorts at a pricey Toronto restaurant the night that Jaffer was charged with cocaine possession.

Guergis filed the legal action last December. She is seeking $1.3 million in damages in connection with the affair that she says damaged her reputation.

Specifically, with regards to Harper's actions, her statement of claim seeks damages from the prime minister for his alleged "conspiracy, defamation, misfeasance in public office, intentional infliction of mental suffering, and negligence."

In the lawsuit, Guergis alleges those being sued conspired to present various allegations about her behaviour — including fraudulent activity, extortion, association with prostitutes, and cocaine use (including "snorting" the drug off a prostitute's breast).

All the allegations are false and defamatory and have "resulted in damage to the plaintiff's reputation" and to her "political career, health, and well-being," says her statement of claim.

None of the allegations about Guergis' conduct has been proven.

Among those sued along with Harper are two of his senior aides, a Conservative party lawyer, a private investigator who came forward with an allegation about the conduct of Guergis, and two Tory MPs.

In May, a private-sector lawyer hired by the Conservative government to defend Harper and three others filed a motion in an Ottawa court to dismiss the legal action.

Neither Guergis nor any of the political parties was present in court Wednesday.

Staley argued that many parts of Guergis' claim were contradictory. In one case, he said, she claimed that private detective Derrick Snowdy made allegations about her to party lawyer Arthur Hamilton, but later alternatively suggested that Snowdy made no allegations against her.

"This is just gibberish," Staley said. "It makes no sense."

The legal team spent much of the day arguing that the communications between the defendants about Guergis' alleged actions, and the content of the letters written by Harper to the RCMP and the ethics commissioner about those alleged actions, were neither defamatory nor malicious.

The conversations between those key players were a matter of absolute privilege, the lawyers argued.

Peter Mantas, who represented Harper's former chief of staff Guy Giorno, argued that when you become a minister of the Crown, such serious allegations are no longer personal.

"The subject matter we are dealing with is major criminal allegations against a cabinet minister," Mantas said.

"As a minister of the state for the status of women, she cannot herself be implicated in prostitution."

The hearing will continue on Thursday and will hear arguments from Guergis' lawyer, Stephen Victor.

nstechyson@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/natstechyson