Upcoming witness a hero to Americans
Lawyer Benjamin Perrin, a former legal adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office, is regarded as a “hero” by the U. S. State Department. He’s the author of books and articles on the evils of human trafficking. He has won numerous awards for his legal and humanitarian work.
None of that will likely count for much when the 36- year- old University of British Columbia law professor takes the witness stand in an Ottawa courthouse Thursday to testify in the Mike Duffy trial.
Perrin is generally expected to tell the court that Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, Ray Novak, knew about plans by his predecessor, Nigel Wright, to pay the senator’s $ 90,000 expense bill, something Harper and his team have consistently denied.
Perrin’s court appearance is undoubtedly a discomfiting situation for a lawyer who has made a name for himself campaigning against human trafficking.
It is certainly a far cry from when, as a university undergraduate, he served as a volunteer in Cambodia helping street kids, and confronted the reality of youngsters working in brothels that served foreign tourists, including Canadians.
That exposure led Perrin into a legal career that would eventually see him become a respected expert on fighting human trafficking; a government adviser on security and immigration files; and a legal adviser to international tribunals including the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
His career has also had a political dimension. In the late 1990s, he moved to Ottawa to become a policy intern for the Reform party.
In more recent years, he served as a special adviser in the PMO and as lead policy adviser to the Department of Justice, Public Safety Canada ( including the RCMP, CSIS and other security agencies), and Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
Perrin has written numerous articles on everything from human trafficking and prison reform to prostitution laws and China’s religious persecutions.
In 2009, he was honoured by the U. S. State Department as one of seven people around the world whom the American government wanted to recognize as “heroes in the fight against modern- day slavery.”
In 2010, his book, Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking, received the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature.
None of this, though, prevented his becoming involved in the Senate expense controversy.
In 2013, he was named in an “Information to Obtain” request from the RCMP related to the issue.
In March of that year, he abruptly departed the PMO.
A month later he also left the Privy Council Office.
Perrin has previously denied having a role in the Duffy repayment.
“I was not consulted on, and did not participate in, Nigel Wright’s decision to write a personal cheque to reimburse Senator Duffy’s expenses,” he said in a May 21, 2013 written statement.
But according to testimony and emails which were tabled in court this week, Perrin was involved in negotiating an agreement for repayment of the funds with Duffy’s former lawyer, Janice Payne, and was one of the people around Harper who was aware that Wright had repaid the senator’s expenses.