For any reasonable political junkie (which in itself may, at
least in Canada, be an oxymoron) - it is hard not to get caught up in the
ongoing legal saga of Mike Duffy. For
those on the left side of the political spectrum there is that hope, no matter
how faint, that somehow the Prime Minister will be exposed for the crass,
manipulative, and dishonest politician some believe him to be; for those on the
right, there is the equally faint hope that the Prime Minister and all of his
senators, ministers and aides will emerge from this trial by fire with their
armour shining even brighter than the day they were elected/appointed. The sad
truth of is that at the end of the day all that is likely to happen is that we
will all be disillusioned more than we thought possible.
I had thought that it was very likely that Duffy would be
found guilty of many if not most of the charges laid against him. It seemed rather
obvious that he had been less than truthful about his place of residence, and
the cost of commuting between Ottawa and his home. It also seemed pretty clear,
from various reports, that he had billed the government for trips that were
clearly partisan in nature. I thought that somewhere it would have been written
down in very specific terms that one could not do the latter and that in terms
of the former, primary residence was an easily understandable term. I also
thought that people like Duffy bent/broke the rules in rather subtle, unseen
ways. That, at the very worst, people like Duffy and their shoddy morals
slipped through the cracks. I was wrong on all counts.
The evidence from the first few days has made it clear that
the rules are not clear. There are some basic assumptions that some people
believe are clear, but they are only assumptions. The actual interpretations of those vague
rules appear to be up to the individual. In other words - if you have morals
the rules are quite clear - if you don't well then you can make money. However, what I find particularly disheartening
is not that there are some morally bankrupt people in the Senate (I hope I
would that I would never be that naive) but rather that not only did anyone who
wanted to, know about the badly bent and broken rules, but that the political
machinery doesn't see anything wrong with what was happening. I am not
suggesting that all Senators manipulate their expense account but it is
inconceivable to me that they did not know that others were doing it. In all likelihood
some have known for decades. And no one
did anything to stop it.
When Stephen Harper asked/invited/expected Duffy to be on
various stages with him as he was raising funds across Canada for the Conservative
party, how did he think that Duffy got there. Harper had to have known that
someone was paying for Duffy's flight and hotels costs. The leadership of the
senate, the leadership of the Conservative Party and the senators who sat on
him on committees all knew what he was doing and who was paying for it. They also
all knew that he had not lived in P.E.I. for two decades. As I suspect the court will hear in the
upcoming weeks, not only did all of those people know about it, but when the
media started to discuss it ( I expect most of the media had known for years
about the blatant misuse of the expense claims) those same people looked for
ways of manipulating the information to preserve the already tarnished sanctity
of the Upper Chamber.
Duff may get convicted for some of his crimes. If there is
any justice in Canada he may even get to spend some time in one of the new
prisons his old boss (who so quickly abandoned him) is building. But as much as
it pains me to say it - he may be just a fall guy. The real criminals, those
who manipulate and perpetuate this system where deceit is not only permissible
- it is defensible - will in all likelihood remain unnamed, and unpunished.
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