BONOKOSKI: No quit in tenacious plaintiff Sen. Mike Duffy
Author of the article:
Mark Bonokoski
Publishing date:
Feb 17, 2021 • 18 hours ago • 3 minute read
Sen. Mike Duffy (The Canadian Press)
Article content
If there were ever a dog on a bone, fighting for every scrap, it’s the ‘Ol Duff, as he used to call himself when he was a bonafide national media star on CBC television and then CTV.
This may be news to the majority of younger readers who think of Mike Duffy — if they recognize his name at all — only as the Canadian senator who endured a long trial, and was ultimately acquitted of all 31 charges involving the fiddling of his senate expense accounts.
Inside Bruce Springsteen’s car collection, including his Super-Bowl-ad Jeep
Tracker dslogo
It may have seemed odd watching the media chase him down like a Hollywood celebrity when he was just a senator, but there was a true dislike of him among the parliamentary press gallery and beyond, jealousy-based really, because he was once one of them and had achieved his goal of leaving them in the dust with his appointment to the Upper Chamber.
But I always found him a good guy.
When I was a young buck and assigned to ride the funeral train of former Progressive Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker from Ottawa to Saskatoon in 1979, I recognized basically one face among the important faces of relatives, politicians and journalists on board.
Advertisement
Story continues below
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
And that was Mike Duffy, the TV star.
No one was better known.
My problem on that train was simple. How was I going to file a daily column, dictating it from a pay phone at a whistle stop, if I had no context to who I was seeing or what I was hearing among the train’s VIP passengers?
A babbling brook would have made more sense.
So I approached Duffy, introduced myself, and told him my dilemma.
“Stick to the Ol’ Duff,” he said, “and I will fill you in.”
And he did.
More On This Topic
None
Mike Duffy was pawn in a bigger game
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer speaks at a news conference the day after he lost the federal election to Justin Trudeau in Regina, on Oct. 22, 2019.
BONOKOSKI: The wakening of the sleepy Senate not good news for Scheer
Suspended senator Mike Duffy arrives for his first court appearance at the courthouse in Ottawa on Tuesday, April 7, 2015.
Court rules Mike Duffy can't sue Senate, but he'll pursue legal action against RCMP
So now the news has come down that Sen. Mike Duffy, his feathers again ruffled, cannot sue the Senate, not for $7.8 million, not for a dime, for suspending him during his expense travails.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled late last week that it will not hear Duffy’s challenge of an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that prevents him from pursuing a lawsuit against the Senate.
As usual, it gave no reason.
Duffy had been seeking $7.8 million in damages — where does that outrageous dollar amount come from? — from the Senate, the RCMP and the federal government.
In his submission to the Supreme Court, the 74-year-old Duffy — now three months away from mandatory Senate retirement age — argued that he was the victim of arbitrary abuse of power by public officials.
As his lawyer Lawrence Greenspon put it, Duffy was disappointed with the top court’s decision, but the game was still afoot.
Advertisement
Story continues below
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
“This decision removes one of the defendants, but it doesn’t remove the others, including the RCMP against whom Sen. Duffy will continue his civil action,” Greenspon said.
Suing the RCMP? One can almost hear the Ol’ Duff growling.
Duffy was suspended from the Senate in late 2013 without pay, a move that Greenspon argues was down-and-dirty politics.
The high-end Ottawa lawyer says former prime minister Stephen Harper’s office threatened to boot Duffy from the Senate unless he admitted to inadvertently abusing his expenses and repaid $90,172 in housing expenses.
The Senate maintains it was exercising its rightful authority to discipline one of its own.
Following Duffy’s acquittal, the Senate abruptly refused to reimburse his lost salary or cover his legal fees, and demanded he repay almost $17,000 in disputed expenses.
And that was all the bone the old dog needed.
markbonokoski@gmail.com
If there were ever a dog on a bone, it's the 'Ol Duff, as he used to call himself when he was a bonafide national media star.
torontosun.com