Duffy says he was ‘required’ to file expenses

Senior Tories ‘instructed’ him to make expense claims, he says in court

OTTAWA— Sen. Mike Duffy betrayed anger and frustration Wednesday at being charged criminally for claiming living expenses, travel costs for doing partisan business, even attending funerals — exactly the sorts of things he said other senators did.

At one point, Duffy said the criminal charges for attending funerals “as a representative of the Senate” was “outrageous, isn’t it? Sorry, but I’m just so fed up with this.”

Testifying in his own defence against 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting a bribery payment to cover allegedly inappropriate expense claims, Duffy denied any wrongdoing, bad faith or misunderstanding of vague rules.

He said he was clearly told from the outset that the longtime practice and rules “required” him to file those expenses.

The embattled senator told the court he asked senior Conservatives including its Senate “guru” on expense matters, Sen. David Tkachuk, then deputy chair of the rules-making committee.

He said he was “instructed, not encouraged” to file housing and daily meal expense claims to avoid creating “controversy” about other senators’ practices and his own constitutional eligibility for his P.E.I. seat.

Tkachuk denies counselling Duffy to interpret the rules as he claimed.

Duffy revealed a letter written by New Brunswick Sen. John Wallace, a lawyer and Conservative appointee who just stepped aside to sit as an independent, that supports his version of the rules.

Wallace wrote to the Senate’s executive committee in early 2013 as the expenses of Duffy, Conservatives Pamela Wallin, Patrick Brazeau and Liberal Mac Harb were becoming a full-blown controversy for the upper chamber.

In it, Wallace scolded Senate leaders for failing to acknowledge that the “turmoil” was caused by “geography” and the rules themselves, and urged the internal economy committee and the government to simply acknowledge that reality, though it wouldn’t please the media.

The Crown dismissed Wallace’s letter as his opinion, saying he wasn’t qualified as an “expert.”

The housing and travel claims he filed to the Senate totalled $80,000 over six years for his longtime Kanata, Ont., home.

In the end the Senate ordered him to repay the $80,000 plus interest — which led to a $90,000 tab that Stephen Harper’s former top aide, Nigel Wright gave Duffy a bank transfer to cover.

Right after Harper named Duffy as a P.E.I. senator, Duffy testified that he personally raised concerns with the PMO and Conservative Senate leadership officials because a P.E.I. professor flagged to a Charlottetown newspaper Duffy was ineligible for a P.E.I. seat because he wasn’t a resident of the province.

Duffy testified Tkachuk told him to ignore the naysayers.

The Canadian Press reports Tkachuk said he never told Duffy to make expense claims to legitimize his hold on his Senate seat.