Disgraced and suspended senator Mike Duffy and his 31 criminal charges will spell trouble for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives as he is going to throw whatever mud that sticks back at the man who gave him his cushy senator job.
TORONTO – Disgraced and suspended senator Mike Duffy and his 31 criminal charges will spell trouble for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives as he is going to throw whatever mud that sticks back at the man who gave him his cushy senator job.
Duffy was appointed by Harper and who subsequently, according to Duffy, was used by the Conservatives to do their dirty work including $90,000 payment accepted from Harper crony Nigel Wright who resigned from the PMO.
The Toronto Star posed these questions which they say hang in the air after the RCMP announced on Thursday that they have laid 31 fraud, breach of trust and bribery charges against Duffy.
Among the things that have yet to be answered:
1. RCMP Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud said some of the charges were laid because police believe Duffy was involved in “directly or indirectly corruptly” accepting, agreeing to accept or attempting to accept $90,000 from Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former Chief of Staff.
If this payment was indeed a bribe, how can Duffy be the only one charged?
Earlier, Duffy’s lawyer Donald Bayne issued a statement that said: “I am sure I am not the only Canadian who will now wonder openly, how what was not a crime when Nigel Wright paid it on his own initiative, became however mysteriously, a crime or bribe when received by Sen. Duffy.”
2. Michaud said Duffy is accused of “bribery of a judicial officer.” Who is the judicial officer?
3. How might this affect Harper? Bayne’s statement says that Duffy was an unwilling participant in a plan to repay his living expenses for political purposes.
In his statement, Bayne said; “The evidence will show, that Sen. Duffy did not want to participate in Nigel Wright’s and the PMO’s repayment scenario, which they concocted for purely political purposes.”
4. Who else might be dragged into the repayment scandal? Michaud’s statement said his officers “interviewed numerous witnesses from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Prince Edward Island.”
5. Michaud referred to charges relating to the awarding of consulting contracts over a four-year period. Duffy is accused of “using part of the funds from those contracts for personal gain or for expenses which circumvent Senate oversight.”
How widespread is the awarding of government contracts by senators?
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