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Some members of Parliament's public accounts committee say it's becoming ever clearer that a public inquiry is necessary into the RCMP's pension and insurance scandal.

"We have heard incredible testimony every time these officers have appeared," Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj told Â鶹ӰÊÓnet's Mike Duffy Live on Wednesday.

"Today, we heard a stunning revelation -- that the Department of Justice may have been suppressing evidence that the committee should have had coming forward before us."

NDP MP Dave Christopherson said: "We're finding conflicting testimony. We're finding sworn officers calling each other liars."

Conservative MP John Williams said he was "shocked and surprised" over the conflicting testimony; and Wrzesnewskyj added that it should all point to one thing: "A full judicial inquiry."

Jean-Yves Laforest, a Bloc Quebecois MP, expressed the same sentiment during Wednesday's testimony.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has appointed an investigator to examine the case. That investigator may yet recommend a full inquiry.

The MPs say this would allow witnesses to be subpoenaed and be made to testify under oath.

Committee testimony

On Wednesday, the committee heard from Deputy Commissioner Barbara George, who is currently under suspension from the force.

A key issue with her is the claim that she moved to remove Staff Sgt. Mike Frizzell from a joint team of RCMP and Ottawa police officers investigating possible criminal misconduct in the administration of the $12-billion RCMP pension plan.

In her February testimony, George said she had nothing to do with Frizzell's departure and could not name the reason why he was moved. However, documents filed with the committee in March suggest she had been involved.

"I stand by that answer," she said Wednesday, noting that her name never appeared on the final order to dismiss him.

But she also gave a new answer on why Frizzell had been removed, claiming he had been obsessed with the pension fund investigation and abusive to staff.

"At least two staff members were so upset with their interviews with Sgt. Frizzell that they had to be sent home," she said.

George's testimony surprised Frizzell.

"I kind of feel like cannon fodder here," he said. "Especially from Ms. George.

The probe ended after Frizzell's departure. Crown prosecutors decided against laying charges.

Auditor General Sheila Fraser reported last November that although the 2004-05 investigation involved the Ottawa municipal police, the Mounties were still involved. The Ottawa officers in charge also reported through the RCMP chain of command.

Chief Supt. Fraser Macaulay, one of the main dissidents, has told the committee he thought the investigation was "prematurely shut down."

He has also testified that Deputy Commissioner George and Rosalie Burton, former director general of RCMP human resources, were considered "persons of interest" in the investigation.

A major issue is the transfer of $600,000 from the RCMP pension to a life-and-disability insurance fund. Investigators believe the pension money may have been improperly transferred to cover for surging administrative costs in the insurance fund.

Frizzell had left a voice-mail message for Burton saying he thought that criminal conduct was being "condoned by senior management."

He has said the message was passed to George, leading to him being kicked off the investigation.

According to the e-mails received by the committee, George said Frizzell's phone call was "harassing behaviour."

Perjury denied

George said she did not commit perjury when she testified in February.

"The utterance of the term 'perjury' was the catalyst that changed my life forever," George told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday.

That allegation was leveled by Wrzesnewskyj, who she accused of using a "misleading quote grossly out of context" in his attack on her.

George said she had been a member of the force for 29 years, and that her conduct or integrity had never been called into question before.

"Because of the confusion surrounding these hearings, some press reports have even suggested that I was somehow involved in the problems with the RCMP pension and insurance funds. I was not," she said.

George had been the senior Mountie in charge of human resources. She resigned from that job on March 27 and was then suspended following some explosive allegations about how some top Mounties, including former commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, had stonewalled attempts to investigate problems with the pension and insurance plants.

However, she has not resigned from the RCMP, although she told the committee that acting commissioner Beverly Busson asked her to step down from her position as it would be in the best interests of the force.

While George said her previous testimony before the committee was honest and accurate, she came under some criticism for her testimony on Wednesday.

Williams told her he found her answers to questions to be more legalistic than "fulsome."

CTV's Graham Richardson told Mike Duffy Live that he was struck by how angry the Conservative MPs were in committee.

"What I find so fascinating about these hearings is that the rank-and-file officers ... are real police officers. They've written everything down -- just like they would with criminals," added Robert Fife, CTV's Ottawa bureau chief. "The senior levels of the RCMP are acting like bureaucrats - 'I can't remember this', 'I don't know that'."
 
With a report from CTV's Graham Richardson and files from The Canadian Press