Tory lawyer’s role in payout queried
OTTAWA — Opposition MPs want to know if or how Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton was involved in backroom manoeuvres to allow Sen. Mike Duffy to receive $90,000 to pay off his expense claims.
Hamilton, a lawyer with Cassels Brock, appears in emails that Duffy has said he has, which allegedly spell out which lawyers and officials set up an arrangement under which Duffy would receive $90,000 from Nigel Wright, then the prime minister’s chief of staff, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
Liberal MP Ralph Goodale, in question period Friday, asked: “What was Mr. Hamilton’s role in paying off Mike Duffy?”
Parliamentary secretary Paul Calandra replied: “Nigel Wright, in his filings, has identified the people that he brought into his confidence on this matter.”
Hamilton is not one of the people named by Wright.
Hamilton has been the party’s main lawyer for years, playing a key role in the party’s management of delicate matters, working closely with senior party officials, for instance, in the Elections Canada robocalls investigation.
Neither Hamilton nor the Conservative party immediately responded to requests for comment on Friday.
A court document filed by RCMP Cpl. Greg Horton says Wright’s lawyers told the RCMP the March 26 payment from Wright to Duffy was a CIBC bank draft sent to Duffy’s lawyer, Janice Payne.
The source says the transfer was handled by Cassels Brock, where Hamilton works.
Wright’s lawyers told the RCMP the party had agreed to pay Duffy’s expense bill when it was believed to be $32,000. When the party learned the amount required was $90,000, the party balked at paying, and Wright agreed to pay it, “believing it was the proper ethical decision that taxpayers not be out $90,000.”
CTV, citing Conservative sources, has reported that the late Sen. Doug Finley had opposed using party funds to make the payment to Duffy.
In his speech to the Senate this week, Duffy said lawyers worked out the terms of an agreement to have him pay back expenses that the Senate had determined he should not have been paid.