Duffy training also involved ‘talk’ of health: defence

Lee Berthiaume provides an insider’s view of the goings-on at the talked-about trial.

For the first seven days of her husband’s trial, Heather Duffy was a constant presence at the Ottawa courthouse. When not watching the proceedings from a spot in the courtroom just behind Mike Duffy, she could be found dropping him off or picking him up in the couple’s distinctive burgundy SUV. But Heather was noticeably absent Thursday. An unidentified man dropped the suspended senator off in the morning in a white SUV, then picked him up again at the end of the day. Meanwhile, Heather’s spot in the courtroom was taken by other Duffy supporters.

Duffy’s lawyer, Donald Bayne, couldn’t say exactly why Heather wasn’t present. However, he said she has been experiencing some health issues, and had also taken on a job after Duffy was suspended from the Senate. Bayne said Heather knew she wouldn’t be able to watch the whole trial, but would try to be there for her husband through most of it.

SCRUMMING FOR HEALTH

Mike Croskery, who was on the witness stand Thursday, is a fitness trainer who worked with Duffy for about six years. The Crown alleges Duffy used tax dollars to improperly pay Croskery for personal training sessions. Duffy’s lawyer says he was a consultant for a research project. Bayne even joked early in the trial that if Croskery was hired as a personal trainer, Duffy should have asked for his money back.

Croskery appeared to appreciate the fitness levels of the television cameramen and newspaper photographers covering the trial. When he stepped outside, they scrummed him, and as he walked many were forced to backpedal all the way from the courthouse to city hall, with their heavy recording equipment, in hopes he would say something, anything.

Eventually, he did. “You guys are great backward walkers,” he said. “You guys should do a boot camp. It’d be a good boot camp where you do a lot of backwards running. You’d get in good shape for it.”