Rethinking resignation: Raj Grewal; Decision to quit right, says PMO

JALANDHAR: Even as Sikh Liberal MP from Brampton East, Raj Grewal, said that he would take a final call about resigning from Canadian parliament later, office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that his earlier decision to quit was right.

Grewal, who announced his resignation last week citing a gambling addiction, has issued another detailed statement about how he developed the addiction. He sought to clear the air on the issue and rebut a few allegations reported in the Canadian media. His statement also implies that he has not yet resigned and will take a final decision before Parliament resumes in the New Year. “I’ve decided that I will be leaving the Liberal Caucus and taking a leave of absence to focus on my mental health and recovery,” he said.

However, government whip Mark Holland said he had been removed from the Liberal Caucus. “I confirmed, in writing, earlier this morning to the Speaker of the House of Commons that Raj Grewal, MP for Brampton East, is not a member of the Liberal Caucus,” Holland tweeted on Saturday night.

In his statement, Grewal revealed that he gambled recreationally since university and never thought he would suffer from mental health and addiction issues. “But it became a significant personal problem that I now recognize and take responsibility for,” he has said.

“My sins are not ones based in corruption and dishonesty, they are born out of human frailty. To the Prime Minister, I sincerely apologize for becoming a distraction from the important work you are doing for Canadians,” Grewal’s statement reads.

“During my time in Ottawa as MP, I stayed at the Hilton Hotel in Gatineau Quebec, which, coincidentally, was inter-connected to the Casino du Lac Leamy. In early 2016, I first started visiting the Casino recreationally to play blackjack.

“This quickly escalated into a significant problem as I started to play high stakes, high-limit blackjack. On an average sitting, I would spend between 15 to 30 minutes at a table, and I either won a lot of money, which made me continue to chase wins, or I lost a significant amount of money, which threw me in complete despair,” Grewal said in the statement posted on his Facebook page along with a video of him reading it out.

“Over a 3-year period, I accumulated personal debt of millions of dollars. Like many addicts and people suffering from mental health issues, I started to personally borrow money solely from friends and family to continue to gamble,” he said, adding, “I want to make it clear, that every single personal loan made to me was by cheque. Everybody has been paid back and every loan and repayment is transparent and traceable. This has nothing to do at all with anything sinister except to feed my own addiction. I apologize to my family for both having to financially bail me out and to carry this burden with me.”