Harper fires back at Duffy
Harper insists he didn’t know about secret payment
As opposition parties grilled Stephen Harper over the Senate scandal on Wednesday, he fought back and attacked Senator Mike Duffy, who a day earlier claimed the prime minister used intimidation tactics to force him to repay $90,000 in expense claims. While the drama unfolded in the House, the Senate heard from Pamela Wallin, who defended herself as she fights a move to suspend her without pay over her own expense claims.
A combative Prime Minister Stephen Harper came out swinging Wednesday on the Senate expenses scandal, attacking Sen. Mike Duffy for playing the “victim” card and insisting he didn’t threaten the senator with expulsion from the upper chamber.
Harper denied intimidating Duffy, contrary to Duffy’s assertions to the Senate on Tuesday that he had been forced to go along with a secret scheme to repay some of his Senate expenses.
In a sharp change of tone for how government is responding to the Senate crisis, Harper made his strongest comments to date on the political scandal — which has embroiled the Conservative party and the Prime Minister’s Office for the past six months.
The compelling political theatre played out in the House of Commons as the official Opposition NDP and Liberals continued to grill Harper on what role he and the Prime Minister’s Office played in a secret $90,000 payment by then-chief of staff Nigel Wright to Duffy to cover improper Senate expenses.
“Mr. Duffy now says he is a victim because I told him he should repay his expenses,” a furious Harper said in question period.
“You’re darn right I told him he should repay his expenses!”
For nearly 25 straight minutes, Harper rose repeatedly in the House of Commons to address Duffy’s assertions and the surgical inquisition of the opposition parties, breaking from his custom of only responding to the first few questions f rom party leaders.
After months of being on the defensive, the prime minister was looking to change the tone on the Senate affair. At the same time, just down the hall on the other side of Parliament’s Centre Block, the upper chamber was debating the future of Duffy and two other former Conservative senators.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair asked whether, as Duffy had asserted, the prime minister threatened to boot him out of the Senate if Duffy didn’t co-operate on repaying the expenses.
“When he (Duffy) asked, in fact, I told our entire caucus and staff that my view was that his expense claims were inappropriate and they should be repaid,” Harper said.
“That particular time, Mr. Speaker, did I threaten him with expulsion? No.
“But when inappropriate expense claims are made, I expect a corrective action to be taken and if it is not taken, the person who does not take corrective action could not expect to continue to sit as a member of the Conservative party,” he added, to raucous applause from Tory MPs.
Mulcair also challenged Harper on whether he was being truthful in his claims that Wright acted alone. Harper maintained, as he has before, that he did not know of the
“You’re darn right I told him he should repay his expenses!”
PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER
secret payment and would never have approved such a scheme.
“Any assertion that I was in any way consulted or had any knowledge of Mr. Wright’s payment to Mr. Duffy is categorically false. Had I known about it, I would not have permitted it. As soon as I knew about it, on May 15, I revealed it to the public,” Harper said.
The prime minister also insisted the move to suspend Duffy, Sen. Patrick Brazeau and Sen. Pamela Wallin from the Senate was approved by the Conservative Senate caucus, but said he fully supports it, because they don’t be- long on the public payroll.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau called on the prime minister to “testify under oath to reveal everything he knows about this scandal and the coverup.”
Harper didn’t directly respond.
“Mr. Duffy continues to assert that his expense claims were all valid and all appropriate. We obviously disagree with that and believe he should be held accountable for that behaviour,” he said.
The remarks went further than the prime minister has ever gone in discussing the Duffy affair. And they came as the Senate heard Wednesday from Wallin, defending herself in the red chamber as she fights a move to suspend her from the Senate without pay over her expense claims.
While the three senators await their fate, the opposition said the blame falls on Harper.
“Stephen Harper is at the centre of this deep scandal, no one else,” Mulcair said after a meeting of his MPs.
“This is no longer a question of Nigel Wright or Mike Duffy. This is about Stephen Harper. He’s got to start telling the truth to the public. The public has the right to know. He says he’s answered the question. … He’s never answered any of these questions truthfully.”