{"id":59603,"date":"2015-08-21T23:34:58","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T15:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=59603"},"modified":"2025-01-13T05:11:16","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T10:11:16","slug":"stephen-harper-backs-novak-as-duffy-trial-shines-spotlight-on-top-aide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/08\/21\/stephen-harper-backs-novak-as-duffy-trial-shines-spotlight-on-top-aide\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Harper backs Novak as Duffy trial shines spotlight on top aide"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Canada<\/a>
Canada PM Stephen Harper (Photo from Harper’s official Facebook page)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2013 Ray Novak is seen only fleetingly in public and almost never heard from, which makes him one of the most elusive figures in Stephen Harper\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n

But he was the centre of attention on the federal campaign Thursday as the prime minister was pressed to show confidence in one of his most trusted and long-time confidants and current chief of staff.<\/p>\n

Harper\u2019s political rivals questioned his support of Novak in the face of developments at the Mike Duffy\u2019s fraud trail that link Novak to the controversial $90,000 payment to Duffy in 2013 by Harper\u2019s previous chief of staff, Nigel Wright.<\/p>\n

The Novak-Harper relationship looks certain to remain front and centre on Friday because testimony late Thursday afternoon in the Duffy trial by the prime minister\u2019s former lawyer contradicted the Conservative campaign line about Novak’s role in the repayment scheme.<\/p>\n

Lawyer Benjamin Perrin testified that shortly before a conference call with Duffy and his lawyer, Novak sat with him and Wright around a boardroom table. That\u2019s when Wright told Perrin he would personally cover Duffy’s Senate expenses.<\/p>\n

Perrin said he looked over at Novak for a reaction, but saw none.<\/p>\n

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Perrin remains in the witness box on Friday.<\/p>\n

Hours before this testimony, Harper was knocked off message by a pair of questions about Novak after his morning policy announcement \u2013 increasing the tax credit for parents adopting a child.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

The Conservative leader didn\u2019t mention Novak by name after he was asked whether he still stands behind his current chief of staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been very clear. When people are working for me, they have my confidence. If they didn\u2019t have my confidence, they wouldn\u2019t be working for me. And in this case I have held the two people accountable who are responsible,\u201d Harper said in King Township, Ont. north of Toronto.<\/p>\n

Harper once again said he holds only Duffy and Wright responsible for any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m not going to go around holding everybody else accountable for their actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair interpreted Harper\u2019s defence of Novak as lukewarm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found the prime minister\u2019s qualifier revealing,\u201d he said in Vancouver. \u201c(Harper) said people who work for him have his confidence while they work for him, so I don\u2019t know what that means long-term for any of the people who are working for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, campaigning in Victoria, was asked if Harper should trust Novak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue of trust is at the heart of what we are seeing come from the Duffy trial and, indeed, from the prime minister\u2019s behaviour over the past weeks, months and even years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\u201cCanadians no longer trust their prime minister to tell them the truth. So whatever it is that he says, his loss of integrity in his office is something that Canadians are not soon going to forget and is one of the big reasons why Canadians need real change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green party Leader Elizabeth May, meanwhile, pondered Novak\u2019s fate on her blog on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know if Novak lied to his boss. If so, strange his boss keeps him on,\u201d May wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cFar more likely Novak is, like Nigel Wright and others before him, a loyal soldier prepared to be sacrificed to protect the leader from his own actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Novak has been kept out of the public eye and away from media travelling with Harper\u2019s campaign in recent days. But he was on Harper\u2019s campaign plane, which touch downed in British Columbia early Thursday evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2013 Ray Novak is seen only fleetingly in public and almost never heard from, which makes him one of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":19808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-59603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-original","mauthors-mike-blanchfield","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283269,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59603\/revisions\/283269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}