Of all the questions left over from last week’s release of a treasure trove of documents from the RCMP’s investigation into the Senate scandal, one of the most nagging is this: Why is it that the one person who raised a red flag is no longer working in government?
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Christopher Montgomery served as director of parliamentary affairs in the office of Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton when she was government leader in the Senate. Montgomery’s name comes up time and again in the RCMP paper trail. Unlike others, though, the image that emerges is overwhelmingly positive
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On one page, police outline how “he (Montgomery) advised the PMO, specifically Patrick Rogers and Chris Woodcock, that they should not be involved in the Senate audit and reports regarding Senator Duffy.”
“During his seven years in the Senate,” the report continues, “he (Montgomery) cannot recall other times when representatives from the PMO actually attended meetings and insisted on wording of a Senate report.”
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As negotiations reached their heated conclusion, Rogers sent an email to Woodcock and Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, to complain. "This is epic. Montgomery is the problem."
In the end, the Duffy report was amended. By July, LeBreton had announced she was stepping down as government leader in the Senate, leaving Montgomery without a job.
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In situations like these, a position is usually found in a minister’s office or elsewhere in government.
But a senior Conservative source says there was nothing for Montgomery, blaming his run in with the PMO. A friend of Montgomery said he felt out of favour; that he was not seen as a team player.
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Others named in the RCMP documents had a far easier time finding work, including Rogers and Woodcock, the two PMO staffers who Montgomery scolded for trying to alter the Senate report on Duffy
I wonder how the Reform base would feel if they were told that being a team player in the CPC meant violating the spirit of the Reform movement.
Haha, you mean staunch reformers like Jason "I hate career politicians and have never had another job myself" Kenney? Or maybe Stephen "we should get rid of these gold-plated pensions, but I'm taking mine" Harper?
There were a few things in the Reform movement I agreed with actually (), but there was a lot hypocrisy thrown in for good measure.
The Benjamin Perrin emails, previously believed to have been deleted when Perrin left the office in March, were in fact frozen, and are now being turned over to the RCMP. (Maybe the PMO has had time to review them and decided that there's nothing that damaging in them, or maybe they figured they could only keep it secret for a little longer, maybe they legitimately forgot that they froze his emails as a result of another investigation.)
The Benjamin Perrin emails, previously believed to have been deleted when Perrin left the office in March, were in fact frozen, and are now being turned over to the RCMP. (Maybe the PMO has had time to review them and decided that there's nothing that damaging in them, or maybe they figured they could only keep it secret for a little longer, maybe they legitimately forgot that they froze his emails as a result of another investigation.)
Haha, you mean staunch reformers like Jason "I hate career politicians and have never had another job myself" Kenney? Or maybe Stephen "we should get rid of these gold-plated pensions, but I'm taking mine" Harper?
There were a few things in the Reform movement I agreed with actually (), but there was a lot hypocrisy thrown in for good measure.
Well, you can be this kind of team player apparently: http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12...ts-police-say/ Harper confidante Senator Carolyn Stewart Olsen’s statement on Duffy audit ‘not consistent with facts’: RCMP
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Consider, if you will, that Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen, long one of Stephen Harper’s closest aides, gave an interview to RCMP officers in which she said several things that they suggest appear to be untrue.
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Whatever she thought, what she told them was that she and other Tory senators handled an audit into senators’ expenses without input from the prime minister’s office. She told the Mounties that she only recalled “communicating with Nigel Wright on one occasion, at a meeting at the end of April 2013, to provide an update on the audit process.”
The RCMP’s email record, though, shows that she was often exchanging emails with Wright and other officials in the PMO, that she was implementing their instructions.
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Consider that from 2002 until 2009, when Harper put her in the Senate, Stewart Olsen was engaged by him as press secretary and communications director. Anonymous staffers whispered to reporters that she always had his ear, claiming that she brought out the worst in him, and she survived when other servants came and went, fiercely personally loyal to the boss.
If the version of events that Stewart Olsen gave the police was “incomplete, and not consistent with the facts,” as they wrote, what was she telling reporters all those years?
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Since the RCMP documents were released Wednesday, the prime minister has said nothing about this. When Tom Mulcair asked about Stewart Olsen in question period, Harper replied by pointing at Duffy and Wright, and neither he nor anyone in his government has made a statement about her failure to be forthcoming with the police. So far as we know, they approve.
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It is depressing to think that only the police are able to demand accountability from this government, and that the prime minister’s servants can’t be trusted to tell the police the truth.
The RCMP has charged Senator Mike Duffy with bribery, frauds on the government and 29 other charges related to Senate expenses, the awarding of consultant contracts and the acceptance of a $90,000 payment by the prime minister's former chief of staff.
The news comes after Duffy's lawyer issued a statement late Wednesday confirming the RCMP planned to lay charges against the suspended Conservative senator.
Donald Bayne, Duffy's lawyer, did not specify what the charges would be, but stressed that his client is "innocent of any criminal wrong-doing."
"We are confident that when the full story is told, as it will be, and shown to be supported by many forms of evidence, it will be clear that Senator Duffy is innocent of any criminal wrong-doing," said Bayne.
The Senate voted last fall to suspend the former Conservative senator from Prince Edward Island as part of an ongoing controversy over disputed living expenses.
I wasn't sure which thread to bump, but regardless Duffy was acquitted of all 31 charges today. Astounding that someone can not understand what a principal residence is in this day and age, but there you have it. He'll be back in the red chamber when they next convene.
I wasn't sure which thread to bump, but regardless Duffy was acquitted of all 31 charges today. Astounding that someone can not understand what a principal residence is in this day and age, but there you have it. He'll be back in the red chamber when they next convene.
The whole purpose of the senate was/is to line the pockets of political supporters with taxpayer money, within that context Duffy did nothing wrong.
Your mistake is thinking about the senate like a normal job.
The rules of the senate were so unclear, to the point of being a farce.
Did Duffy act morally wrong? Of course he did. Did he break the law? No, because the rules were so loosey goosey.
Sure, but the basis here was him not understanding his permanent residence or something like that? That's the farce. Everyone knew where he lived, but he claimed ignorance to line his pockets. Then you have the $90k that "he was forced to accept". I suppose in the eyes of the court he didn't do anything wrong, but its a stretch to the say the least when someone in a position like that apparently can't tell you what province they reside in.
Sure, but the basis here was him not understanding his permanent residence or something like that? That's the farce. Everyone knew where he lived, but he claimed ignorance to line his pockets. Then you have the $90k that "he was forced to accept". I suppose in the eyes of the court he didn't do anything wrong, but its a stretch to the say the least when someone in a position like that apparently can't tell you what province they reside in.
Harper asked him if he wanted to be a senator, not where he lived, it's just dumb luck if you happen to live in the province where the senate seat is vacant.
The rest of them just buy some ####ty cottage and hope they don't have to spend more than a weekend there a year.
^ Yeah and I get that. But he claimed he lived in PEI to take advantage of the money...no one told him to do that. This wasn't some rookie on the job either. He had been on the political scene for years and knew exactly what he was doing I think.
^ Yeah and I get that. But he claimed he lived in PEI to take advantage of the money...no one told him to do that. This wasn't some rookie on the job either. He had been on the political scene for years and knew exactly what he was doing I think.
They all know what they are doing, that's the point of the senate, you doing stirling work fundraising or the like then, in the fullness of time, you get appointed to the senate where you are paid a handsome salary for doing nothing, you don't even have to show up, you can claim absolutely everything as an expense. The whole point of the senate is to provide party hacks with a very comfortable retirement.
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- you have to be a team player...
), but there was a lot hypocrisy thrown in for good measure.
