The Conservatives have seen three of their own resign over the senate scandal.
Chief of staff Nigel Wright and Senator Duffy knew that the independent audit on the senator's expense claims was not going to go well.
In a Feb. 20 email, Duffy said Wright worked out a scenario in which all of his claimed expenses would be covered, including cash for repayment and Wright wrote a personal cheque worth $90,000 to Duffy so that he could repay these ineligible expenses.
Insiders say the two men are not close friends and hardly know each other.
CTV reported Wright had used a lawyer from the PM's office and that Duffy had been told by the PMO to say as little as possible about the housing claims.
Duffy vowed to reimburse the taxpayers, saying he may have been mistaken four years in a row when he filled out Senate housing allowance forms, claiming PEI as his primary residence. Duffy repaid his ineligible expenses on March 25.
Once he repaid the 90k, he refused to co-operate with the auditors. The Conservative senator leader then said the case was closed as all expenses had been repaid.
Did Wright's lawyer not advise him that his act of generosity in paying a sitting senator 90k would be against senate rules, ethics rules for government officials, and potentially illegal by interfering in a senate audit of this same sitting senator?
Why did the PM not know about his chief of staff's personal 90k cheque to Duffy, when it has been two months since Duffy repaid the senate and they closed his case?
Wright promised Duffy that if the expenses were paid back, the government would go easy on him in the final report. Two versions of the senate auditors report have been leaked, the original Deloitte version clearly stating that Duffy had broke the senate rules surrounding residency, yet the final report delivered to the Canadian public did not say this.
Did the PM's chief of staff interfere with the Independent Senate Committee Audit being conducted on Senator Duffy?
In 2005, Stephen Harper said "There's going to be a new code on Parliament Hill: bend the rules, you will be punished; break the law, you will be charged; abuse the public trust, you will go to prison."
My how some things change once they are in power.
Bev Collins
Prince George
