This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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Sen. Mike Duffy will be fighting the Senate committee for its demand for him to repay $16,955 in expenses as he argues that the Upper Chamber unjustly denied him $155,867.56 in salary while he awaited his trial. The court acquitted Mr. Duffy of all 31 charges against him last spring and he started receiving his salary and benefits again on Aug. 1, 2015.
Duffy’s lawyer, Donald Bayne, wrote in a brief open letter to the Senate on late Wednesday night that “this unjust suspension and severe economic and reputational penalty was imposed on a man known to be confronting grave health issues exacerbated by stress,” adding that “the Senate now seeks to compound that unjust and oppressive penalty already paid in full by Senator Duffy.”
However, the Senate’s committee on internal economy, budgets and administration claims that Mr. Duffy must repay the “non-compliant” expenses, prove they were legitimate or submit to arbitration. Being among the 30 senators whom the auditor general found were wrongly reimbursed for expenses, the auditor general concluded that these expenses actually broke the Senate’s rules. The audit was separate from the RCMP investigation that resulted in Duffy’s year-long court process. The judge’s decision at the end of the trial, Bayne notes, “criticized Senate leaders for unjustly doing the bidding of the office of the then prime minister.” The Crown is not appealing the not-guilty finding.
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