In Spite Of Ongoing Interviews And Investigation Of Duffy / Wright, RCMP Had NO Knowlege of $13,560 Cheque From Conservative Party Until Duffy's Senate Speech ..
None of them .. Harper, Wright, Novak, Hamilton, LeBreton, Tkachuk, etc etc etc, are being forthright or honest about the facts and sequence of events in the Senate Scandal:
PARLIAMENT HILL—An RCMP account of a lengthy police interview last June with two lawyers answering for Nigel Wright over the controversial $90,000 cheque he gave to embattled Senator Mike Duffy contains no reference to a separate $13,560 cheque that Mr. Wright also arranged to pay Sen. Duffy’s legal costs with Conservative Party money.
Despite the storm that erupted in Parliament this week over Sen. Duffy’s disclosure that Mr. Wright agreed to use the Conservative Party’s coffers to help settle a growing scandal over Sen. Duffy’s expenses, it appears the payment was either not mentioned or not recorded during the interview with Mr. Wright’s legal counsel, as a special Mountie unit in Ottawa began an investigation into possible breach of trust over the payment and Sen. Duffy’s expense claims.
Mr. Wright resigned on May 19 as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief staff several days after the $90,000 payment was disclosed, and has since been at the centre of the broiling Parliament Hill furor over Senate expenses and his deal with Sen. Duffy.
An RCMP affidavit, filed in court last July to obtain a judge’s order to obtain Senate records on Sen. Duffy’s expense claims and payments, Jean-Francois-Arbour and Supt. Biage Carrese conducted with Mr. Wright’s lawyers— Patrick McCann and Peter Mantas.
Though there was no mention of the cheque for Sen. Duffy’s legal fees in the report, it detailed at length Mr. Wright’s role in the Conservative Party; his view that Sen. Duffy should repay expenses he claimed for his designated Ottawa house as his secondary residence; Sen. Duffy’s concern he did not have the money to repay the $90,000; Sen. Duffy’s fear that if he did not claim a primary residence in Prince Edward Island it would put his Senate seat in jeopardy; Mr. Wright’s assurance that would not happen; and an original proposal that the Conservative Party would pay $32,000 worth of Sen. Duffy’s impugned expenses.
“When it was realized that the cost was actually $90,000, it was too much money to ask the Conservative Party to cover,” the affidavit says, also noting that the head of the Conservative Fund Canada, Conservative Senator Irving Gerstein, was aware of the negotiations and of the payment to Sen. Duffy.
While the cheque to repay Sen. Duffy’s expenses drew on Mr. Wright’s personal bank account, the $13,560 for his legal fees to Ottawa labour lawyer Janice Payne came from donations to the Conservative Party, which are heavily subsidized by the public through generous income tax deductions for political contributions to all political parties.
Hill Times
