Sen. David Tkachuk is calling into question testimony given by Sen. Mike Duffy at his criminal trial.
In an interview with Global News, Tkachuk said he wants to set the record straightover his involvement or lack-there-of.
According to Tkachuk, Duffy wasn’t telling the truth when he said he met with Tkachuk and was told how to claim per diems and other expenses.
“I never met with him, that’s all I’m saying,” Tkachuk said.
Tkachuk was silent throughout the Duffy trial but has decided to break that silence a week after Duffy was cleared of all 31 charges.
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When he took the witness stand, Duffy claimed Tkachuk told him he must claim meal allowances while in Ottawa. If he didn’t, it could call his Senate eligibility into question, as people might wonder why he wasn’t claiming the allowances when other Senators from PEI were receiving them.
“On January the 7th (2009), when he claims there was a meeting, it never happened,” said Tkachuck “I wasn’t deputy chair of Internal Economy like he inferred at the trial”.
During the lengthy criminal trial, Duffy said Tkachuk was considered the Conservative “guru” on Senate rules and regulations. Tkachuk flatly rejects that assertion.
“Why would he come to have a meeting with me? I was not the person to talk as far as the rules of the Senate,” he said.
Tkachuk says he was the caucus chairman at the time and helped with the orientation session for new Conservative Senators, including Duffy.
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Tkachuk points out it doesn’t make sense that Duffy would be asking for advice on claiming per diems in January of 2009, because evidence in court showed Duffy started charging for meals the day he was appointed in late December 2008.
“On the 23rd of December, he was already charging his first per diem,” said Tkachuk.
Tkachuk’s name also came up in the Duffy trial in relation to the Deloitte audit of the P.E.I. senator’s expenses. At that time, Tkachuk was the chairman of the powerful Committee on Internal Economy Budgets and Administration, and was the liaison with auditors.
According to the evidence presented in court, Tkachuk tried to stop the audit on Duffy’s expenses. Some have suggested he was told to do so by the Prime Minister’s office to stop the so-called “chinese water torture” the expense story was inflicting on the Conservative party.
“I was the one who volunteered it,” Tkachuk said. “I said if he pays back the money, perhaps there’s no reason for us to continue the audit.”
Asked if he considered it meddling in a privately-commissioned audit, Tkachuk said “there was nothing nefarious… I was the chair of the audit committee, I had a right to speak to the auditors, I spoke to them on a regular basis.”
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