Ex-PMO lawyer versus Harper’s chiefs of staff: Whose story is true?

The Mike Duffy trial brings into question whether Harper is trustworthy himself.

Benjamin Perrin a former legal advisor to the PMO, told the RCMP that Novak was part of the conference call that discussed Wright’s check.

The testimony contradicts assertions from Harper and the Conservative campaign about what Novak knew about the repayment scheme. “That’s just unfathomable. It’s not the case”. He said that at the time, he thought Wright was “explicitly” speaking for the prime minister in his role as chief of staff.

Novak has been kept out of the public eye and away from media travelling with Harper’s campaign in recent days. “To me, each legally and virtually, it appeared untenable”, stated Perrin, who’s presently an affiliate professor of regulation on the College of British Columbia. He sometimes turned to speak directly to Justice Charles Vaillancourt, and asked on different occasions if he could expand on his answers.

Perrin was face cross examination by Duffy’s lawyer on Friday. Duffy was re-considering a commitment he had made on February 22, 2013, to acknowledge he might have made mistakes when he designated his P.E.I. cottage as his primary residence when he became a senator in 2009, and claimed a housing allowance and other expenses in Ottawa after designating his home in the capital as his secondary residence. Originally, Harper said that he would never appoint an unelected senator but he ended up appointing many Conservative hacks, bag men, failed candidates, and Duffy, a journalist who pushed a conservative agenda as a popular talk show host.

Novak came in during Perrin’s summary.

Harper (in French): Mr. Wright was very clear.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error as they are not a random sample and therefore are not necessarily representative of the whole population.

Wright rejected the specific reference to the RCMP and Duffy dropped it. Payne said Duffy wouldn’t follow through with a commitment to repay. Mr. Wright paid in the end.

“As counsel in the matter, I was clearly left in the dark”, he said.

Perrin added that Novak was “was present throughout the call”, even though he didn’t speak.

Perrin stated he was not at the moment aware about discussions Wright was having with Conservative Sen. An earlier version said the exchange took place Wednesday.

Perrin’s testimony is done, and court is adjourned until Monday.

Any potential fallout might be mitigated by the likelihood many voters won’t start paying attention to the campaign until after Labour Day, she said.

Campaign: “It was Mr. Duffy’s responsibility…to repay his expenses”. Duffy’s trial on breach of trust, fraud and bribery over the $90,000 payment from Mr. Wright.

Ironically, the one change the Supremes told the government it could unilaterally make to the Senate would be to remove the requirement that Senators own at least $4000 in property in the province they represent.