Senior staff in the Prime Minister’s Office and the Clerk of the Privy Council will not be invited to appear before the House ethics committee to explain when they were first alerted that the RCMP was investigating former Liberal MP Raj Grewal, after MPs from the party rejected a motion put forward by Conservatives and backed by the NDP.

An emergency meeting of the ethics committee, which was requested by members of the opposition, is the latest in a saga begun by Grewal’s announced resignation two weeks ago.

[READ MORE: MP investigated for ethics breach resigns for ‘personal and medical’ reasons]

It’s since been revealed by government and news sources that Grewal resigned due to a gambling addiction that left him with a seven-figure debt. For months, the RCMP have been investigating Grewal’s gambling activities to determine if he was involved in illegal financial dealings such as money laundering, according to news reports.

Although Grewal said the loans he took out for gambling were strictly from family members, further suspicion was raised when the Globe and Mail reported Grewal once used his position on the House finance committee to question officials from the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency, and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada — which monitors transactions of more than $10,000 at casinos — about money laundering.

[READ MORE: MP Raj Grewal resigned due to gambling addiction, PMO reveals]

On Thursday, Conservative ethics critic Peter Kent tabled the motion requesting that staff from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Privy Council clerk appear at committee.

“We certainly on the opposition side have some serious questions … about exactly when the Prime Minister’s Office first became aware of the RCMP investigation into the various activities (of) the Liberal member of Parliament for Brampton East,” Kent said, before listing the various developments involving Grewal that have been made public since Nov. 22. Kent also described his concerns about Grewal’s role in what NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus suggested was an ethics violation by Grewal on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip to India last year.

Grewal invited a client, who had paid him for legal advice outside of his job as an MP, to receptions in India where Trudeau and other officials would be.

On Thursday, Angus said his concerns about Grewal were now about national security.

“What was concerning was that this was an RCMP investigation,” Angus told the committee. “RCMP do not investigate people who have addictions; they investigate people when they’re worried whether a crime had been committed.”

He said he wants the Privy Council clerk and PMO staff to explain to the committee the protocols for Grewal’s insinuated misuse of his position.

Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith refuted the motion, suggesting that the House procedure committee would be a more appropriate venue for the request, and pointing out that the ethics investigation into Grewal’s activities continues.

“In the absence of any action by (the procedure committee), we on the opposition side of the ethics committee decided it was appropriate to try to get some answers now,” Kent told iPolitics after the committee.

Erskine-Smith also compared the motion to the Liberals requesting that Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s chief of staff be called to discuss Tony Clement’s resignation from the Conservative Party.

“It’s an overreach and it’s inappropriate,” Erskine-Smith said of the motion.

Kent countered that it’s like comparing “apples and oranges.”

Clement left the Conservative Party after admitting to sending sexually explicit pictures and videos of himself to what he said he thought were consenting women, then being threatened with blackmail. Clement had been a member of the highly secretive intelligence-oversight committee. Like Grewal, Clement remains an Independent MP.

In response to Erskine-Smith’s concerns, opposition MPs agreed to amend the motion to request that only officials from the Privy Council be invited to a committee meeting.

Erskine-Smith and his Liberal colleagues still voted the motion down, 4 to 3. Kent said he was disappointed with the outcome, but he’ll continue asking questions, and he’s “reassured that the RCMP investigation will be pursued to a logical conclusion.”

Grewal’s most recent public comment came in the form of a video posted to his Facebook page late last Friday, in which he addressed many of the reports about him. He said he would consider his “political future” in the New Year, and would continue to “take a leave of absence to focus on (his) mental health and recovery.”

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