OTTAWA — The decision on whether or not Stephen Harper testifies at Sen. Mike Duffy's fraud, breach of trust, and bribery trial could ultimately rest with NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair or Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.
But first, he would need to be subpoenaed and called to testify, and Mulcair or Trudeau would need to win the election.
So far, there has been no suggestion by the Crown or Duffy's lawyer, Donald Bayne, that the Conservative leader is on any new list of potential witnesses.
Conservative party spokesman Stephen Lecce refused to say whether Harper would invoke parliamentary privilege if he were called. "As the RCMP said nearly two years ago, the PM has no knowledge of this matter," Lecce responded in an email to the hypothetical question.
But if Harper were called, and the NDP or the Liberals won on Oct. 19, his ability to invoke parliamentary privilege to avoid testifying would rest with his former political foes.
Parliamentary privilege refers to the list of immunities from the law that are centuries old and provided to members of Parliament, individually and collectively, to allow them to do their legislative work unfettered.
According to parliamentary experts Terry Moore and James Robertson, the most important privilege is the freedom of speech in Parliament (MPs can't be sued for defamation if they say something inside the chamber — outside the chamber that right doesn't apply). Historically, MPs have also been protected from arrest in civil matters, although that is no longer the case. MPs are also exempted from jury duty, and members and senators are exempt from attending court as witnesses.
"That does not mean that parliamentarians do not appear in court. They may do it voluntarily if their testimony is absolutely required," Moore and Robertson note.
Parliamentary privilege extends to 40 days after Parliament is dissolved — in this case, when the election was called — to 40 days before the beginning of the next Parliament.
And it is the prime minister who controls the parliamentary calendar.
The current portion of Duffy's trial is scheduled to last until Aug. 28. It resumes again on Nov. 18, remaining in session until Dec. 18.
So, if Harper wants to claim privilege — as he did in 2007 to avoid a giving a deposition in a defamation lawsuit — he has to hope that either Mulcair or Trudeau calls Parliament back to work in November or December.
If they call Parliament back to work in January, he might be forced to testify.
1. The prime minister’s office — Wright and colleagues Chris Woodcock, Patrick Rogers and Benjamin Perrin, along with key senators and staff — drafted media lines that misled Canadians into beli(01 of28)
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2. Harper may not have known about the payment scheme but he took time to make several suggestions to a Senate audit subcommittee report that was heavily edited by his office.(02 of28)
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3. Wright thought Duffy’s expenses were outrageous. Like really outrageous.(03 of28)
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4. Duffy and his lawyer seemed to be lobbying for some of his other questionable expenses to be declared appropriate. Wright was not happy.(04 of28)
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5. Wright doesn’t like to be misquoted.(05 of28)
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6. Wright thought the office of Marjory LeBreton, the government’s leader in the Senate, was somewhat incompetent. (Bonus: This thread also shows the PM wanted to stop all the embarrassing Senate st(06 of28)
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7. Conservative Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen is a suck-up.(07 of28)
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"I am always ready to do exactly what is asked..."
8. Duffy needed constant babysitting.(08 of28)
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9. Wright seems to think the NDP and the media are a bit dense.(09 of28)
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10. Wright didn’t think what Duffy did was fraudulent.(10 of28)
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11. Duffy’s lawyer, Janice Payne, makes $475 an hour.(11 of28)
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12. The PMO may have told Duffy not to engage with the Deloitte audit. Even though it knew it shouldn’t tell him that.(12 of28)
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13. Conservative Sen. Vern White got in a heated argument with Duffy.(13 of28)
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14. Two Senate staffers apparently threatened legal action if a Senate report wasn’t released as planned.(14 of28)
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15. The Duffy matter ranked higher in priority to Wright than discussions about the free trade agreement with Europe (CETA) — but not more important than a meeting with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynn(15 of28)
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16. Wright didn’t want to put anything in writing.(16 of28)
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17. If the Conservative Party of Canada was going to pay Duffy’s $12,000 in legal costs and $32,000 in inappropriate expenses, Wright didn’t want anybody to know. And he didn’t want Duffy to te(17 of28)
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18. Officials in the PMO were going to make sure Duffy wouldn’t be too forthcoming with a Senate committee process by vetting his diaries themselves.(18 of28)
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19. Micro-managing annoys Wright. Also, he appears to ask Conservative Sen. Irwin Gerstein to work through his “senior contacts” at Deloitte to see if they would be amenable to what the PMO wanted(19 of28)
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(20 of28)
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20. Wright knew some of Conservative Sen. Pamela Wallin’s expenses were inappropriate.(22 of28)
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21. Duffy wanted the PMO to spare him from an RCMP investigation. (It had already begun at that time, unbeknownst to them).(23 of28)
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The PMO thought this was a bad idea.(24 of28)
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22. The PMO found it frustrating to work with the Senate “drama”...(25 of28)
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... and back-stabbing senators.(26 of28)
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23. Wright appears willing to mislead the public about how Conservative Party funds can be used.(27 of28)
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24. He was right about things ending badly.(28 of28)
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