Harper Says Senate Scandal Facts “Not Good but Clear and Simple”

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper has affirmed that he did not have any prior knowledge of the $90,000 payment made through a personal cheque of his former chief of staff, Nigel Wring, to cover the wrongly acquired senate housing expenses of Senator Mike Duffy.  Harper alleged that if he had had any knowledge of the situation, he “would have said not to do it.” Harper made these comments during a press conference with Chilean President, Sebastian Pinera, on Thursday morning.

Furthermore, Harper elucidated that “the facts in this case are clear, they’re absolutely clear — they’re not good, but they are clear and they are simple. Mr. [Nigel] Wright decided to use his own personal money to assist Mr. Duffy to reimburse the taxpayers of Canada.” He added that “that’s what he decided to do and he decided not to tell me until the 15th of May, after speculation about the source of funds appeared in the media. As soon as I learned that on the 15th of May, I made that information public. Had I known before the 15th of May, I would have made the information known earlier, and had I known about it before it happened, I would have said not to do it.”

Upon inquiry by a reporter of what Harper instructed his staff to do to deal with the Senate expenses issue, he replied that “my view from the outset was that if any expenses had been inappropriately claimed, they should be repaid to taxpayers and until 15th of May, it was my impression that Mr. Duffy had repaid those expenses himself.”