The RCMP investigation of Senator Mike Duffy generated a lot of documents. Murray Dobbin sifted through them and put together this timeline to show how we got to this point in the story.
Feb. 7 – Duffy says in a phone call with Wright that he is upset he is going to be audited. (p. 14 of RCMP documents)
Feb. 8 – Senate Standing Committee on Internal Economy contract Deloitte to review residency and related expenses of Senators Duffy, Brazeau, and Harb. Conservative Senators Tkachuk and Stewart Olsen and Liberal Senator Furey named to sub-committee to review Duffy expenses.
Feb. 20 – Wright tells Duffy he expects Deloitte will conclude his primary residence is not in PEI. (p. 28)
Feb. 21 – Duffy’s lawyer sets conditions for repaying expenses, including that the audit be stopped. (p. 31)
Feb. 27 – Duffy’s lawyer emails Harper’s legal counsel, Benjamin Perrin, asking for confirmation the audit would be stopped. (p. 35)
March 1 – Wright emails Conservative Senator Stewart Olsen stating while he acknowledges that the audit is going ahead, he needs her help to get Deloitte not to make a conclusion on Duffy’s primary residence. (p.37)
March 1 – Duffy’s lawyer asks Perrin for an update on the audit. Wright tells Perrin he contacted Conservative Senator Gerstein to work through his Deloitte contacts to get the outcome the PMO was “pushing for.” (p. 37)
March 8 – Rogers reports to PMO colleagues that Gerstein has called to say his contact at Deloitte “agrees with our understanding of the situation,” would get “the actual auditor on the file to agree” and that Gerstein would call once Deloitte was “locked in.”(p. 38)
March 20 – Wright expresses annoyance that Duffy’s lawyer is still talking about the “audit being called off” rather than Deloitte not coming to a conclusion on residency. (p. 39)
March 21 – Rogers reports that Gerstein has found out from his Deloitte contact that the firm will not “reach a conclusion on residency.” Rogers says repayment should be arranged “knowing that Deloitte will not say one way or another on residency.” (p. 39)
March 25 – Duffy writes a $90,172.24 check to the government. (p.9) Wright writes a $90,172.24 bank draft for Duffy’s lawyer. (p.13)
May 7, 8 – Deloitte submits its report to the Senate stating they cannot determine Duffy’s residency status under Senate rules because the rules are unclear. PMO disagrees with criticisms of Duffy in Senate administration’s draft report and wants it to reflect Deloitte’s opinion. (p.19) PMO intervenes to have the draft report changed. (pp. 43, 44)
May 9 – Senate Steering Committee reviewing Duffy’s expenses, publishes report finding no fault on Duffy’s part and say Deloitte could not determine Duffy’s primary residence.
Nov. 28 – Conservative Senators vote against hearing from Deloitte managing partner Michael Runia on the role he played in the Duffy audit.
Photo: Márcio Cabral de Moura/flickr
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