OTTAWA - Conservative MPs are thwarting the grieving widow of former Rights and Democracy president Remy Beauregard from testifying at a Commons committee.

Suzanne Trepanier has requested permission to appear at the Foreign Affairs committee to defend her husband's record and provide her version of events that she believes contributed to Beauregard's fatal heart attack in January following an agency board meeting.

But Tory MP Jim Abbott's hour-long filibuster Thursday ran out the clock on a committee decision, and Abbott made of point of reminding the committee chairman that he holds the floor when the group next meets.

Abbott told the committee that hearing from Beauregard's widow "would be an emotional reaction to a situation over which this committee has absolutely no control."

Rights and Democracy, an arms-length, taxpayer-funded agency, has been in turmoil for months as factions on the government-appointed board battled over three small grants to Middle East rights monitoring groups that are critical of Israel.

Conservatives have agreed to hear from newly appointed president Jacques Gauthier and board chairman Aurel Braun, although both the Conservative appointees cancelled an appearance Thursday for scheduling reasons.

"The reason why we want the witness list limited to that is because we see no value in having people who can make their positions clear in public in other fora at this committee," Abbott told The Canadian Press following the committee meeting.

"It doesn't accomplish anything."

Abbott, however, said he was not averse to expanding the witness list -- as long as it doesn't include Beauregard's widow and three senior agency employees recently fired by Gauthier.

"We're also completely in favour of people who may have differing points of view -- professors, people of knowledge -- who may have differing points of view from an academic perspective as to what should be happening."

Conservative disdain for academic expertise has been frequently stated, including a frank assessment last spring by Ian Brodie, Harper's former chief of staff, who told a McGill university forum the government actually benefits politically from such critics.

But first-hand testimony by the widow of a man whose supporters say he was harassed and maligned by stoutly pro-Israel members of the Rights and Democracy board is another matter.

"Given the extraordinary efforts that were made by some people to review Mr. Beauregard's conduct and the impact of that review on Mr. Beauregard, I think she's fully entitled to appear," said Liberal MP and committee member Bob Rae.

"I think they're frankly very concerned about what Suzanne Trepanier would say," NDP Leader Jack Latyon said in an interview.

"Because she's in a position to know much more about what really happened with these new appointees that these Conservatives have put in place and her late husband. It could very seriously impact the kind of spin they've been trying to put on this."

But Layton said the Tory tactics point to a more fundamental issue he has with the Harper government.

"The filibuster is once again an attempt by Mr. Harper to frustrate the will of the majority. Mr. Harper can't get a majority from the Canadian people . . . but he's trying to use all the tools of that kind of power. It's an abuse of power."

Deepak Obhrai, the parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, flatly denied the Conservatives were filibustering the committee.

"We are saying let's get witnesses to move the committee forward."

But Abbott's rambling hour-long monotone, which meandered into CBC radio programming, Export Development Canada policy and bank regulation, had the hallmarks of a classic stalling tactic.

After the hearing, Abbott managed to summarize his argument in a single sentence: "I'm concerned about the committee doing its job, which is to answer to the people of Canada, ask questions of the people appointed by the government of Canada."

Trepanier, in a letter to committee chairman Dean Allison, asked that she be allowed to testify on a matter "which has profoundly damaged the perception on the Canadian actions with respect to human rights and democracy, at the national and international levels."

"Considering the events I witnessed during the months preceding and following my husband's death," she wrote, "I think it is important that I can be heard, particularly to clear my husband's name in order to remove from the Privy Council Office all the documents regarding his evaluation that are still in his file."

Trepanier was referring to a secret job assessment of Beauregard that Braun, Gauthier and one other board member submitted to the government, then refused to let him see.

Beauregard had been given a glowing evaluation by the full board, and only learned of what Braun later characterized as "constructive criticism" by demanding his own file through an Access to Information request.

New Democrats say they'd also like testimony from Joe Clark, the Progressive Conservative foreign minister under whose watch Rights and Democracy was created in 1988. They also want to hear from former NDP leader Ed Broadbent, who was appointed by Brian Mulroney as the agency's first president.