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Today the trial for corruption of Prince Edward Island Senator Mike Duffy came to an end with a 308 page judgement from Judge Vaillancourt in the Ottawa Court House. He is one of four Senators for the Province of PEI as per the Canadian Constitution Act of 1867.

Senator Duffy a former journalist of National reputation well known to all was appointed to the Senate a few years ago under the Stephen Harper Regime, 10 years which will forever be referred as years of great darkness in Canada where our institutions where under threat from a man who understood nothing and thought he could bully a Nation into submission. Looking on Canadians as nothing more (according to his own words) a people to be governed by a firm hand.

Senator Duffy stood accused under 31 counts of fraud, corruption and breach of trust. A scandal which shook the Senate of Canada. Launch a national investigation of all Senators and their expense accounts and the rules and procedures of the Senate. The investigation revealed that the Senate had operated since 1867 as a sort of Private Club, where a gentleman’s word was good enough. The Senate is our House of Lords, the Red Chamber and Upper House of Parliament and the Crown has its privileges in our Constitution.

The whole matter started a year ago when it was revealed in the newspapers that Senator Duffy and others had problems with their expense accounts, all of them appointees of Stephen Harper.

Stephen Harper thought that he could stack the Supreme Court and the Senate with his friends and sycophants and that they would in turn do whatever he wanted. That is not how it turned out to his dismay and anger. On the Supreme Court the new appointees showed their judicial independence which bewildered Harper how could this be. In the Senate unfortunately partisan politics showed its face and we had a dysfunctional institution. The Senate in Canada has a very special role to play in defending minorities representing regions of our Country and correcting excesses in Legislation sent to it from the House of Commons.

The Harper Regime sought to pervert this process and control every aspect of the functions of the Senate from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), something unseen in Canadian history. Duffy was the tool of the PMO and he did everything he was asked to do and more. Harper could not be more happy with such a well recognized journalist, a lap dog doing tricks for his master.

However the day the expense account scandal erupted Harper sought to bury it but could not. Comes in his Chief of Cabinet Nigel Wright an asexual aesthete and Christian religious fanatic who has movie star good look, runs 10 K every morning at dawn.  A straight arrow as the Press likes to describe him, he is also a millionaire. So the Media speculated un-corruptible Nigel, the real story is always different, Wright devised a plan to magically bury the expense account scandal by handing a personal cheque from his own bank account to Duffy and have him say it was all a big mistake and he is repaying back what he owes. The Press knew that Duffy did not have this kind of money, where did the money comes from? they asked. The problem here Nigel  was trying to corrupt a Senator by hiding the truth from auditors. He also tried and so did his boss Harper to lean on the audit company and interfere with the text of the final audit report with the help of Conservative Senators. Harper went to the leadership of the Conservative members in the Senate to get them to do his dirty work and of course they agreed.

Wright’s plan was to advise Duffy on what to do with his expense problems, etc and accept the cheque for $90,000 dollars to cover all the money he owed to the Treasury. Of course he told his boss Harper what he was doing and Ray Novak the head gofer and bum boy of Harper was the go between. A very unsavoury affair where Novak at the Trial testified that he was present in the room when the plan was hatched but heard nothing, everyone laughed at that and Novak has not been heard of since.

When the Justice Department started its investigation they were told that Nigel the right hand man of the Prime Minister was off limits, the RCMP complied also, the old management covering their ass as it were, disgracing himself in the eyes of the public.

Judge Vaillancourt today in Court in his judgement sorted out the mess and uncovered the truth, he acquitted Duffy of all 31 counts, so he can now resume his work in the Senate, the judge did not find any of his doing criminal since he was following naively the direction advice and suggestions of the PMO, Duffy did ask a lot of questions on what to do with his expenses and received advice which he followed from other Conservative Senators and the PMO. The judge then pointed the finger at Harper and Wright for their deviousness and efforts to suppress the truth. Judge Vaillancourt wrote quote Could Hollywood match their deviousness it is interesting to see that no one in the PMO suggested doing the right thing, the legal thing unquote.

This only goes to show how corrupt the Harper government was. Stephen Harper subverted Parliament, politics, the inner workings of the Senate and his own party during his one-man government. But thanks to a fearless defence attorney and an unblinking judge, he was not able to subvert justice.