Supreme Court quashes mandatory sentences for gun crimes, upholding Ontario

The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld a lower court's ruling striking down the federal government's law mandating minimum sentences of three and five years for gun crimes.

The court ruled 6-3 to endorse a 2013 ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal that labelled the law cruel and unusual, saying it violated Section 12 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The provincial and federal attorneys general had appealed that finding.

The top court upheld the appeal court's quashing of both the three-year mandatory minimum for a first offence of possessing a loaded prohibited gun, as well as the five-year minimum for a second offence.

The Ontario and federal governments argued that the minimums do not breach the charter protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

The new sentencing rules were enacted in 2008 as part of a sweeping omnibus bill introduced by the federal Conservatives.

The two governments say they enacted the mandatory minimums in response to the increasing number of handgun possession cases coming before the courts.

In one of the two cases that made up the Supreme Court appeal, a young Toronto man with no criminal record was sentenced to three years after pleading guilty to possession of a loaded firearm.

The judge in the case said that without the mandatory minimum, he would have sentenced Hussein Nur to 2½ years.

In the second case, Sidney Charles pleaded guilty to firearms offences after he was found in his rooming house bedroom with a loaded and unlicensed semi-automatic handgun.

He was sentenced to five years because he had two previous convictions.

In defending the mandatory sentence for repeat offenders, Ottawa and Ontario argued that it is within a reasonable range of legislative choice.

The Supreme Court has clashed with the Conservative government on several key policies, although it recently sided with Ottawa over the destruction of gun registry data, which Quebec sought to preserve.

That win for the Conservatives came after several losses at Canada's top ourt.

The justices rejected Prime Minister Stephen Harper's appointment of Quebec Judge Marc Nadon to their ranks, stymied an effort to stop judges from giving extra credit for time spent in custody before sentencing and ruled that Parliament could not reform the Senate on its own.

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Mike Duffy trial: Defence cross-examining Senate official on expenses

Mike Duffy's lawyer, Donald Bayne, is cross-examining a Senate human resources official, whose testimony on Monday was used by the Crown to build its case that the suspended senator charged taxpayers for non-Senate business.

Sonia Makhlouf, whose job it is to assess Senate contracts and ensure the services being billed pertain to parliamentary business, was questioned by Crown prosecutor Jason Neubauer on Monday, the beginning of the second week of the trial at the provincial courthouse in Ottawa.

Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust related to expenses he claimed as a senator.

On Monday, Neubauer reviewed with Makhlouf Duffy's controversial $65,000 worth of contracts with his friend Gerald Donohue.

According to the terms of the Senate contracts, Donohue was being employed to provide consulting and editorial services. However, RCMP have said that Donohue did "little or no apparent work" for the $65,000. The Crown is attempting to show that payments earmarked for those contracts were instead used by Duffy to expense non-Senate business.

Neubauer asked Makhlouf about a number of services — payments for a makeup artist, a personal trainer, an enlarged picture of family members and Barbara Bush — and whether Senate contracts would be awarded based on those services.

No, she said, because none of those services would be considered parliamentary work. 

The Crown entered into evidence invoices from Jiffy Photo and Print addressed to Mike Duffy, "c/o Gerald Donohue Maple Ridge Media," which showed costs for picture enhancements, including those for photos of Bush and Duffy's daughter and grandson, as well as other personal pictures. Meanwhile, cheques entered into evidence appear to show Donohue's companies paying for these expenses.

The Crown has contended that the contracts with Donohue were effectively a clearinghouse for Duffy to hand out money "as he saw fit," and a "reserve pool over which there was no possibility of financial oversight."

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Was Tom Mulcair right about 'Dutch disease' economics?

The latest national job numbers came as a great surprise.

Great because they were up — a surprise because analysts were predicting the numbers would be down.

The top-line numbers, however, mask the hollowing out of a portion of the Canadian economy.

According to the Labour Force Survey, 1,688,300 Canadians were employed in the manufacturing sector in March, a drop of 1.8 per cent from the previous month.

