Duffy makes a quiet return to the Senate
He’s back after expenses trial but neither he nor RCMP commissioner in chatty mood
OTTAWA— Sen. Mike Duffy made a restrained return to Parliament Hill on Monday, almost two weeks after being cleared of all criminal charges, while the RCMP stayed mum on its beleaguered probe into Duffy and other senators.
Duffy was seen outside his office in Centre Block Monday afternoon. Because the Senate did not sit on Monday, his return to the Upper Chamber will have to wait at least another day.
Duffy was asked by the Star if he wanted to say a few words upon his return to Parliament Hill. He declined to answer that question.
Instead, he spoke to two people who had been with him in his office and then left in an elevator. Likewise, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson was silent on his force’s actions in the failed prosecution of Duffy, as well as its ongoing probe into other senators.
Before and after testifying at a Senate committee, Paulson refused to answer media questions about the verdict in the Duffy case.
Prosecutors have until May 20 to decide whether to challenge the Duffy acquittal, but Paulson did not suggest that was the reason he would not comment.
“I’m not at liberty to talk about it,” Paulson said repeatedly. “It would be inappropriate for me to talk about the Duffy matter right now or any of those matters.”
At the same time Paulson suggested there will soon be a decision made in the long-running police investigation into Sen. Pamela Wallin’s travel expenses.
“I think we’ll have a disposition in that in the near future but I shouldn’t speak about any of those right now.”
Wallin has been under investigation, but not charged, for more than three years by an RCMP investigative team that was separate from the one that led the Duffy probe.
The Wallin investigative team has been poring over her calendars and expenses charged to the Senate for travel that the RCMP alleged was tied to personal or corporate travel, not Senate business, according to an RCMP affidavit.
However, none of those allegations has been proven in court.
The RCMP is also reviewing the cases of other senators whose expenses were flagged by the auditorgeneral for further investigation, and charges are still outstanding against two other senators: Patrick Brazeau and retired Liberal senator Mac Harb.
The Harb trial is set for August, while the Brazeau trial is put off until 2017.
Big questions swirl around all of those cases in the wake of the Duffy case.
The Duffy trial judge who conducted an exhaustive review of the rules around Senate business has said Senate rules were broad enough to allow a wide range of expense claims.
Duffy, the senator from Prince Edward Island, was cleared by a provincial court last month of all 31 charges including fraud, bribery and breach of trust.
He had claimed living expenses for an Ottawa-area home he lived in for years before being appointed to the Senate by former prime minister Stephen Harper to represent the is- land of P.E.I. in the upper chamber.
Duffy owns a cottage home in rural P.E.I. which he designated as his “primary residence,” a designation that entitled him to claim living and travel expenses for a “secondary” home in Ottawa. Duffy also used senate funds to cover a range of partisan travel and third-party contracted services.
Judge Charles Vaillancourt ruled that Duffy’s actions, including accepting a $90,000 from Harper’s former chief of staff to repay $90,000 in living expenses, were not criminal.
Instead, Vaillancourt blasted Harper’s PMO, who attempted to make the expense scandal go away by forc- ing Duffy to repay the money.
It remains to be seen what Duffy’s future role in the Senate will be.
He sits as an Independent, following his ejection from the Conservative caucus after the $90,000 payment was revealed.
Questions about his continued legitimacy to sit as a P.E.I. senator, as well as his entitlement to back pay for the period of his suspension, have stuck with Duffy after his acquittal.
Speaking to CTV’s Question Period on Sunday, Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos, said Duffy will be welcomed back as a senator with all the rights that entails.
But Housakos, a former Senate Speaker and chair of the powerful Senate internal economy committee, suggested there would be little “appetite” for senators to revisit Duffy’s suspension and pay.
On Monday, Housakos’ office said he was speaking as an individual senator, and not for the chamber as a whole.
All questions on Duffy’s potential reimbursement were directed to the Senate Speaker’s office.
Speaker George Furey’s office said he took no position on the issue, but would preside over the Senate’s deliberation of the question if it arises. Furey was a prosecution witness during the Duffy trial.