Article content continued

Hartley told the Post that he signed an affirmation required by the party stating he would not lobby at the event. “I attended to support the Liberal Party of Canada as I have consistently done over the past several decades,” he said in an email.

NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus said the SNC-Lavalin controversy is revealing “the really tawdry little backroom world of influence that exists in the Trudeau government.” He suggested that despite the Liberals’ commitment to end controversial cash-for-access fundraisers, the practice continues.

“They got called out for shamelessly peddling access to the prime minister. They came up with what looked like some rules, but in reality if you give an enormous amount of money to the Liberal party you get access because you’re special,” he said. “That’s the kind of insider access that got this government into trouble.”

However, Caley argued the Conservatives and NDP haven’t willingly put in place the same transparency measures the Liberals have adopted. The government passed new political fundraising legislation last year that came into effect in December, which requires the opposition parties to disclose details about fundraising events where a donation of more than $200 is required to attend. But the legislation does not require all parties to allow media to attend their events, as the Liberals have done. “It’s time that both Mr. Scheer and Mr. Singh did the right thing and stopped barring journalists from their parties’ behind-closed-doors fundraising events,” Caley said.

Last fall, the Globe and Mail published an analysis of Liberal fundraising events since the party made changes in 2017, and found that nearly half of their 72 fundraisers had been Laurier Club donor-appreciation events, where the restrictions on lobbyists do not apply.

CLARIFICATION: John Duffy of StrategyCorp is registered to lobby on behalf of a consortium of companies that includes two SNC-Lavalin subsidiaries. This story has been updated.

• Email: mforrest@postmedia.com | Twitter: MauraForrest

• Email: jsnyder@postmedia.com | Twitter: jesse_snyder