That means there are currently fewer people working in that sector of the economy than at any time in the nearly 40-year history of the modern Labour Force Survey.

In January 1976, the first month of the new survey, Statistics Canada reported more than 1.8 million people were working in manufacturing.

To put those numbers in greater context — the entire labour force for all industries at the time numbered 9.6 million.

Today it stands at 17.9 million; an 86 per cent increase.

Manufacturing keeps shrinking

Manufacturing has shrunk over the same time period by more than a quarter.

A screen capture shows an ad produced by the Conservative Party against NDP Leader Tom Mulcair. (YouTube)

Last fall, Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz said parts of the sector have lost 75 per cent of their output since 2000.

He pointed out this is more than just cancelling the third shift at a plant — that kind of decline represents factory closures and companies restructuring to slim down.

The closures and restructuring were made necessary because of declining demand from international clients, whose currency isn't going as far as it used to compared with the Canadian dollar.

The loonie was being driven largely by the power of strong oil prices.

"It's by definition, Dutch disease." opined Tom Mulcair in an interview with the CBC in May 2012.

Wilting tulips

The term was coined in 1977 to describe the downside of the discovery of natural gas fields off the coast of the Netherlands.

The ensuing economic boom boosted the country's currency, which was harmful to its other exports and — in the end — the overall economy after commodity prices slumped.

Sound familiar?

"The currency's appreciation of almost 60 per cent over the last 15 years has really hurt the manufacturing sector," is the assessment of Canada's economy by Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Emanuella Enenajor.

Poloz hasn't used the term (certainly not publicly), but did concede, "capacity in these subsectors has simply disappeared."

It might not come back

Just because low oil prices are reducing transportation and energy costs, and the floundering loonie is making Canadian exports attractive again — it doesn't mean the sector will bounce back immediately.

You can't just turn the lights back on in the factory and start sending the widgets out the door again.

When the energy sector started to lose steam, the old stalwarts of the economy weren't there to pick up the slack.

"The Dutch disease that Canada has experienced has been more than a decade in the making, and I think it has really hurt business confidence," added Enenajor.

Supporting that view is the Bank of Canada's latest survey of companies, which suggests that cheaper oil is reducing their expectations for the economy in the near term.

But that's just economics

It takes economists reams of research and data to offer evidence Canada suffered from, and continues to have the after effects of, Dutch disease.

Mulcair's 2012 diagnosis has merit, but the Conservatives use far fewer words to show that counts for very little in an election year.

"The leader of the NDP calls [the natural resources] sector a disease!" Pierre Poilievre sneered at Mulcair across the floor of the House of Commons last week.

A rebuke even economists have to admit will likely put what they call "downside pressure" on the NDP's vote in at least some parts of the country.

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Canada prepares to join in training Ukraine military

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced Canada will join a training mission to help Ukraine's beleaguered military.

After months of requests for help from the Ukrainian government, Tuesday morning's announcement represents the first time the Canadian Forces have joined Ukrainian forces in their struggle against Russian-backed rebels.

Harper made the announcement at a staged photo call and took no questions. 

A press release said 200 troops will be deployed "on both a sustained and periodic basis" until March 31, 2017, to "develop and deliver military training and capacity-building programs for Ukrainian forces personnel." It may start within weeks.

Defence Minister Jason Kenney and Chief of Defence Staff Tom Lawson are answering questions about the long-anticipated move at the defence department's headquarters.

Canada's British and American allies are already in Ukraine conducting training missions of their own.

Canadian forces are expected to help with explosive ordnance disposal and improvised explosive device disposal training, military police training, medical training, flight safety training, and logistics system modernization training.

Some of the IED skills Canada will pass on were painfully learned during the five-year combat mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The release also says Canada will provide individual and unit tactics training to Ukrainian National Guard personnel as part of a mission led by Americans.

