Evidence reflects PM praise of Duffy
OTTAWA— It was a taste of what was, and is, to come.
In his distinctive scrawl on a photo of the two of them, Prime Minister Stephen Harper effusively hailed now-suspended senator Mike Duffy as a “great Senator” after just five months on the job.
“To Duff, a great journalist and a great Senator, thanks for being one of my best, hardest-working appointments ever! Stephen Harper,” reads the handwritten message penned in silver marker.
The photo was taken at the launch of Harper’s 2009 “economic action plan” or budget unveiled June 11, 2009, during the height of the recession at an elaborate town-hall styled event in Cambridge, Ont.
Enlarged copies were introduced on Day 3 of Duffy’s fraud trial by defence lawyer Donald Bayne during his lengthy cross-examination of retired Senate law clerk Mark Audcent.
Bayne drew repeated admissions from Audcent, the author of the 2004 Senate Administrative Rules, that the Senate’s own rules, policies and guidelines on housing and travel expenses did not set out clear criteria or definitions.
But Thursday, as his lawyer shifted to the nitty-gritty on travel rules, Bayne suggested to Audcent that Duffy was doing only what was demanded and expected of him from none other than the prime minister.
Bayne observed Duffy was “one of the new, young senators and here he is a ‘great senator’ already.” The Crown tried to object it was nothing but hearsay, but Judge Charles Vaillancourt allowed the photos, saying, “It is what it is.”
It opened a big window on the defence strategy, which is shaping up to draft the Conservative government’s top leadership into an Ottawa courtroom to prove Duffy did nothing criminal.
Duffy himself plans to testify, Bayne told the judge.
There are hints that Duffy has proof the prime minister “personally selected” him for such work, evidence that could be in memos or could come if Harper were called to testify — a possibility the prime minister has dismissed. Legal experts say he could fight a summons.
Bayne asked if Audcent was aware, as “most Canadians” were, that Duffy “played a very highly active partisan role for the prime minister very soon after his appointment,” was “personally selected by the prime minister” for many of those events and travelled extensively across the country “at the behest of the prime minister and the Conservative caucus.”
It appears Bayne intends to bring in evidence that Duffy sought clarifications from the government’s Senate leadership and from the PMO on what was expected of him and how he needed to navigate Senate rules.
Duffy faces 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery related to alleged misuse of Senate resources. By the end of the day, Bayne pressed home his point with Audcent that the Conservative government and party actively encouraged Duffy to travel and use his position as senator to advance their biggest initiatives, that there were no explicit rules against claiming for partisan activities, that Duffy — a “rookie” senator — couldn’t possibly know what was and wasn’t allowed if the Senate’s own law clerk agreed the rules were “open-ended.”
Finally, Bayne said that when all 13 of Duffy’s now-suspect travel claims were submitted, approved and reimbursed, there was “a positive feedback loop for the senator, isn’t there, that ‘my claim is appropriate?’ ”
Audcent replied “yes,” with a caveat, that only “the senator is the master of the facts, not the Senate administration.”
He said all the senate administration can do is ask for clarification.
It was important testimony because Audcent authored the 2004 Senate Administrative Rules, which he said are one of three “foundational documents” that govern the activities and conduct of senators.
He said the senate is “an inherently political institution,” and that the rules state that “partisan activities are an inherent and essential part of the parliamentary functions of a senator” and that senators are entitled to resources to carry out those functions.
There are few restrictions: partisan travel during an election campaign will not be paid for. Nor will the Senate pay for “the private business interests” of a senator.
Listening to it all at the back of the court was Duffy’s independent Senate colleague, Patrick Brazeau, there “to support my independent senator,” he said. Bayne was unaware Brazeau was coming and had not invited him to lend support to Duffy.
“To Duff, a great journalist and a great Senator, thanks for being one of my best, hardest-working appointments ever!” STEPHEN HARPER PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA IN CORRESPONDECE WITH MIKE DUFFY