Stephen Harper
Prime Minister Harper has maintained that he didn’t know what was going on with Mike Duffy’s repayment until it was made public in the media. When Sen. Duffy said in the Senate that Mr. Harper knew about it, he responded that he told him on Feb. 13 after a caucus meeting that if there were improper expenses, he should repay them—something Mr. Harper says has always been the case. When he finally broke his silence and spoke to his caucus, he said, “I did not get into politics to defend the Senate.”
He also previously said that he would not appoint any Senators until the Upper Chamber was elected. He’s since appointed more than 50 Senators, including three of four Senators currently embroiled in the Senate expenses crisis.
Nigel Wright
Mr. Wright was an Onex Corporation executive prior to joining the Prime Minister’s Office as chief of staff in October 2010. He flew under the radar for most of his tenure until CTV reported that he gave Senator Mike Duffy $90,000 to repay ineligible expenses that Sen. Duffy claimed for his housing and travel allowances over the last four years. After the PMO said Mr. Wright, a millionaire, had Mr. Harper’s full confidence, he resigned from his position five days after the story broke, and a day after his 50th birthday. Mr. Harper later said he was “dismissed.”
Chris Woodcock
Mr. Woodcock is the former PMO director of issues management who is now chief of staff to Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver. In general, he was responsible for dealing with crises pertaining to the Conservative government and therefore got involved when Sen. Duffy’s housing claims were being discussed in the media and Senate. Mr. Wright told him early on that he would personally be covering Sen. Duffy’s expenses. Mr. Woodcock was also involved in the discussions about changing the Senate Internal Economy Committee’s report on Sen. Duffy, according to RCMP documents.
Benjamin Perrin
Mr. Perrin is the former PMO special adviser and legal counsel who now teaches at the University of British Columbia. He was involved in the negotiations between Sen. Duffy and Mr. Wright to repay $90,000 worth of ineligible housing expenses.
Ray Novak
Mr. Novak is a long-time Harper aide and was appointed his chief of staff when Mr. Wright resigned/was dismissed on May 19. According to RCMP documents, he was brought into discussions when the issue escalated and in one email to Mr. Woodcock, said, “Yes, we need to discuss this. His [Sen. Duffy’s] lying really is tiresome.”
Patrick Rogers
Mr. Rogers is the former PMO manager of Parliamentary affairs who was involved with the Duffy/Wright deal. According to the RCMP documents, he is a key player in the negotiations, liaising with the party and PMO officials. According to the RCMP documents, he asked Sen. Irving Gerstein to get in touch with his contact at Deloitte, Michael Runia and gave Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen changes that the PMO wanted in the Senate Internal Economy Committee’s report on Sen. Duffy. Mr. Rogers left the PMO on Aug. 9, 2013, and is now working in Canadian Heritage Minister Shelly Glover’s office as the director of policy.
David Van Hemmen
Mr. Van Hemmen is Nigel Wright’s former executive assistant who helped arrange meetings and calls between his boss, Sen. Duffy, and Sen. David Tkachuk. Mr. Wright also asked him to call his CIBC banking adviser Murray Culligan to ensure that he transferred the necessary funds into his chequing account so that he could write a cheque to pay for Sen. Duffy’s ineligible housing claims, according to RCMP documents. He also delivered the $90,000 cheque to Sen. Duffy’s lawyer.
Andrew MacDougall
Mr. MacDougall is the former PMO communications director who stickhandled communications with media when news of the scandal first emerged. When Mr. MacDougall received inquiries from media on whether Nigel Wright co-signed a loan for Sen. Duffy’s expenses, an email chain started with PMO press secretary Carl Vallée asking, “Would the PMO know the actual answer to the question? Just in case he asks us.” Mr. Wright responded, “The PM knows, in broad terms only, that I personally assisted Duffy….” Mr. MacDougall later confirmed that Mr. Wright did pay for Sen. Duffy’s expenses as a gift with no expectation it would be repaid and was doing an “honourable” thing because he was reimbursing the taxpayers.
