WALLIN VICTIM OF SPYING?
Book alleges plot
OTTAWA — Pamela Wallin believed Conservative senators had placed a spy in her office as part of a plot by members of her own party to “get her,” a new book alleges.
“Wallin believed, as she told me in October 2013, that hard-core right-wing elements in the Conservative caucus had it out for her because she didn’t ‘have an R branded on my forehead’ — she was not Reform enough,” writes Patrick Boyer in Our Scandalous Senate.
“Revealing her expense claim materials ... was, Wallin feared, their plot to get her,” Boyer writes in the new book, which he said reflects his conversations with Wallin.
Alison Stodin had come to work for Wallin in July 2012 on the recommendation of the Conservative Senate whip’s office. Stodin was also a longtime acquaintance of Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen, whom Wallin has publicly suggested was a rival within the Tory Senate caucus.
Stewart Olsen helped pen a damning report about Wallin’s travel last year, and it was Stodin who first alerted senators to what she considered to be questionable expense claims by Wallin.
“She now saw Stodin as a plant, sent into her office to nail down incriminating evidence,” Boyer writes. “Wallin believed that whatever mess she had with her accounts paled in comparison to her personal vulnerability and political isolation among backstabbers on The Hill.”
Asked to comment on the book’s claim, Wallin said through her lawyer Wednesday that she doesn’t believe
“SHE NOW SAW STODIN AS A PLANT, SENT INTO HER OFFICE TO NAIL DOWN INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE.” PATRICK BOYER, WRITING IN OUR SCANDALOUS SENATE
she used the word “plant” in her conversation with Boyer.
Former government Senate leader Marjory LeBreton said Wednesday that the idea of a spy in Wallin’s office was without merit.
“Does anyone seriously believe that?” she asked.
Stewart Olsen did not comment on the allegations, saying she hadn’t read the book. Stodin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is known Wallin and Stodin had a tense working relationship. Wallin fired Stodin in late August 2012, citing performance issues.
In a letter to the Senate’s internal economy committee, Stodin alleged Wallin harassed her, screamed at her and threatened to “destroy the well-earned reputation that I (Stodin) earned on the Hill.”
With her expenses under scrutiny, Wallin eventually repaid about $150,000. She was suspended from the Senate without pay in November, along with Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau, for “gross negligence” with her expense account.
She also left the Conservative caucus — a move Wallin has said was forced upon her.
Her expulsion came the same week in May 2013 that Duffy left caucus following revelations that Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s then chief of staff, gave Duffy $90,000 to cover repayment of his housing claims.
Boyer writes that when LeBreton told Wallin to resign from caucus, Wallin replied, “If you think this will take attention away from Nigel and his payment to Mike Duffy, you’re wrong. The media can cover two stories at once.”
Boyer’s book argues for abolishing the Senate, a chamber that can’t exercise “sober second thought” due to partisan, political and historical issues, he said in an interview.
Boyer lays blame for the scandal on the senators involved; on Harper for the appointments; on the Senate administration for approving questionable claims; and on the Senate itself for lack of oversight and allegedly ignoring pleas for years by finance staff to tighten procedures and revise rules.