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The Official Opposition’s ethics critic, NDP MP Charlie Angus, has written to RCMP Commissioner Robert Paulson, formally asking them to investigate the matter of Nigel Wright’s secret $90,000 payment to Senator Mike Duffy and its relation to the Senate expenses scandal. 

“While Wright has resigned, he has yet to come clean on the details of what was negotiated to cover up for Senator Duffy’s expense claims, and whether or not there was a whitewash of the Senate committee report,” Angus stated at a press conference Monday afternoon in Ottawa. “Mr. Wright has yet to come clean on what the $90,000 bought.” 

Angus explained the NDP’s view that it’s time for the RCMP to get involved.

On Sunday, Angus released a statement arguing that “Nigel Wright’s resignation doesn’t fix anything”: 

They tossed Mr. Duffy on Thursday, Ms. Wallin on Friday and now Nigel Wright has jumped ship on the Sunday of a long weekend. If Stephen Harper thinks this will make the scandal involving his own office go away, he is mistaken.

Nigel Wright needs to come clean on the details of the deal he negotiated to cover up for Senator Duffy’s expense claims and whitewash the Senate Committee report. Mr. Wright has to come clean on what the $90,000 bought; why a leaked email from Senator Duffy said that he “stayed silent on the orders of the PMO”; and whether Stephen Harper – a man well known for his personal control over the Conservative government – was aware that his Chief of Staff was negotiating a deal to pay off Mr Duffy and “go easy” on him by influencing a Senate Committee report.

With so many unanswered questions and serious allegations mounting, we need an independent investigation more than ever to determine exactly what happened.

CTV News has video of the remarks by Charlie Angus, available here.