Mike Duffy
A former journalist Mr. Harper appointed to the Senate in 2009 to represent Prince Edward Island, Sen. Duffy inappropriately claimed housing expenses worth $90,172. He was making claims on his Ottawa-area home when it was his primary residence. After claiming the rules were unclear, he said he would repay the expenses. He resigned from the Conservative caucus when it was revealed that Mr. Wright gave him the money to repay those expenses, and is currently suspended from the Senate without pay but maintains health insurance. His lawyer, Janice Payne, helped arrange the deal between himself and Mr. Wright to repay the expenses.
Pamela Wallin
A former journalist and Canadian consul general in New York, Mr. Harper appointed Sen. Wallin to the Upper Chamber in 2008. She racked up more than $500,000 of travel and hospitality expenses, of which $138,000 were inappropriate. She called the investigation vindictive and hesitantly repaid those expenses. She is currently suspended from the Senate without pay but maintains health insurance.
Patrick Brazeau
A former president of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, Mr. Harper appointed him to the Senate in 2008. His housing allowances were reviewed because he listed his primary residence as his dad’s address and claimed living expenses for a house he rented in Gatineau, Que. He was kicked out of the Conservative caucus when he was charged with assault and sexual assault in February. Deloitte’s audit into his expenses found that there was a lack of definition around “residences” but the Senate Internal Economy in its own report ordered him to repay $48,744. He said he would not repay them because he maintains he did nothing wrong, so his wages were being garnished. He is currently suspended without pay from the Senate but maintains health insurance.
Marjory LeBreton
The former Senate government leader was the Conservative point person in the Upper Chamber and answered Senators’ questions during Question Period. She was responsible for asking the Senate Internal Economy Committee to review Senators’ housing and travel expense claims and moved the motion to invite Auditor General Michael Ferguson to conduct an audit on the Senate’s finances and Senators’ expenses. According to the RCMP documents, she urged Sen. Duffy to repay the expenses and “not worry because he had a commitment from the PMO.” Additionally, “Sen. LeBreton told Nigel Wright that her office would work very closely with the PMO and Senator Stewart Olsen as they move forward.” According to the RCMP documents, her director of Parliamentary affairs, Christopher Montgomery, was the only person to push back on the PMO’s plans to deal with the Senate Internal Economy Committee’s report on Sen. Duffy. The RCMP documents show that he told Sen. Stewart Olsen that “We as Senators should not compromise ourselves.” He is currently working in the private sector.
Conservative Senators Carolyn Stewart Olsen and David Tkachuk
They were members of the Senate Internal Economy’s steering committee accused of “whitewashing” the final report on Sen. Duffy. Sen. Tkachuk chaired the committee which oversees Senate administration but resigned from the committee for health reasons. Sen. Stewart Olsen was previously Mr. Harper’s long-time press secretary is known to be fiercely loyal to him. She was appointed to the Senate in 2009 for New Brunswick and recently resigned from the steering committee in October when the Senate was debating a motion to suspend Senators Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau.
Liberal Senator George Furey
Sen. Furey was the third member of the Senate Internal Economy Committee’s steering committee. He objected to the changes that were made to Sen. Duffy’s report.
Jill Anne Joseph
Ms. Joseph works in Senate administration and prepared the draft reports on Senators Brazeau, Harb and Duffy. According to the RCMP documents, she opposed making changes to favour Sen. Duffy because they would make the report “scant.”
Mac Harb
Mr. Harb was first elected to the House of Commons in 1988 for the Ottawa Centre, Ont., riding until former prime minister Jean Chrétien appointed him to the Senate on Sept. 8, 2003. Questions rose around him claiming his Ottawa residence as a secondary residence because of his long ties to the city. Deloitte audited his expenses, and the Internal Economy Committee ordered that he pay back $51,000 of expense claims he was not entitled to. The committee later ordered him to repay an additional $180,000 for expenses dating back to 2005. He resigned from the Liberal caucus on May 9, saying that he would fight the payment order. In August, he repaid the total amount and resigned from the Senate.
