RCMP moved to make Senate scandal ITO public

[A_Britishcolumbian]

wow! i feel compelled to applaud the rcmp but one aspect of this makes me pause.

RCMP investigator moved to make Senate scandal ITO public

BY GLEN MCGREGOR, OTTAWA CITIZEN NOVEMBER 22, 2013 2:00 PM

The RCMP took an unusual step to ensure the sensational court document laying out fraud and bribery allegations involving the Prime Minister’s Office was made public this week.

The Mountie investigating the Senate expense scandal, Cpl. Greg Horton, went before a judge on Wednesday to consent to the public release of the Information to Obtain (IT0) a production order he had sworn five days earlier.

The ITO was provided to the media later that day. Had Horton not consented, it could have been weeks or months before journalists or the public saw the document, if ever.

The move suggests the RCMP wanted the public exposure of the 81-page document that lays out in detail Horton’s allegations that crimes have been committed by Senator Mike Duffy and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright.

Usually, when an investigator files an ITO to support a request for a production order or search warrant, the document does not become public until the investigator files another sworn statement, called a “return,” saying the order has been executed and the records sought had been obtained. Court administrative staff are not allowed to even confirm an ITO exists until the investigator files the return. This prevents the targets of investigations from finding out what police are seeking before they seize records or execute a search.

But in this case the ITO became public before Horton filed any return, after he went before Justice Hugh Fraser and swore an affidavit consenting to the release of the document. That allowed clerks at the Ottawa courthouse to provide the ITO to anyone who requests it.

It is unclear why the RCMP went to such an extent to open up their investigation to public view.

An RCMP spokesperson, Cpl. Lucy Shorey, said that Horton was only following an unspecified new process required by the court.

“We were told there is a new court process that the court implemented,” Shorey said. “It’s the court that’s asking us to do this, I’m told.”

But Ottawa court officials said there was no new system in place and that Horton’s consent simply allowed them to break with protocol and release the ITO before the return was filed.

“There is no new process,” said Jocelyn Gouthro, the senior clerk at the Ottawa courthouse. “It’s nothing new. This has been the policy forever.”

Gouthro said that, in high-profile cases police sometimes want their ITOs made public before the returns are filed, but court staff cannot do that, according to their procedure manual.

To release the document, they require “judicial direction” of the kind Horton obtained on Wednesday.

Pressed to explain why Horton wanted the document public, or what new process he was following, Shorey referred inquiries back to court administrators.

The court order Horton obtained with the November 15 ITO compels the Royal Bank of Canada to turn over additional Duffy banking records but also requires the Senate to turn over more than four months of emails sent and received by Duffy and Conservative senators David Tkachuk, Marjory LeBreton and Carolyn Stewart Olsen through their Senate of Canada accounts.

The order bypasses the four senators’ offices and instead directs Senate administrative staff to extract the emails from the Senate’s email server. In the ITO, Horton says Clerk of the Senate Gary O’Brien had made sure the emails were preserved, based on Horton’s previous request.

In theory, the speaker of the Senate, Noël Kinsella, could claim parliamentary privilege and refuse to release the records to police.

Any of the four senators could argue that the release of their emails is a breach of their parliamentary privilege, said former House of Commons law clerk Rob Walsh.

“One possibility is that the senators themselves, one or all of them, threatened to rise on point of privilege,” Walsh said.

“They could rise in the chamber and seek an order of the Senate refusing that the order be carried out.”

But that will be harder for them to do, now that the RCMP has put on the public record the texts of dozens of other emails provided voluntarily by Wright that track efforts by PMO staff and senators to massage a Senate committee report on Duffy’s expenses.

If Kinsella upheld that privilege claim and refused to release some or all of the emails, there isn’t much the police could do.

“The Senate cannot be found in contempt of the court order,” Walsh said.

But Horton seems to have secured Kinsella’s agreement, according to the ITO. He says he spoke to Michel Patrice, deputy law clerk at the Senate.