Newly mobilized Ukrainian paratroopers carry an anti-tank grenade launcher during a military drill near Zhytomyr on April 9. Canadian troops could soon be joining U.S. and British forces training the Ukrainian military. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

The U.S. military has deployed 800 troops to train three — possibly four — battalions in western Ukraine and the British recently sent 75 soldiers to give instruction in command procedures, tactical intelligence and battlefield first aid.

Defence sources say that this deployment will see Canadian soldiers working and housed far away from the battle taking place on the eastern side of the country. It's expected Canadian soldiers will be stationed in an existing NATO training centre located in Yavoriv, near the Polish border in Western Ukraine.

Canada's mission is another attempt to push back against the Russian regime of President Vladimir Putin. 

Both Washington and Ottawa have been under pressure to ship lethal military aid to President Petro Poroshenko's government, which has been struggling to hold a shaky ceasefire together with rebels.

The Pentagon delayed the training program for Ukrainian soldiers last month to avoid giving the Kremlin an excuse to scrap the peace deal struck in February.

There have been widespread reports in the last week that Russian-backed separatists are preparing for a spring offensive in the southern region, a sign the conflict could re-ignite.

Russia could very well consider the deployment of NATO trainers as a provocation at a time when it has rattled most of Europe with massive, snap military exercises along its borders involving tens of thousands of troops.

It strikes at the heart of the dilemma faced by Western leaders: how to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin's slow-motion dismemberment of Ukraine without provoking a major war.

The announcement of Canada's participation comes just days after Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves told a British newspaper that he was in favour of NATO deterring Russia with the permanent stationing of combat units in the Baltic states.

Four Canadian CF-18s took part in NATO air policing missions to protect the Baltic States last year, and a company of soldiers belonging to the Royal Canadian Regiment are currently involved in exercises in the region.

In February, Defence Minister Jason Kenney said Canada was "actively considering different options for engaging" in the emerging training mission, but he also said Canada would and could not act alone in supplying lethal weapons to bolster Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's government.

The Canadian Press reported in December that a small team of fewer than 10 soldiers travelled to Ukraine to look for training opportunities with Ukrainian forces in the areas of military police, medical personnel and "personal protective measures." Officials did not characterize the very small number of troops as a pre-deployment team.

"There are a number that have come and gone in support of various missions and the military police, they're coming, they will be here for a deployment and then they will leave. This is a continuing effort," then-defence minister Rob Nicholson told reporters.

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Are the Alberta PCs really in trouble?

Never in the field of Canadian elections have polls meant so little to so many.

A governing party trailing in second place, maybe even third, and with its leader posting dismal approval ratings, would normally set off alarm bells.

But this is Alberta, and old habits die hard.

After 44 years in power and 12 consecutive election victories, anything but a win by Jim Prentice's Progressive Conservatives is dismissed by many as nearly fantastical.

Even the pollsters are couching their analyses with warnings of the changes likely to come. The Tories may be in dire straits now, but the election is many weeks away. The inevitable will still, probably, come to pass — right?

But re-alignments can happen swiftly. Are the polls presaging a historic defeat for the Alberta PCs, or is there good reason to believe that what the numbers show now will not be the same on May 5, when Albertans cast their ballots?

The case for the polls

ThreeHundredEight.com's latest aggregation of the polls released Monday show the Wildrose Party holds the lead with about 30 per cent support, followed closely by the Progressive Conservatives at 28 per cent and the New Democrats at 26 per cent. The Alberta Liberals bring up the rear with 12 per cent support.

This outcome would likely deliver a minority government headed by either Wildrose or the Tories, with the edge narrowly going to Wildrose. It is too close to say anything more definitive.

If these results were repeated on election day, it would be the best showing for the NDP since 1989 and the worst for the PCs since 1967.

This alone should raise some red flags. But the polls reported in the media have been remarkably consistent. In the three polls conducted by different polling firms since the beginning of April, Wildrose has registered between 30 and 31 per cent, the PCs between 25 and 27 per cent, and the NDP between 26 and 28 per cent. What first looked like a fluke at the end of March has been confirmed again and again.

Other indicators back up these numbers.

