Mike Duffy And Stephen Harper Locked In Fight Of Lies And Misdirection

The Senate scandal surrounding former Conservative, now Independent Senator Mike Duffy is one of the most extensive and corrupt stories to hit the Canadian public since the Liberal sponsorship scandal.  And it appears to be getting murkier and murkier with each passing day.

Canadians are justifiably angry with Duffy, the government, and the entire Senate for allowing this scandal to occur.  The centrepiece of the drama involves Duffy’s housing expense claims for a cottage on PEI that he identified as his primary residence – when in fact; he primarily lives at a home just outside of Ottawa.

As one of the privileges of being a senator, members can claim housing expenses from taxpayers if they must relocate to a second residence near the nation’s capital.  Canada is such a vast country that many senators must move from their initial home or buy a second home in Ottawa to show up at the Senate for official business. 

It is these rules that fill Canadians with hostility as ordinary people are forced to pay their mortgages and buy their homes with little to no help from outside agencies or government support.  The old adage that a second set of rules applies for government affiliates is consequently burned into the minds of many Canadians, who feel cheated by the system.

Auditors with Deloitte Canada discovered that Duffy inappropriately claimed money from taxpayers while still a member of the Conservative caucus, and the Conservative government went into panic mode.  The Prime Minister’s Office was dragged into the scandal when Stephen Harper’s former right-hand man Nigel Wright wrote a $90,000 cheque to Duffy to repay housing expense money owed to Canadians. 

Harper maintains that the cheque was written by Wright alone from his personal account, while Duffy insists he was promised an easier audit from Deloitte by accepting the cheque.

Following the outbreak of the scandal and the summer break in Ottawa, both Harper and Duffy stayed out of the spotlight as much as possible to avoid the Senate scandal.  But before the break, Duffy, in several scrums with the Parliamentary media, covertly hinted that there was more to the scandal than what was known at the time.  He also suggested that more information could be revealed in time – essentially threatening Harper, Wright, and his former Senate colleagues.

After months of staying silent, Duffy finally delivered on his threat.  He dropped a bombshell in the Senate on Tuesday October 22 in a speech where he pleaded with Senators not to suspend him from his job.  Duffy gave an account of the scandal in a way that had never been documented before, which turned up the heat on Harper by putting the PM in the same room as the embattled Senator.

In his speech, Duffy said that he had a personal meeting with Harper and Wright on February 13 – three months before the May 15 date that Harper insists he first became aware of Duffy’s scandal.  Duffy insisted that Harper personally stated Canadians do not understand how the Senate expense claim process works, and that the matter must be dealt with regardless of Duffy’s guilt or innocence.

“I was told ‘Pay the money back, end of discussion.’ Nigel Wright was present throughout.  Just the three of us.”

Duffy recounts that he didn’t have the money to settle the matter, at which point Wright stepped in for Harper.

“Nigel Wright said, 'Don't worry, I'll write the cheque.  Let the lawyers handle the details; you just follow the plan.'”

Duffy went further in his storytelling by casting the PMO in a villainous role once the cheque was made aware to the media.  The embattled Senator says then Conservative Senate Leader Marjory LeBreton contacted him after the story came out and told him that “the deal was off.” Duffy says he was told to resign from caucus or he would be thrown out, and was intimidated by Harper’s new chief of staff, Ray Novak with late-night phone calls insisting a committee would throw Duffy out of the Senate.

If Duffy’s version of events is true, it proves that Harper has outright lied to Canadians for months about what actually transpired.  The PM maintains that Wright acted alone, that he had no knowledge of the situation, and would have stopped the process if he had known about it.  When asked for more information from the Opposition, from the media, and even his own supporters, Harper has to date, refused to offer anything more than what has been said.

The real tragedy with this story is that there are no heroes, no white light to count on shining through the murky fog.  Duffy is admitting that laws were broken, though he is slimily attempting to paint himself as a victim rather than a villain in the affair.  Meanwhile, Harper’s continued stonewalling is enough for many Canadians to believe he is hiding more than he is saying.  The two camps could wind up taking the fight to court, which could cost taxpayers all over again as the final bill tallies up for the court case.

Canadians long considered the Senate an iconic eyesore and a corrupt house of entitled government lackeys, but this story casts the whole system in a new light.  Duffy was allowed to essentially steal money from Canadian taxpayers, and was only forced to repay the money when he got caught.  But to add insult to injury, the PMO insisted on a cover-up that Duffy described in his speech as “a conspiracy” to hide the truth about the corruptness in the Senate from the Canadian public.

Canadians deserve to know how money is spent – taxes are paid to fund essential services like healthcare, education, all the services that make Canada the greatest country in the world.  When money is stolen by government insiders for personal expenses, someone needs to be held accountable. 

Harper can no longer stay silent.  Duffy’s reputation is already damaged, and he seems willing to take everyone around him down as well.  One of the two men is openly lying, and Canadians deserve true real answers, “end of discussion.”