It’s common sense vs. Senate rules book
DUFFY TRIAL: ‘Appearance, not reality’ in question
OTTAWA — Mike Duffy was forced to pay back $90,000 in disputed expenses he didn’t really owe because he had become a political problem for the Conservative party, his lawyer argued Tuesday, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper knew it.
For many months, lawyer Donald Bayne has said there’s another side to the story of the suspended senator’s expense claims. In court, as his ex-journalist client began his trial on 31 criminal charges, Bayne finally started to tell it.
“It was appearance, not reality or truth that mattered,” he said of Duffy’s dealings with the Prime Minister’s Office, and particularly Harper’s then-chief of staff, Nigel Wright. Bayne quoted a police interview of Wright in which the top Tory operative said he had told the prime minister they were trying to force Duffy to pay back money he very likely didn’t owe, and that was a very hard thing.
Duffy wanted no part of it but eventually gave in under pressure. He accepted $90,000 from Wright, then sent the money to the government, to help make the scandal go away.
The question of the payment, to which Wright is expected to testify later in the 41-day trial, is the capstone on a huge edifice of … well, it depends whom you’re asking.
The Crown alleges Duffy began grasping at dollars practically from the moment he took his seat in the Senate.
Let’s keep this simple, prosecutor Mark Holmes told Judge Charles Vaillancourt.
Holmes had to explain the grounds for 28 charges against Duffy that are separate from Wright’s payment. They all involve how Duffy treated the Senate’s money after Harper named him to the Red Chamber in 2008.
Many have to do with expense claims, such as treating his Kanata, Ont., home as a secondary residence he kept only so he could do Senate business in Ottawa.
“There may be some spirited discussion on what primary means and secondary means,” Holmes said in his opening statement, talking about Duffy’s residence. “Let me be the first to say that primary means main or usual, and residence is where you live.
“Certain fundamental and common-sense provisions apply, notwithstanding policies.”
The house in Prince Edward Island Duffy claimed as his primary home once he became a senator is a place he treated as a cottage for a long time, Holmes said.
Duffy’s defence will rely on claims the Senate’s rules for deciding what’s a primary or a secondary residence are vague, Holmes said.
“We have to stay focused on the basic question,” he said. As a senator, Duffy had a duty to treat public money with respect, and he didn’t.
Actually, replied Bayne, relying on common sense isn’t an option here.
“The Crown hopes to have you, like an ostrich, put your head in the sand and ignore relevant evidence,” Bayne told the judge. He produced a thick book of printed documents he plans to go through in detail, spelling out rules, procedures and guidelines for senators’ expense claims.
For instance, he said, Duffy understood he was required to say his primary residence was in the province he represented — and that was common practice.