Gary O’Brien
Mr. O’Brien is the Senate clerk and clerk of the Internal Economy Committee who reviewed the draft reports written by Jill Anne Joseph. According to the RCMP documents, he participated in the meetings in which the draft reports were changed to reflect Sen. Duffy in a better light. Sen. Stewart Olsen in an email to Mr. Wright said, “I think the only way to do this [deal with Sen. Duffy’s report] is to tell Deloitte that we are satisfied with the repayment and end the audit. The non-partisan nature of the committee is a problem as is the clerk who seems to have his own agenda. Mind you, it is a good agenda. He wants to clean up the place.”
Irving Gerstein
Sen. Gerstein is a Tory Senator Mr. Harper appointed in 2009. He’s also the head of the Conservative Fund Canada, the Conservative Party’s fundraising arm. He confirmed the party would pay Sen. Duffy’s expenses when it was believed to be $32,000, but backed off when it grew to $90,000. He approved a $13,000 payment for Sen. Duffy’s legal fees, however, from party coffers. RCMP documents suggest he contacted Deloitte to try to get them to change their report.
Arthur Hamilton and Dan Hilton
Mr. Hamilton, left, is the party’s lawyer and Mr. Hilton, right, is the party’s executive director. According to the RCMP documents, they were “made aware of [Mr. Wright’s] decision to personally repay the money. “Mr. Hamilton got involved in the discussion with Mr. Wright and Sen. Gerstein and Mr. Hilton regarding the party’s involvement in repaying Sen. Duffy’s expenses.
Michael Runia
Mr. Runia is the Ontario managing partner (external auditors). According to RCMP documents, Sen. Gerstein approached him about changing Sen. Duffy’s audit if he repaid the expenses. “Mr. Runia advised him that he did not know anything about it, but would inquire,” the documents say. “During the second call with Nigel Wright and Patrick Rogers, he [Sen. Gerstein] was asked to contact Deloitte and ask if repayment of the $90,000 would result in conclusion of the audit. Mr. Runia told him that the audit would continue.”
Gary Timm and Alan Stewart
Mr. Timm and Mr. Stewart, pictured, are partners at Deloitte who worked
on Sen. Duffy’s forensic examination
of his expenses.
Cpl. Greg Horton
Mr. Horton is the lead investigator in the RCMP’s investigation of Senators Duffy, Wallin, Brazeau and Harb. He has 21 years of experience in major crime investigations and currently works in the Sensitive and International Investigations within the National Division of the RCMP responsible for “investigating matters of significant risk to Canada’s political, economic and social integrity.” In the documents he filed in court last month, he said he believes Sen. Duffy and Mr. Wright “have committed bribery, frauds on the government and breach of trust.” The RCMP investigation began in March 2013.
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson
Ms. Dawson was looking into whether Mr. Wright broke conflict of interest laws in giving Sen. Duffy $90,172 to cover his ineligible Senate expenses but halted her investigation because the RCMP is conducting one of their own.
Senate Ethics Officer Lyse Ricard
Ms. Ricard was looking into whether Mike Duffy broke conflict rules in accepting the $90,172 cheque and not declaring it, but because the RCMP is looking at the case now, she halted her investigation.
Auditor General Michael Ferguson
Mr. Ferguson is currently auditing Senators’ expenses. A report is expected by the end of next year.
THE TIMELINE
June 13, 2012:
Auditor General Michael Ferguson releases his report on House of Commons and Senate administration. He recommended that there should be more documentation for travel and housing expense claims in the Senate.
November 2012:
Questions around Quebec Senator Patrick Brazeau’s residence and housing expense claims surface in the media, as he used his father’s Maniwaki, Que., address as his primary residence in Senate records while claiming expenses for a Gatineau, Que., house he rents.
This led to questions around long time Ottawa journalist and resident Mike Duffy’s housing situation. Sen. Duffy represents Prince Edward Island and claimed his primary residence as a cottage he owns in P.E.I. while claiming expenses on his Ottawa home.
