Duffy deserves something … such as fairness
Mike Duffy is not a public figure who attracts much sympathy among Canadians in general or among his former colleagues in the fourth estate. He will attract even less sympathy now that he is suing the government, Senate and RCMP for $7.8 million.
Duffy was a good reporter, hard-working and well-connected, and he became something of a celebrity with his own political show on television in Ottawa. But celebrity was not enough. Like a moth to a flame, he was attracted to political power.
He happily abandoned his journalism career for a patronage appointment, a seat in the Senate — courtesy of then-prime minister Stephen Harper.
In the language of the newsroom, Duffy had “crossed the street.” He’d “gone over to the dark side.” That was bad enough, but Duffy forfeited the respect of old friends and fellow journalists by using his new platform in the Senate to shill shamelessly for the Conservative government and party.
His downfall was dramatic. He was caught up in the Senate expense scandal and soon became its focus. His right to represent Prince Edward Island in the upper house when he really lived in Ottawa was challenged, as was the legitimacy of his claims for second-residence expenses. Soon his travel and office expenses came under scrutiny. He became an embarrassment to the Conservative majority in the Senate and to the Conservative party and its leader, a prime minister with a reputation for throwing supporters under the bus when they had outlived their usefulness.
In the end, the Senate, urged on by the Prime Minister’s Office, called in the RCMP. The Mounties charged Duffy with no fewer than 31 criminal offences, including fraud and bribery. The general public reaction seemed to be that Duffy had it coming, that he had made his bed and now he would have to sleep in it.
Of course, the 31 charges were not the end of it. There was the long and very public trial that spread over parts of 2015 and into 2016. The government’s case against Duffy seemed to crumble a bit more with each day’s testimony. By the time the trial was over, the case had clearly collapsed.
On April 21, 2016, Mr. Justice Charles Vaillancourt dismissed all 31 charges against Duffy. His reasons run to 308 meticulously and forcefully argued pages. He not only dismissed the charges against Duffy, he exonerated him throughout. For example, on the allegation that Duffy accepted a $90,000 bribe from Nigel Wright, Harper’s chief of staff, Judge Vaillancourt ruled: “I find that Senator Duffy did not receive a true advantage or benefit and that the true recipients of any benefit — the disappearance of a political embarrassment — are Nigel Wright, the PMO, the prime minister and the Conservative Party of Canada.”
Rereading the reasons on the weekend, it struck me that if some of these players on the other side had been facing this judge, they might have been very unhappy politicians when he was finished with them.
Most people will never read the 308 pages nor should they be expected to. But if they did, they would have a new appreciation for the presumption of innocence. They might even understand why Duffy is suing the government (for violating his Charter rights), the Senate (for malicious prosecution) and the RCMP (for negligent investigation).
He is not going to collect $7.8 million, but he is entitled to something.
He’s entitled to something for two years of lost Senate pay, for recovery of the $17,000 in expense money that the Senate, disregarding Judge Vaillancourt’s ruling, has clawed back from his salary. Surely, he is entitled to compensation for his legal expenses in the criminal trial.
And he must be entitled to something for having been made the principal scapegoat in a failed attempt by the Harper government to avoid the embarrassment of the Senate scandal.
Duffy’s detractors may not be sympathetic. But sympathy is not the issue. Justice is, and fairness.