Friend thought money was Duffy’s own
OTTAWA — Journalist Mark Bourrie didn’t want to be paid for helping Sen. Mike Duffy fight the Internet “trolls” who started posting “mean, anonymous crap” about him after he was appointed to the Senate in 2009.
But a $ 500 cheque showed up anyhow.
“I’m positive I didn’t ask him to pay me,” Bourrie said Friday from the witness stand at Duff y’s criminal trial.
“He may not be the best listener in the world.”
Bourrie was the fi fth witness the Crown called who testifi ed he did some work for Duff y and was then paid by one of two companies run by Gerald Donohue, an old friend of Duff y.
Th e Crown alleges he billed the Senate for improper travel and living expenses and issued contracts to his friends.
Th e Crown’s implication is that Duffy got money for Donohue’s companies under the guise of research contracts — a legitimate use of a senator’s $ 150,000- a- year offi ce budget.
Donohue, in turn, paid for some personal services for Duff y including fi tness training, make- up services and Bourrie’s help battling his online critics, court has heard.
Bourrie worked as a freelance journalist for the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star in the 1980s before moving to Ottawa in 1994.
Then, as a member of the parliamentary press gallery, he struck up a friendship with Duffy, who was then a TV reporter covering Parliament Hill.
“I’m sort of a short, fat, balding guy ... sort of like Mike, so we got along,” Bourrie said.
When Duff y became a senator, he became the victim of meanspirited attacks on blogs, Wikipedia and YouTube.
Bourrie, who had earned a doctorate studying “news control” and censorship felt he could help Duffy navigate those sites’ processes for removing defamatory content.
Blogs, Wikipedia and YouTube had disparaging comments about Duffy dating back to about 2006 when he was still a journalist, Bourrie said.
In 2010, Duffy sent a cheque to Bourrie’s wife, then a law student, because Duffy thought she had done some work battling the trolls. They sent it back because she hadn’t done any work and it would have been inappropriate for her to do legal work as a student, Bourrie testifi ed.
Next, Duffy sent Bourrie himself a cheque.
It was written from the account of Maple Ridge Media and signed by Donohue. “I knew it was connected to Duff y. He said, ‘ did you get the cheque I sent you?’ ”
Bourrie said he didn’t know why the payment came from Maple Ridge Media instead of a government of Canada cheque. He figured it must come from a company Duffy had established to handle his speaking engagements.
“I thought it was his money,” adding it was a small fraction of what he’d usually charge for such service.