{"id":75016,"date":"2016-04-27T06:28:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T10:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=75016"},"modified":"2025-03-07T05:40:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T10:40:01","slug":"senate-auditor-done-duffy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/04\/27\/senate-auditor-done-duffy\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate, auditor done with Duffy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Senator<\/a>
Senator Mike Duffy (Wikipedia photo<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2013 Stephen Harper\u2019s lawyer says Sen. Mike Duffy\u2019s acquittal should be a wake-up call to public institutions and authorities that can hold politicians \u201cto live up to their duty\u201d and punish actions that are questionable, even if they\u2019re not criminal.<\/p>\n

But both the auditor general and the Senate say there’s nothing more for them to do in Duffy\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

The office of federal auditor general Michael Ferguson says it won\u2019t audit Duffy\u2019s spending or other senator\u2019s expenses unless the Senate makes a specific request.<\/p>\n

As for the Senate, it has already punished Duffy. He faced an audit, his expenses were repaid and then he was suspended without pay for two years, forfeiting more than $250,000.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos and Liberal Sen. Jane Cordy, the chair and vice-chair of the Senate committee that oversees spending, said Duffy, senators Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau \u201cwere audited by Deloitte and were dealt with accordingly, including reimbursement of funds and suspension.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an op-ed written for Postmedia newspapers, Harper\u2019s lawyer Robert Staley wrote that Harper \u201cstood to account for the ethical behavior\u201d in his office and government, adding it is \u201chard to imagine how this responsibility could have been borne more acutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued that other \u201cauthorities that can hold individuals to account\u201d must \u201clive up to their duty and define the consequence of behaviour that falls short of criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staley wrote that the former prime minister played no role in the decision by the RCMP and Crown attorneys to charge and prosecute Duffy.<\/p>\n

He said it\u2019s impossible to believe Harper\u2019s interests were well-served by a raft of criminal charges that culminated in a politically charged, high-profile trial during an election year.<\/p>\n

The trial peeled away the veil of secrecy around the Prime Minister\u2019s Office and revealed how much power and influence the officials of Harper’s PMO wielded in the halls of Parliament.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of emails presented as evidence detailed how much energy the PMO invested in dealing with Duffy\u2019s politically problematic expense claims.<\/p>\n

Justice Charles Vaillancourt said the PMO forced the Prince Edward Island senator to go along with their repayment scheme, even though Duffy maintained he had done nothing wrong.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Staley said Harper never asserted that Duffy had been engaged in criminal wrongdoing \u2013 only that his spending habits were politically unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was, and is, my client\u2019s view that public office demands a higher standard than conduct that falls short of criminality,\u201d Staley wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public has a reasonable expectation and indeed a right, to the responsible stewardship of its purse by public institutions and actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justice Vaillancourt acquitted Duffy of all 31 fraud, breach of trust and bribery charges last week, saying the Crown failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Vaillancourt said that Duffy\u2019s actions weren\u2019t criminal, even if they raised eyebrows, including a consulting contract provided to Duffy’s one-time personal trainer.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

After the acquittal, the Senate restored Duffy to full standing, giving him access to all the resources of his office.<\/p>\n

Staley said he didn\u2019t expect the Crown to win a conviction on the bribery charge, which stemmed from a controversial $90,000 payment on Duffy\u2019s behalf from Harper\u2019s former chief of staff Nigel Wright. Staley wrote that his \u201cprivate views\u201d on the matter \u201cwere shared only with my client.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email to The Canadian Press, Staley declined to comment further, saying he wanted the op-ed to stand as his only comments.<\/p>\n

The Conservatives fell to official Opposition status in the October election after almost a decade in power, with Harper stepping down as leader but not as an MP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2013 Stephen Harper\u2019s lawyer says Sen. Mike Duffy\u2019s acquittal should be a wake-up call to public institutions and authorities …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":46977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[10332,10340,3251],"class_list":["post-75016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-duffy","tag-mike-duffy","tag-senate","mauthors-jordan-press","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75016","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=75016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287558,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75016\/revisions\/287558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}