“He has in turn conferred with the Speaker of the Senate on this matter, and we are in agreement with the terms and conditions I am proposing,” Horton wrote.

The Senate would not say whether the emails had been turned over to Horton yet.

“The Senate does not comment on matters under investigation,” said spokesperson Annie Joannette.

“The Senate is fully co-operating with the RCMP on its investigations as stated publicly by the Speaker.”

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/RCMP+ ... story.html

[A_Britishcolumbian]

oh dear, the juicy details!

Den Tandt: Corruption and intrigue in the PMO

Hard for PM to deny knowledge: Staffseemed to keep him in loop

BY MICHAEL DEN TANDT, POSTMEDIA NEWS NOVEMBER 22, 2013

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has fought for months to prevent the Senate spending scandal from tarnishing him personally. He no longer can.

RCMP Cpl. Greg Horton's 81-page narrative of the events surrounding Nigel Wright's $90,000 payment to Sen. Mike Duffy last March immediately enters the pantheon of transformative Canadian political writing. It reveals Harper's command structure, at the level of his closest and most loyal confidants, to be a nest of corruption, intrigue and shameless deceit. Its contents raise serious questions about the prime minister's own role, and, frankly, his honesty.

Every Canadian of voting age should read Horton's account: It's that compelling. But whether they do or don't, its impact will be lasting. Because the crux of the entire sordid affair, and an explanation for everything that has transpired in Ottawa since last May, including all the prime minister's public statements and the talking points of his spokespeople, can be found in the contrast between two critical passages, on pages 15 and 33. The rest is fascinating context.

The first concerns the famous Feb. 13 meeting between Duffy, Harper and Nigel Wright, during which the prime minister told the senator he must repay his expenses. From Horton: "Senator Duffy was defending his claims to the Prime Minister, explaining that he lives in P.E.I., has not been challenged on his claims previously, and should not have to repay the money. Mr. Wright took the opposite position and verbalized that to

the Prime Minister in Senator Duffy's presence. The Prime Minister listened to both positions, and then stated that because Senator Duffy did not incur expenses due to Senate business in Ottawa, because he lives in Ottawa, the public would not expect or accept such claims."

Aha! Here is vindication, it would seem, of Harper's early, spirited counterattack in the House of Commons on Oct. 23: "Mr. Duffy now says he is a victim because I told him he should repay his expenses. Darn right I told him he should repay his expenses!" The line became the bedrock of all the Tory strategy that followed.

But Feb. 13 wasn't the end. It was the beginning. First came a flurry of communications between Wright, Duffy, Conservative Sen. David Tkachuk, Duffy's lawyer, Janice Payne, and Benjamin Perrin, then counsel to the prime minister - all aimed at a deal that would see Duffy's tab paid, not by the senator himself, but by the Conservative party. The emails show officials were prepared to pay up, with party funds, and put the matter quietly to bed.

On Feb. 21, eight days after the meeting with Duffy and Harper, "Mr. Wright told him (Duffy) to repay in full, with interest, stop future claims, don't defend his entitlements in the media anymore, and the PMO would look after having the money reimbursed," (emphasis mine) Horton writes. So much for Duffy as renegade.

But then we get to the nub, revealed in two of 2,600 emails gathered by the RCMP in their investigation. On Feb. 22, after more intense finagling involving Wright, Duffy, Perrin, Payne, three Conservative senators and five senior PMO staffers, a deal was finally struck to repay Duffy's improperly claimed expenses, and his legal fees - apparently, judging from the document, with Harper's personal approval. "I do want to speak to the PM before everything is considered final," writes Wright. Then, from Horton: "Less than an hour later, Nigel Wright followed up with an email stating 'We are good to go from the PM once Ben has his confirmation from Payne.' "

