When asked Friday why he still has confidence in Novak – his current chief of staff – Harper turned to a well-worn message: “There are two people who are responsible for the actions here”, he said, meaning Duffy and Wright. If he thought any part of the plan was illegal, he would have spoken up, he said.
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Wright testified earlier that the comment related to a conversation he had with Harper in which he told the prime minister he intended to make Duffy repay the money, but did not go into specifics.
Today at Sen. Mike Duffy’s trial, Benjamin Perrin offered more revelations that could cause political problems for Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.
During former chief of staff Nigel Wright’s six days of testimony it emerged that Novak was informed about Wright’s plan to repay Duffy’s expenses.
Wright used those words in a 2013 email after he, Perrin and others had negotiated an arrangement with Duffy and his lawyers that would see the senator say publicly that he had made a mistake with his expenses and they would be repaid.
Wright told the court he didn’t lie to the prime minister, but just didn’t think he needed to hear the details. “This is not the proper way to conduct a legal matter”.
Perrin also testified he had understood that the arrangement – including the proviso that a Deloitte audit into Duffy be called off – was prompted by a set of demands from the senator. His testimony was connected mainly to the bribe and breach of trust charges relating to Duffy taking a $90,000 payment from Wright.
“It was a very awkward position I found myself in and I didn’t like it”, he said. “Lawyers act for all kinds of clients”.
At one point, Duffy’s team sought to amend the deal to specify that the matter would never be referred to the RCMP, but the PMO demurred, saying legally and politically, they couldn’t commit to that.
Gordon says that storm has also blurred the lines on social media between Duffy and Conservative Leader Stephen Harper as partisans tweet multiple times a day about both the trial and the Senate spending scandal. Under the Conservative leader, nation-building projects such as the railroad or national health care would never have been realized, Wynne said, while Mulcair’s promises are unrealistic or unaffordable.
Perrin ultimately left his job, and is now a tenured professor at the University of British Columbia.
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There are other issues that have yet to really take hold in the campaign: Education and First Nations issues ranked eighth and 10th, respectively, among the top 10 issues Twitter users are talking about.
