[ISL] On the first day of the trial of Mike Duffy

[rfmcdonald]

The Globe and Mail's Daniel Leblanc wrote today about the case of the Crown against suspended Prince Edward Island senator Mike Duffy.

In his opening remarks, Crown prosecutor Mark Holmes alleged that Mr. Duffy repeatedly abused his position as a senator to obtain compensation to commute to work, attend funerals of friends, travel out west for family events and to pay for inappropriate expenses, including his personal trainer.

Mr. Holmes argued there were even questions as to whether Mr. Duffy was eligible to sit in the Senate as a representative from Prince Edward Island, given he had been living in Ontario for decades and only had a summer cottage in his home province.

The question of Mr. Duffy’s eligibility to sit in the Senate will not be determined by this criminal proceeding, Mr. Holmes said, but it does raise questions about the fact he received $82,000 in expenses after stating that his Ottawa home was not his primary residence.

“He was a habitual resident of the city of Ottawa for a long time. Effectively, what he was doing was commuting,” Mr. Holmes said.

Speaking in an Ottawa courtroom, the Crown prosecutor said that Mr. Duffy tried “to portray himself as a person who lives in PEI when the evidence reveals that he lives here.”

Mr. Holmes added that the only reason Mr. Duffy filed in paperwork stating that his Ottawa home was his secondary residence was to "get compensation" for having a primary residence more than 100 kilometres away from Parliament.

Duffy's lawyer responded by claiming that, when Duffy was not actually on legitimate parliamentary business, he was doing what the Prime Minister's Office was telling him to do.

MacLean's hosts Jennifer Ditchburn's Canadian Press dramatis personae, while also at MacLean's Aaron Wherry takes a look at the legal minutiae of the case against him.