Questions later surfaced about two other Senators, Saskatchewan’s Conservative Pamela Wallin and Ontario’s Liberal Mac Harb. Sen. Harb was a longtime Ottawa Centre MP, but represents the Pembroke area as a Senator and claimed expenses for his Ottawa house as a secondary residence.
Sen. Wallin was appointed to be a Senator for Saskatchewan, where she grew up, but had not lived there for years, as she was a prominent journalist and later as corporate director splitting her time between Toronto and New York. She owns land in Saskatchewan, and three condo units in a Toronto building. She accumulated more than $300,000 of travel and hospitality bills over the last three years.
As a result, Senate Government Leader Marjory LeBreton asked the Senate Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration Committee to look into the issue.
Dec. 6, 2012:
The Senate Internal Economy Committee announces that it will look into all Senators’ housing claims and asked for documentation to prove their residency. Eligible documents for proof include a provincial driver’s licence, a health card and an income tax declaration. It creates a sub-committee to look into it.
Feb. 8, 2013:
Senate Internal Economy Committee hires forensic auditing firm Deloitte to look into the four Senators’ expenses.
Feb. 19, 2013:
RCMP documents reveal Benjamin Perrin gets involved in the issues when Sen. Duffy asks for a legal representative his lawyer could speak to.
Feb. 20, 2013:
RCMP documents reveal Chris Woodcock and Mr. Wright discussed media lines regarding Sen. Duffy. Mr. Wright said in an email, “We should suggest to Mike that he would acknowledge an error and put it down to ambiguities in the rules and forms. Never mention ‘wrongdoing’ to Mike.”
Feb. 21, 2013:
RCMP documents reveal Sen. Duffy’s lawyer sends Benjamin Perrin a list of five conditions for which he will repay the $90,000.
Feb. 22, 2013:
Sen. Duffy, who originally said that the rules around housing allowances were not clear as the reason he may have inappropriately made the claims, publicly says he’s going to pay back the housing allowances he’s received over the last four years.
RCMP documents reveal that “Mr. Wright called [Sen. Irving] Gerstein, updated him on the situation and asked if the fund would pay the $32,000 plus interest. Gerstein confirmed it would.”
The documents also reveal that Mr. Wright “said the Prime Minister was aware on Feb. 22, 2013, that Sen. Duffy had agreed to repay the money… [and] maintained that he did not tell the Prime Minister of his eventual personal decision to pay the $90,000 to Sen. Duffy.”
The documents also reveal an email from Mr. Wright to Mr. Perrin saying, “I do want to speak to the PM before everything is considered final” and “less than an hour later” he followed up with “We are good to go from the PM once Ben has his confirmation from Payne.”
March 1, 2013:
RCMP documents reveal Mr. Wright emailed Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen saying, “As for Wednesday night and Thursday, we got a draft report, we asked for necessary changes. You should have been part of those conversations.”
March 8, 2013:
RCMP documents reveal Patrick Rogers in an email said, “Senator Gerstein has just called. He agrees with our understanding of the situation and his Deloitte contact agrees. The stage we’re at now is waiting for the Senator’s contact to get the actual Deloitte auditor on the file to agree. The Senator will call back once we have Deloitte locked in.”
March 21, 2013:
Patrick Rogers emailed Mr. Wright saying that “any repayments will not change Deloitte’s conclusions because they were asked to opine on residency. However, they can’t reach a conclusion on residency because Duffy’s lawyer has not provided them anything. … I would propose that the Senator continue to not engage with Deloitte. … If asked following the report why he did not participate with Deloitte the Senator can say because he had already made the decision to repay the money.” Mr. Wright responded, “I do agree with Patrick’s suggestion.”
March 25, 2013:
RCMP documents reveal that Mr. Wright gave Sen. Duffy the $90,000 by bank draft in trust to Sen. Duffy’s lawyer dated this day.
March 26, 2013:
Deloitte receives notice from Sen. Duffy that he’s repaid more than $90,000 and will no longer be participating in the audit.
April 18, 2013:
Sen. Duffy tells Global TV, however, that he will wait for Deloitte’s audit findings to decide whether to repay the allowances.
