The Senate scandal is a creature of Prime Minister Harper's own creation. From his very first election campaign he campaigned on the platform of Senate reform, and promised he would never appoint senators to what he considered a dysfunctional body. To date he has appointed in the neighbourhood of 59 senators. He appointed the three star senators Pamela Wallin, Mike Duffy, and Patrick Brazeau. He appointed Mike Duffy as a Senator for P.E.I. even though he was aware that Mr. Duffy lived in Ottawa, an Pamela Wallin for Saskatchewan, even though she lived in Toronto.
According to the three senator, they cleared their housing expenses with then party leader in the Senate, Senator Lebreton as well as Nigel Wright, the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff. They were all assured that their expenses were fine. According to Senator Brazeau, he was told that the rules are, "whatever senators make them".
Then came this famous audit by Deloitte. According to the audit, there were a few issues but nothing that serious. It must be noted that nobody has seen this audit except the "Board of Internal Economies", and probably the PMO. The Prime Minister stood in the House of Commons and said that Senator Wallin's expenses were in line with other senators from Saskatchewan. The Deloitte audit also found concerns with two other issues.
First, there were no clear rules or guidelines. They noted that the audit was difficult because of this. Second they expressed concern over the treatment of Senator Wallin. She was being audited all the way back to her instalment as Senator, while Brazeau and Duffy were not. The audit also found that Senator Brazeau was the only senator that met all four criteria for expensing his housing allowance. This should have put a stop to all proceedings against Senator Brazeau, but it did not.
At this point there was some pont of contention between Senator Lebreton (the Conservative House Leader in the Senate), Senator Olson, and Senator Tkachuk (both on the Board of Internal Economies"). In documents submitted by Mike Duffy, Nigel Wright was aware of this, and suggested that he would use the PMO to put a stop to the behaviour Lebreton, Olson and Tkachuk.. This is the first indication that there was a problem in the Senate of Canada. It is also the first indication that the Senate of Canada was not acting independently and being influenced upon by the PMO.
Then the Board of Internal Economies reviewed the audit by Deloitte and decided that the three senators in question had misspent tax-payer dollars through their housing expenses. With the exception of Patrick Brazeau this is absolutely true. The situation with Senator Brazeau is still to this day a little unclear. The Deloitte audit, as indicated did find that he met all four housing requirements.
What happened next is senator specific as each reacted differently although as you will see, the end result was the same for each senator.
Senator Brazeau:
Senator Brazeau continued to insist that he had not mis-spent any taxpayers dollars and all his expenditures were legitimate. The Senate simply guarnisheed his salary.
Senator Wallin:
Senator Wallin continues to insist she did nothing wrong, and was treated more harshly than the other two senators, She did however go back over all her diaries and expenses and pay back to the Senate approximately 130,000.00.
Senator Duffy:
It is with Senator Duffy where the guts of the scandal come to life. Senator Duffy kept what appears to be a careful paper trail of most of these events, some of which have been given to the government, and others to the RCMP. The following is short summary of a conspiracy in the PMO (which the Prime Minister denies any knowledge)
In February after a caucus meeting there was a meeting between Senator Duffy, the Prime Minister, and his Chief of Staff Nigel Wright. The Prime Minister apparently told Senator Duffy that he had to pay the money back because the expenses would be "inexplicable to the base". Senator Duffy says there were two such meetings, and Mr. Harper says there was only one. Mr. Duffy alleges that the Prime Minster indicated that his Chief of Staff would "handle the details".
Senator Duffy insisted that his expenses had been cleared by the Prime Minster, and Nigel Wright and he would not pay them back. At this point, the cover-up was cooked up. Nigel Wright tried to get the Conservative Party fund to pay for the expenses (there are two versions of this story, Nigel Wright's, and Senator Gerstein's). What is not in doubt is that Senator Duffy's expenses ballooned to 90,000 and the Conservative Party Fund would not pay it.
What happened next is almost laughable if it can be proven. According to Senator Duffy, the Fund paid his legal expenses for the audit, and he went on television and lied to Canadians about where he got the money to pay back the expenses. He told Canadians that he and his wife took out a loan on their house to cover the debt. In reality, Nigel Wright (it is assumed) paid the debt for him.
To this date, Senator Duffy has paid absolutely nothing back to the Senate of Canada,
to be concluded in part three...
No comments:
Post a Comment