Harper has denied, in the House of Commons and through a spokesman, that he knew of the Feb. 22 deal. He said Wednesday in question period that "good to go" referred to his belief that Duffy was repaying his own expenses. Um, OK. But that's more than a little difficult to believe, when measured against the content of the emails, and the facts outlined previously in Horton's narrative. On the contrary, the evidence suggests that nine months ago, the prime minister of Canada did indeed sanction a payment, from the tax-credit-supported Conservative party, of Duffy's improper expenses and his legal fees. This would explain the pretzels into which the Tories twisted themselves last month in trying to justify the legal payment, which in the end amounted to $13,560. How could it be denounced, if the boss had signed off? Either way, the prime minister's story is in doubt. So is the credibility of his outrage at senatorial misconduct. And so is his past denunciation of Wright's "deception."

For Wright did not "deceive" his boss, judging from Horton's document. Rather he kept him in the loop, seemingly to the point where all the players clearly understood it was best, for Harper's own good, that he be kept out of it. They knew the Duffy deal needed to be kept secret, the emails make clear. It seems plausible that Harper also knew it needed to be kept secret - even from him. That is how most fair-minded observers will interpret Horton's report. It's a crushing blow to the prime minister, just as he gears up to make the case for a fourth term.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/co ... story.html

[A_Britishcolumbian]

i like senator frum's description of the prime minister’s reputation and that of the Senate caucus “went up in flames.”

Senators disturbed by meddling

Friday, 22 November 2013 - 2:29pm
By Jennifer Ditchburn THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA—Rattled Conservative and Liberal senators say they’re trying to come to terms with the RCMP’s description of meddling by the Prime Minister’s Office in the upper chamber’s business.
The 80-page court filing by the Mounties became required reading around the Senate this week.


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E-mails back and forth suggest Harper’s staff and his top senators helped to manipulate a Senate committee and its report into former colleague Mike Duffy’s contested living expenses.
The group also tried to quash an independent audit commissioned by the Senate.
“I am a strong believer in the independence of the institution, and I think it’s something we’re all going to have to reflect upon in terms of going forward and how that relationship [with elected officials] should be structured,” Conservative Sen. Bob Runciman said yesterday.
A lone Conservative staffer, Chris Montgomery, balked at the pressure from Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright and others to soften a report on Duffy’s expenses.
Montgomery was director of parliamentary affairs to former Conservative Senate leader Marjory LeBreton, and now works in the private sector.
“Definitely, if there was some pushback from Sen. LeBreton’s office to the effect that we have our own way to do things, and it’s not up to the office of the prime minister to decide what should be and should not be in a report from a committee of this chamber, well then it’s good news,” said Conservative Sen. Pierre Claude Nolin.
Conservative Sen. Linda Frum was the only other voice—at least in the e-mails provided by the RCMP—to express distress at the actions of the Prime Minister’s Office early in 2013.
She wrote to Harper’s principal secretary to say it was not right to protect Duffy and others while the prime minister’s reputation and that of the Senate caucus “went up in flames.”
Frum said she was surprised to see her e-mail show up in the police documents.
“I was watching what was going on and I felt strongly about what I saw, and I wanted the right people to be held to account, and for it not to be left on the plates of people who had nothing to do with it,” Frum explained.
Liberal senators also are reading the documents with interest, and considering if anything should be done on the floor of the Senate.
“I’ve read the documents [and] I find parts of them very disturbing, indeed,” said deputy Liberal Senate leader Joan Fraser.
“But beyond that I don’t really want to comment.
“It’s going to take a little while to work through all of this and figure out what the ultimate implications are,” she added.
A central figure in the deal with Duffy, Sen. Irving Gerstein, refused to answer questions yesterday.
The RCMP allege that Duffy and Wright committed fraud, bribery, and breach and trust when they struck a secret deal to have Duffy’s expenses repaid.
At first, the deal involved the Conservative party paying $32,000 in expenses and $13,000 in legal fees.
Wright wrote in an Feb. 22 e-mail that he needed to seek Harper’s approval for the plan, later saying, “We are good to go from PM. . . .”
When the expenses reached $90,000, however, the party declined to pay and Wright wound up picking up the tab himself.