April 19, 2013:
In a statement, Sen. Duffy announces that he’s made the repayment and the Senate Internal Economy Committee confirms he paid pack $90,172.24 with little other details on when the payment was made.
May 7, 2013:
RCMP documents reveal that Mr. Wright’s staff received a copy of the draft Senate Internal Economy report. “His staff disagreed with the wording of the report as they felt it did not reflect the Deloitte findings and they informed him [Mr. Wright] of this. His staff (Chris Woodcock and Patrick Rogers) worked on this matter, as did Senators Stewart Olsen and Tkachuk.”
Mr. Wright tells RCMP investigators that “he had no other involvement in the Senate report and that there was no agreement with Sen. Duffy to change the report.”
May 8, 2013:
RCMP documents reveal Patrick Rogers in an email to Mr. Wright, Mr. Woodcock and Mr. Van Hemmen said “I just met with CSO [Carolyn Stewart Olsen]. I gave her our changes. She agreed with them 100 per cent. I reinforced with her that the implementing of all of the changes to the report was the fulfillment of her commitment to Nigel and our building. She indicated she understood this.”
May 9, 2013:
The Senate releases its internal reports on Sens. Duffy, Brazeau and Harb, as well as the Deloitte audits on those three. The audit on Sen. Wallin is “still underway.”
The Senate’s internal reports ordered Sens. Brazeau and Harb to repay $48,000 and $51,000 respectively.
The Deloite audits say, “there is a lack of clarity in the terminology used for the different residences. … The following terms are used without being clearly defined: primary residence, secondary residence, NCR residence, provincial residence. In addition the term registered residence is not defined.”
Sens. Brazeau and Harb say they will not repay the money and fight the order. Sen. Harb resigns from the Liberal caucus.
May 12, 2013:
RCMP confirms it is probing the Senate expense claim audits.
May 14, 2013:
CTV reports that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff Nigel Wright gave Sen. Duffy $90,000 to cover the repayment of his expense allowances in exchange for the Senate “going easy” on him in their report. The personal cheque from Mr. Wright’s personal account was a gift and not a loan, according to Conservative spokespeople, who also said both parties did the “honorable thing” to repay the money.
Opposition parties call on Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson to investigate Mr. Wright’s involvement.
RCMP documents reveal Mr. Wright said in an email to PMO press secretary Carl Vallée, “The PM knows, in broad terms only, that I personally assisted Duffy when I was getting him to agree to repay the expenses.”
May 16, 2013:
Sen. Duffy resigns from Conservative caucus. Opposition calls on Senate ethics officer to investigate Sen. Duffy’s “gift,” as all gifts worth more than $500 need to be declared in disclosure statements.
May 17, 2013:
Sen. Wallin resigns from Conservative caucus.
CTV gets a hold of the draft Senate Internal Economy Committee report that said that Sen. Duffy broke “clear” rules which is harsher language than what appeared in the final report. The draft report recognized that “Sen. Duffy’s travel patterns were consistently Ottawa-P.E.I.-Ottawa, demonstrating that Ottawa his primary or default location,” which was “sanitized” from the report which was made public on May 9.
May 19, 2013:
Mr. Wright resigns as chief of staff. He says he did not tell Mr. Harper that he gave Sen. Duffy the cheque prior to doing so. Mr. Harper accepts his resignation and appoints principal secretary Ray Novak as the new chief of staff.
May 21, 2013:
Before leaving for a trade trip to Peru and Colombia, Prime Minister Harper opens up a Conservative national caucus meeting and makes his first public statement since the controversy started. “Anyone who wishes to use and have public office for their own benefit should change their plans or better yet, leave this room,” he tells the caucus. He does not take questions from media.
After debate in the Senate, Senators vote to send Sen. Duffy’s audit report back to the Senate Internal Economy Committee for review.
May 22, 2013:
Conservative Sens. Tkachuk and Carolyn Stewart Olsen are reported as the ones who “whitewashed” Sen. Duffy’s report, which they deny.
May 23, 2013
Letter from RCMP asking for documentation on the audits and all related files to determine “whether there are ground to commence a criminal investigation” is tabled in the Senate.
