ABOVE: The Senate has appointed former Supreme Court justice Ian Binnie as a special arbitrator to look at questionable expense claims
OTTAWA – The Senate has a new reason for blocking the release of an internal report about a Senate residency audit that Mike Duffy’s lawyers are fighting to include in his criminal trial.
Newly-named Conservative Speaker Leo Housakos, who trumpeted the upper chamber’s commitment to transparency and accountability Tuesday, says information in the 2013 report is “private.”
“The information that has been held back is private information – it’s people’s emails, people’s addresses, people’s telephone numbers,” Housakos told reporters at a press conference.
“You wouldn’t want that information made public so why would we make senators’ information public?”
Housakos, who said he has not seen the report and was not chair of the Senate’s internal economy committee when it was written by a former Senate official, also believes parts of it have already been released.
READ MORE: PMO wanted to prevent Duffy from going ‘squirrelly’: documents
But the Senate’s lawyers in court documents filed last week argue the report is protected by Parliamentary privilege and cannot be revealed to the public.
The internal report was written by Jill Anne Joseph, the Senate’s former director of internal audits. Joseph said in police transcripts filed in court that throughout her audit she found a lack of clear criteria surrounding Senate residency rules – but senators on the internal economy committee didn’t like her assessment.
Duffy’s lawyers are expected to argue next week when the trial resumes after a three-week break that the Senate has no legitimate reason to block the release of the report, which they believe is “favourable” to the suspended senator’s case and could prove his innocence.
READ MORE: Senate withholding internal report that proves Duffy’s innocence, lawyers say
The one-time Conservative star is now facing 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery related to his housing and travel claims, as well as Senate contracts, and for using $90,000 of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright’s money to pay them back. Duffy has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Housakos on Tuesday also announced that retired Supreme Court judge Ian Binnie will act as an independent arbitrator in a resolution process if senators object to the findings of Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s upcoming audit of the Senate.
The report will be in the Senate’s hands in the first week of June.
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