http://fftimes.com/node/263801

[GenesisGT]

A copy of the ITO document can be found at http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/837418-rcmp-mike-duffy-nigel-wright-nov.html

Having only read parts of this document it seems obvious that people were trying to cover up how the $90k agreement was made and how a deal was being made to stop the investigation into Duffy's expense claims. As example to help cover up the $90K, it appears Duffy got a mortgage loan from the Royal Bank to payback what he owed the Senate, which was then paid off when the $90K was routed through his lawyer to his bank account.

A lot of sleazy information in this ITO.

[A_Britishcolumbian]

The Mountie who may bring down Harper

November 25, 2013
Stephen Harper By Montreal Simon

I’ve always thought it ironic that a man called Greg Horton should be the one who might bring down Great Timmy Leader by exposing the corruption of his evil empire.
But it wasn’t until today that I realized how much we owe that RCMP investigator.
From the Ottawa Citizen: “Mountie investigating the Senate expense scandal, Cpl. Greg Horton, went before a judge on Wednesday to consent to the public release of the Information to Obtain (ITO) a production order he had sworn five days earlier.
“The ITO was provided to the media later that day. Had Horton not consented, it could have been weeks or months before journalists or the public saw the document, if ever.”
For not only has he done an extraordinary job so far, and left Stephen Harper’s story hanging by a thread, he has also used the public disclosure to obtain even more documents that might finally snap that thread.

The court order Horton obtained with the November 15 ITO compels the Royal Bank of Canada to turn over additional Duffy banking records but also requires the Senate to turn over more than four months of emails sent and received by Duffy and Conservative senators David Tkachuk, Marjory LeBreton and Carolyn Stewart Olsen through their Senate of Canada accounts.

And made it almost impossible for those Senators to impede his efforts.

Any of the four senators could argue that the release of their emails is a breach of their parliamentary privilege, said former House of Commons law clerk Rob Walsh.

But that will be harder for them to do, now that the RCMP has put on the public record the texts of dozens of other emails provided voluntarily by Wright that track efforts by PMO staff and senators to massage a Senate committee report on Duffy’s expenses.

You know in recent years the RCMP has come under a lot of criticism, most of it justified. And it remains a deeply troubled organization. But there are some good apples in every rotten barrel.
And if the Con regime collapses under the weight of its corruption and criminal behaviour, Cpl. Greg Horton will deserve a huge vote of thanks.
For he may be a humble police officer. But his dogged pursuit of the truth in the Kingdom of the Big Lie, and in the face of what must be enormous pressure is admirable.

Horton’s own career is very much on the line here. It speaks well for his professionalism and courage (and confidence in his legal case) that he has filed the affidavit at all.

A close reading of the document suggests that Horton himself wrote every word of it, with little or no help from others. It contains several grammatical errors and typos, and he consistently spells “publicly” as “publically.” But he is clearly a cop, not a copy editor; these errors do not detract from his evidence, which he has meticulously footnoted.

For can you imagine how much the Harperite gang must hate him?
And the sad truth is that if he hadn’t done such a good job, and allowed his findings to be made public, we would still be wandering around in the dark, and the Cons would still be getting away with it.
Instead, thanks to him, some of the most powerful people in this country are shivering in their boots, or running for cover.

Conservative Senator Irving Gerstein refused to answer questions about his alleged role in the Senate expense scandal Thursday, the day after a police document claimed he tried to stop an audit into Mike Duffy’s expenses.

And when this is all over, if charges are laid, and the Con regime collapses, or is jailed, Cpl. Horton will be my special nominee for the Order of Canada. Or just my Canadian hero.
For showing me that all is not rotten in Harperland, that one honest man is worth a thousand crooks, and that we were right to demand better for our country.

http://backofthebook.ca/2013/11/25/the- ... per/10074/