Other than a Jan. 3 lunch at the private yacht club, which Conservative MP Andrew Saxton (North Vancouver, Alta.) told court Tuesday he had organized at Sen. Duffy’s request, Sen. Duffy spent all of his time on that trip visiting with family, according to Sen. Duffy’s electronic calendar.
The calendar, entered as evidence at Sen. Duffy’s trial on charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery, shows he had family dinners with his son Gavin and his wife and his daughter Miranda and her husband and one-year old daughter through Dec. 30, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and up to the Jan. 4 flight he and his wife boarded to return to Ottawa.
Ontario Court Justice Charles Vaillancourt heard testimony from Mr. Saxton Tuesday by phone from Vancouver about his role in setting up the lunch at now-suspended Sen. Duffy’s request, and testimony as well from 86-year-old Andrew Saxton Sr., MP Andrew Saxton’s father, about his role in the lunch, which included paying the $195.65 bill. During his testimony, also by phone, Andrew Saxton Sr. read from the receipt, which he had retrieved for the court testimony, to say it came to $219.13 including taxes.
Crown prosecutors probed the Saxtons about the lunch as part of an ongoing effort at Sen. Duffy’s trial to build a case that Sen. Duffy wrongly claimed Senate travel expenses for a range of trips he took and speeches he made across Canada following his appointment to the Senate in 2009, including appearances at Conservative electoral district association fundraising events, both during and prior to federal election campaigns.
On Monday, Crown attorneys Mark Holmes and Jason Neubauer probed witnesses during testimony about other travels, including a hastily-planned trip Sen. Duffy and his wife made to B.C., in December, 2010. During that trip, Sen. Duffy appeared as guest speaker at a charity fundraiser hosted by a nominated Conservative election candidate, Troy DeSouza, in the Vancouver Island electoral district of Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca.
That event, which raised $1,000 Mr. DeSouza testified went to a shelter for homeless veterans in his riding, took place on Dec. 10, 2010. Mr. De Souza told court the national Conservative Party designated Sen. Duffy as the guest speaker after Mr. DeSouza’s campaign manager had requested one through “party brass.” The party notified Mr. DeSouza’s campaign only four or five days before the event that Sen. Duffy would be the speaker, Mr. DeSouza testified.
Sen. Duffy and Heather Duffy, who qualifies for Senate travel expenses as Sen. Duffy’s assigned fellow traveller, flew out of Ottawa for Vancouver on that trip on Dec. 9, 2010, coincidentally the same day Sen. Duffy’s daughter, Miranda, gave birth to Sen. Duffy’s granddaughter.
Sen. Duffy entered in his calendar that his daughter began birth labour at 7:15 a.m. Ottawa time, and the baby was delivered through a Caesarian section operation at 5:04 p.m. Ottawa time, 25 minutes before Sen. Duffy and Heather Duffy left Ottawa on an Air Canada jet for Vancouver.
Sen. Duffy’s travel expense records, among the evidence at the trial, include a McCord Travel Management payment invoice for the trip dated Dec. 2, a week earlier.
Sen. Duffy spent the night at his son’s home, and visited his daughter and new granddaughter in hospital the next day. Sen. Duffy flew to Victoria on Dec. 10 to attend Mr. De Souza’s homeless veteran fundraiser at Royal Collwood Golf Club, and returned to Vancouver the same evening.
Sen. Duffy’s calendar says that his son Gavin, an RCMP officer, flew to Halifax just before noon on Dec. 12, and that Sen. Duffy and his wife boarded a flight to Ottawa from the Vancouver Airport at 4 p.m. the same day, after stopping to visit Sen. Duffy’s daughter in hospital.
Sen. Duffy claimed $10,652.19 in Senate expenses for the trip, which Crown prosecutors will argue was planned more for the visit with Sen. Duffy’s daughter then for Sen. Duffy’s appearance at the electoral district event.
The court has heard evidence that expense guides promulgated by the Senate Finance Directorate prohibit Senators from donating Senate funds or resources to charities, but it is not clear whether that includes making speeches in support of the fundraising. Senate rules give wide latitude for Senators to take part in various causes as part of their Senate activities, including partisan activities outside of election periods.
Crown prosecutors, however, focused on another aspect of Sen. Duffy’s 2012 trip to Vancouver, for the extended stay with his family combined with his brief lunch at the Royal Yacht Club on what could normally be considered official Senate business—meetings with business executives to obtain opinion and views for an upcoming federal budget.
“My recollection is Sen. Duffy came to North Vancouver and spoke at an event,” MP Andrew Saxton Jr. told court. “I don’t recall whether it was around an election or not, but we frequently hold events in the riding, the riding association frequently holds events and he attended one of the events and he was a speaker at the event.”
Mr. Saxton said Sen. Duffy also wanted to meet with business leaders in Vancouver. “Sen. Duffy … asked if we could set that up, and so that’s what happened. My father and I got together names of people that we thought would be appropriate and then the lunch was set up for Jan. 3 and my father hosted the lunch,” Mr. Saxton said.
“These are people I see on a regular basis, so they give me ideas all the time. The main purpose of the lunch was to give ideas to Sen. Duffy,” Mr. Saxton said. “I do not recall anything specific that was brought up, and I’m sure a wide range of topics were discussed.”
In response to questions from Crown prosecutor Mark Holmes, Mr. Saxton said no one took notes.
“It is a private club, it’s a social club and you’re not supposed to bring out work papers,” said Mr. Saxton.
“The instigator or the person who pressed for this to occur, just to be clear, who was that?” asked Mr. Holmes.
“Well, it was initiated by Sen. Duffy, suggested by Sen. Duffy,” replied Mr. Saxton.
Mr. Holmes asked Mr. Saxton whether he could “think of anything that found its way into the budget?
“I don’t recall anything specific,” said Mr. Saxton. “We get thousands of ideas from people across the country and some make it in, some don’t, but I don’t recall anything from this lunch that made it in the budget.”
Sen. Duffy’s calendar has an entry for one other meeting with “Andrew Saxton et al”—at a Keg’s restaurant the night before the yacht club lunch.
According to the calendar, the tab was $400.
“I don’t recall seeing him, apart from that lunch, on that visit,” MP Andrew Saxton told court.
Andrew Saxton Sr., who testified by phone immediately after his son, said he is aware a Keg restaurant “exists” in Vancouver, but he said he had not been to one in years.
“I don’t ever remember being there with Sen. Duffy,” said the senior Mr. Saxton.
Sen. Duffy’s lawyer, Donald Bayne, later quoted from an email Sen. Duffy sent to Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) chief of staff at the time, to demonstrate to the court and Mr. Saxton Jr. that Sen. Duffy had, at least, informed Mr. Wright about some of the discussions.
Mr. Holmes questioned Mr. Saxton Sr. about an email Sen. Duffy sent to him two years later, on Feb. 1, 2014, in which Sen. Duffy detailed heart illness he was experiencing at the time, and triple bypass surgery that was required. He expressed views he was making public at the time that the allegations of expense wrongdoing were wrong.
“I simply did as I was asked, and followed the Senate rules,” Sen. Duffy said in the email, which Mr. Holmes entered as a court exhibit on Tuesday.
At the end of the lengthy email, Sen. Duffy wrote: “Anyway, I am looking for work, and if you know of anyone who might be able to use my services, writing, editing, etc., I would be most grateful.”
Mr. Saxton told court he did not reply to the email.
When Mr. Holmes asked why he did not reply, Mr. Saxton said: “I didn’t want to be involved.”
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com/
Author: Tim Naumetz
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