May 28, 2013:
Senate Internal Economy Committee holds rare public meeting to discuss Sen. Duffy’s expense reports. Senate finance and administration officials tell the committee that Sen. Duffy has a pattern of claiming living expenses in Ottawa while not in the city on Senate business. Committee members vote to refer the issue to the RCMP, and Senators subsequently vote to do the same on the Senate floor.
May 29, 2013:
The Senate votes to adopt 11 new measures recommended by the Senate Internal Economy Committee. Among these new measures are, the deletion of the honour principal section of the Senate Administrative Rules stating a Senator is presumed to have acted honourably; requiring Senators to maintain a travel log for mileage travel claims; requiring Senators to state their specific purpose for travel in expense claims; requiring Senate administration to provide the Internal Economy Committee with monthly travel pattern reports; and requiring Senators to state a specific travel purpose when claiming expenses, among others.
June 4, 2013:
Senate Ethics Officer Lyse Ricard halts her investigation into Sen. Duffy because the RCMP is investigating the matter. Under her legislation, she is required to do so if the RCMP gets involved.
June 6, 2013:
Senators agree to allow AG Ferguson to scrutinize the Upper Chamber’s expenses.
June 13, 2013:
RCMP confirms it’s launched an investigation into Mr. Wright.
June 19, 2013:
Media report that new RCMP documents reveal that Mr. Wright’s lawyers in an interview said that the Conservative Party was going to pay Sen. Duffy’s expenses when it thought it was $32,000, but when the figure grew to $90,000 it did not and that the two conditions from Mr. Wright to Sen. Duffy were that Sen. Duffy pay the money back immediately and to “stop talking to the media about it.”
June 21, 2013:
RCMP documents reveal that investigator Cpl. Greg Horton receives a letter from Mr. Wright’s lawyer Peter Mantas stating that Mr. Wright told PMO staffers David Van Hemmen, Benjamin Perrin and Chris Woodcock and Conservative Senator Irving Gerstein that he would personally be making the payment for Sen. Duffy.
July 2013
Senate Internal Economy Committee revisits Sen. Harb’s expenses and orders him to repay another $180,000 for ineligible expense claims going back to 2005.
Aug. 13, 2013
Senate Internal Economy Committee receives a long-awaited Deloitte report on Sen. Wallin’s expenses and orders her to repay ineligible expense claims.
Aug. 26, 2013
Mr. Harb resigns from the Senate and repays all of his expenses.
Sept. 13, 2013
Sen. Wallin repays $100,600.98 in addition to the $38,369 she paid previously.
Oct. 17, 2013
A day after the House returned from a prorogation, new Government Senate Leader Claude Carignan introduces motions to suspend Sens. Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau from the Upper Chamber without pay.
Oct. 22, 2013
Coming to the Senate against doctors’ orders, Sen. Duffy makes a statement in the Senate regarding the deal he made with Mr. Wright and says the PMO orchestrated a “monstrous fraud” in response to the suspension motions. Sen. Wallin also speaks to the suspension motion in the Senate.
Oct. 23, 2013
Sen. Brazeau speaks to the suspension motion and announces in the Senate that Sen. Carignan offered him a deal: apologize publicly and get a lighter punishment. Sen. Brazeau maintains he did nothing wrong.
Oct. 28, 2013
Speaking again to the suspension motion, Sen. Duffy announces that the Conservative Party paid for his $13,000 in legal fees. PM Harper also says that Mr. Wright was “dismissed” rather than him resigning.
Nov. 5, 2013
Senators vote to suspend Sens. Brazeau, Duffy and Wallin without pay for the rest of the 41st Parliament.
Nov. 20, 2013
RCMP file documents to obtain more information about the scandal as part of its investigation, revealing emails and details about the Wright-Duffy deal.
—Compiled by Bea Vongdouangchanh from news stories and from RCMP Cpl. Greg Horton 80-page court document. The allegations in Cpl. Horton’s information to obtain have not been proven in court and no one has been charged.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: Bea Vongdouangchanh
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