Harper hits back at Duffy for playing ‘victim’ in expense scandal

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper hit back at Mike Duffy Wednesday, saying he told the former Conservative senator to pay back his inappropriate expense claims.

“Mr. Duffy now says he is a victim because I told him he should repay his expenses. You’re darn right I told him he should repay his expenses,” Harper said to huge applause from his caucus.

When NDP leader Tom Mulcair asked Harper if he had threatened Duffy with expulsion from the Senate, Harper said no.

“I told Mr. Duffy when he asked, in fact when he asked I told our entire caucus and staff, that my view was that his expense claims were inappropriate and they should be repaid,” Harper said.

“That particular time, Mr. Speaker, did I threaten him with expulsion, no. But when inappropriate expense claims are made I expect corrective action to be taken and if it is not taken, the person who does not take corrective action could not expect to continue to sit as a member of the Conservative party.”

Mulcair also quoted from Duffy’s remarks in the Senate Tuesday, asking Harper if on Feb. 13 he’d told the now-independent senator: “It’s not about what you did, it’s the perception of what you did. The rules are inexplicable to our base.”

Harper denied it.

“I absolutely did not say that,” Harper said.

“This issue, Mr. Speaker, is not a matter of perception. What I said to our caucus and I said to the caucus as a whole when this issue came up, that you cannot claim an expense you did not incur. That is not right, that is not proper and that will not be tolerated in this party.”

Harper also told the House he supports a Senate motion to suspend Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau, without pay.

“I fully support that motion,” he said.

“I do not believe that under the circumstances those individuals should be on the public payroll. I believe that in private life had they undertaken such actions they would not continue to be on the public payroll. And I believe Canadians feel strongly.”

He said the Senate leadership had the motion approved by the Conservative Senate caucus.

Duffy alleged that in February he met with Harper and then-chief-of-staff Nigel Wright, “just the three of us.”

Adamant he had done no wrong, Duffy says the prime minister ordered him to repay the money and wasn’t interested in explanations “or the truth.”

Duffy said Wright then offered to cut him a cheque.

In the Commons, Harper again denied any involvement in Wright’s payment.

“Any assertion that I was in any way consulted or had any knowledge of Mr. Wright’s payment to Mr. Duffy is categorically false,” he said.

Duffy also detailed a pattern of intimidation from the prime minister’s office, who told him the Senate steering committee, David Tkachuk and Carolyn Stewart Olsen, would declare him unqualified to sit as a senator if he didn’t go along with the plan.

He urged his peers to “restrain the unaccountable power of the PMO.”

Wallin addressed her peers Wednesday afternoon, following the remarks of Duffy and Brazeau on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Stewart Olsen has resigned from the internal economy steering committee, which reported on the expenses of all three senators.

In an email to Global News, she said she wanted more time to do work in New Brunswick and work on committees that impact the people in the province.

She said she helped make changes to the Senate rules and that it was an “important goal.”

“Time for new blood,” she wrote.

– with files from The Canadian Press