Poor health limits witness

The old friend who suspended Sen. Mike Duffy is accused of employing to run a slush fund is only well enough to testify for up to 90 minutes a week, the lead prosecutor in Duffy’s criminal trial said in court Wednesday.

Gerry Donohue, a friend from CTV, got multiple contracts with the Senate that totalled tens of thousands of dollars, at Duffy’s behest. The trial has heard that he sent much of that money on to people who did work for Duffy that the Senate might not have paid for.

Using Donohue as a go-between meant that Duffy got to skip paperwork explaining just what they were doing and what it had to do with Senate business, and that they didn’t have conflicts of interest.

The trial has heard from people who sent Donohue bills and got cheques with his signature on them. It’s heard from his son Matt, who testified that his father actually had no formal role with the family construction-supply company that got Senate contracts for writing and editing, and whose cheques he signed. But it has not heard from Gerry Donohue himself, even though both prosecutors and defence lawyer Donald Bayne say they’re eager to have Donohue testify.