Sen. Mike Duffy is filing an appeal to the country’s top court in the hopes the Supreme Court of Canada will let him sue the Senate from a years-old spending scandal.
Duffy is seeking $7.8 million in damages from the Senate, RCMP and the federal government for a high-profile investigation into his expenses and subsequent suspension without pay for nearly two years.
Two lower-court decisions said the upper chamber’s decision to suspend Duffy is protected by parliamentary privilege, meaning the courts do not have jurisdiction to rule on matters decided by the Senate.
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In a filing today, Duffy’s lawyers argue the Supreme Court must weigh in on the limits of parliamentary privilege and whether they were overstepped when the Prince Edward Island senator was suspended.
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They say the issue of national importance, requiring the top court’s attention.
Duffy was named to the Senate on the advice of then-prime minister Stephen Harper in 2008. He left the Conservative caucus in May 2013 and now sits with the Independent Senators Group.
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