Alberta Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, centre, is not well known in the province, but begins his first campaign as leader with good numbers. (Larry MacDougal/Canadian Press)

Prentice's approval ratings have dropped precipitously. From more than 50 per cent in polls conducted in December, Prentice has registered an approval rating of between 22 and 29 per cent in two recent polls, with his disapproval rating topping out at 60 per cent or higher.

In 2012, when the PCs were running behind Wildrose, the polls never showed such low numbers for then-premier Alison Redford. Only in the weeks shortly before her resignation did her numbers turn so sour.

The budget seems to have been a catalyst for this decline. Polling by Insights West suggested that 78 per cent of Albertans thought the budget would have a negative effect on their households, and a majority did not think that the fall in oil prices justified it.

Fears of change amid an unstable economical climate also appear low. ThinkHQ found that just 30 per cent of Albertans agreed that a change of government would make things worse on that front.

There are also signs that the NDP's stellar climb into contention is no anomaly. NDP Leader Rachel Notley boasts, by a wide margin, the best approval ratings in Alberta. The most recent poll by Forum Research pegged her approval rating at 42 per cent, with just 21 per cent disapproving of her.

The case for another PC victory

The experience of the 2012 election, however, looms large over this campaign. Every poll published during the write period suggested that Wildrose would win. Instead, the Tories were re-elected with a large majority of seats. A warranted skepticism has defined Albertans' views of the polls since.

But leaving aside the possibility that the polls are just wrong (and the record of the polls in 2012 is far more nuanced than that), there are good reasons to believe the results on election night will differ markedly from where the numbers are now.

The most important one may be the incumbency factor, which plays into the hands of every governing party. Unexpected victories by the incumbent have happened recently in provincial elections from British Columbia to Quebec. And in 2012, the Alberta PCs were trailing from the first week of the campaign.

The incumbency factor could play an even larger role in this campaign because of the relative obscurity of Brian Jean, Wildrose's recently named leader. The latest Forum poll showed that 47 per cent of Albertans had no opinion of him, leaving a lot of minds left to be made up. And considering that 44 per cent of respondents told ThinkHQ they found Wildrose "too extreme," those minds could be made up to Jean's detriment.

Notley, too, is still unknown to more than a third of Albertans.

And then there are the Liberals, who are on track to have candidates on the ballot in only half of the province's ridings. If that happens, they will certainly not get the 12 per cent the polls are currently giving them. Where will those orphaned voters go? To the PCs to block Wildrose, the reason for the Liberals' collapse in 2012, or to the NDP, the other left-of-centre option?

Added to all of this is the reality that a majority of Albertans say they have yet to be convinced to vote for any party. In ThinkHQ's most recent poll, fully 58 per cent of respondents said they could change their mind. 

That makes for a lot of voters up for grabs, and the likelihood that the result on election night will resemble the polls today slim. But that doesn't necessarily mean Jim Prentice's PCs will end up on top.

---

The poll by Forum Research was conducted between April 7 and 9, 2015, interviewing 1,661 Albertans via interactive voice response. The margin of error associated with the poll is +/- 2 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

The poll by ThinkHQ was conducted between April 2 and 6, 2015, interviewing 1,835 Albertans via the Internet. As the poll was conducted online, a margin of error does not apply.

The poll by Insights West was conducted between March 27 and 30, 2015, interviewing 602 Albertans via the Internet. As the poll was conducted online, a margin of error does not apply.

ThreeHundredEight.com's vote projection model aggregates all publicly released polls, weighing them by sample size, date and the polling firm's accuracy record. The projections are subject to the margins of error of the opinion polls included in the model, as well as the unpredictable nature of politics at the riding level. The polls included in the model vary in size, date and method, and have not been individually verified by the CBC. You can read the full methodology here.

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Ontario to sign cap-and-trade agreement with Quebec to reduce emissions

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne will sign an agreement today to join Quebec in a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

​She said the deal will create a "market mechanism" to encourage companies to move toward reducing emissions that lead to climate change. 

