Duffy drops another bombshell on the Harper government
Within six days of Duffy’s bombshell allegation implicating Harper in the Duffy affair, Duffy released documents today which implicate Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton in a second cheque.
Duffy told the senate Wright arranged to have the Party’s top lawyer Arthur Hamilton give Duffy a $13,560 cheque for his legal costs.
“That’s right,” thundered Duffy. “One cheque from Nigel Wright? No, ladies and gentlemen, there were two cheques, at least two cheques.”
In fact, Duffy claims he never saw Nigel Wright’s cheque “but I do have a cheque stub from Arthur Hamilton, the Conservative Party lawyer.” He also added “his” $90,000 loan was a PMO script and didn’t happen.
In his fight to keep his job, Duffy angrily asked the Senate, “Are we independent senators or PMO puppets?”
The disgruntled senator confronted the claims the PMO set against him. “They suggested a pattern of abuse,” he said. “A pattern,” he repeated in an insulted manner.
Duffy went on to blast the PMO’s attempts to silence him. “Well, guess what?” he asked. “The PMO didn’t like that. Duffy wants to go public? We’ll fix him.”
Duffy then brought the attention to a written piece from Wright. “I’m told you complied with all the applicable rules and there would be several senators with similar arrangements.”
He asked the senators who Wright was referring to, and pointed to Harper’s former press secretary Carolyn Stewart Olsen who “took two years to move from her home in Ottawa to her home in New Brunswick.”
Duffy affirmed the scandal has a deep paper trail of, an “email chain” which is either in the hands of his lawyers or hopefully the RCMP.
“When you look at all those emails in that chain, it proves this was set up from the start, and that I am innocent,” he said.
“The cheques tell who is telling the truth and who is not.”
Taking aim at PMO lawyer Ben Perrin, Duffy tells the tail of a guilty party pulling the strings of the upcoming Conservative policy convention. Perrin, Duffy says, “is actively involved in vetting resolutions for the party’s national policy meeting in Calgary.”
Duffy overran his 15 minute cap where he described how “the links to the $90,000 payment and now the further $13,000 payment from the party lawyer to my lawyers show that his monstrous fraud was PMO’s creation from start to finish.”
He then asked the senate, “Have you heard enough or do you want to hear more?”
Duffy then asked party leadership to revoke “dangerous and anti-democratic motions, declare victory and go off to Calgary to celebrate the government’s many substantial achievements for Canadians.”
Meanwhile, Conservative Senate Leader Claude Carignan announced he was open for amendments to the motion, which would actively consider plea bargains. While Harper urges Conservative senators to follow Carignan, some senators like Hugh Segal said, “What Harper says is very important, but our oaths to our majesty to do what’s right — that’s more important than what a politician says.”
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced he is fed up of the Duffy affair taking attention away from his economic agenda, claiming he wants to see the upper chamber abolished like his orange counterparts at the other side of the House.
“I’m actually an advocate of abolition of the Senate.” Flaherty said. “I always have been, and I think just in this day in age to have a non-elected legislative body is an anachronism.”
This is the second major bombshell to be dropped by Duffy and we have yet to see what will happen in the lead up of the upcoming Conservative convention which starts this Thursday. It will be interesting to see how the Conservative base reacts to the allegations in the top circle of their party. What do you think of Duffy’s statements and documents? How much more does he have? How much more can Harper’s reputation take?