A cap-and-trade system allows companies to either cap their greenhouse gas emissions or buy credits from companies that have reduced emissions.

Wynne outlined the basics of the deal at an announcement in Toronto Monday morning.

Highlights include:

• A hard ceiling on the pollution allowed in each sector of the economy. 
• Proceeds from the carbon market will be reinvested in projects that reduce emissions.
• A process to reward companies that work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• A long-term plan to join the largest cap-and-trade market: the Western Climate Initiative, which includes Quebec and California.

​"Right now, we allow polluters to put carbon into our environment for free," said Wynne.

Under the deal with Quebec, she said, "proceeds from carbon market will go back into the economy to drive growth."

Wynne says climate change is already imposing costs on society, damaging crops and increasing insurance claims, and warns the costs of not taking action will only get higher.  

 And she says cap-and-trade is a market solution, not a regulatory one, and will provide certainty for industry.

She admitted there will be added costs for consumers and industry.

For example, the government cited reports that estimate cap-and-trade will add two to 3.5 cents a litre for gasoline.

Wynne was scheduled to fly to Quebec City to sign a memorandum of agreement with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard around noon Monday.

Environment Minister Glen Murray says the government will consult the public as it develops the details for the cap-and-trade scheme by October.

The announcement comes after Ontario has held public consultations on how to reduce its carbon emissions. Sources say Monday's announcement is timed to set the stage for the provincial and territorial leaders summit on climate change being held the next day in Quebec City.

Quebec implemented its cap-and-trade system in January 2015. As of February, the province has auctioned off $190 million worth of credits to reduce emissions.

Quebec operates its cap-and-trade system with California. Monday's announcement means that Ontario, Quebec and California could set up a joint system to allow companies to trade their emissions between all three jurisdictions, if Ontario signs a separate agreement with California. 

Tom Rand, a climate change expert and senior advisor on clean energy technology, spoke to CBC's Metro Morning Monday before Wynne's announcement.

He said the agreement is a "big deal" and "an attempt to go around recalcitrant national capitals in both Canada and the U.S."

He criticized the Canadian federal government, which he said has been "ragging the puck" on climate change for 10 years.

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Revenue Canada targets Steelworkers charity for political activities

A union-backed charity that wants Canadian mining companies held accountable for overseas misdeeds is among the latest to be targeted by the Canada Revenue Agency for political activities.

The Steelworkers Humanity Fund Inc. is still awaiting a verdict from the agency, nine months after an auditor showed up at the Toronto office and hauled away several binders of sensitive material.

The fund, with about $1.3 million in annual revenues, has supported Canadian food banks and provided disaster relief abroad since its founding in 1985.

But the charity's support of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability or CNCA, to which it gave about $37,000 in 2013, appears to have piqued the agency's interest.

"We've been part of this CNCA, and no doubt that's part of the rationale" for the audit, Steelworkers president Ken Neumann said in an interview from Toronto.

"It's quite clear that it's targeted to folks that speak up sometimes against the government's policies."

The Canada Revenue Agency launched a series of 60 political-activity audits in 2012, after the Harper government publicly tagged some environmental charities as radicals and money-launderers and possibly linked to terrorists. The federal budget that year earmarked $8 million for the special audits, later increased to more than $13 million through to 2017.

Audit net widens

The first wave of such audits hit environmental charities, but the net has since been widened to capture human-rights organizations, anti-poverty groups, international-aid and religious groups. Other labour-supported charities have been targeted previously, including CoDev and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Many charities undergoing political-activity audits have been outspoken against Harper government policies, and the audits have tied them in knots, draining resources. At least one group has lost its coveted charitable status, while others report self-censoring their public statements for fear of aggravating the auditors.

'They would see us as a thorn in their side.'— Steelworkers president Ken Neumann

The Canada Revenue Agency, however, says its choice of which charities to audit is made at arm's length from government, with no input from any cabinet minister, including Revenue Minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay. The agency declined comment on the Steelworkers audit.

The United Steelworkers' Canadian arm has frequently butted heads with the Conservative government over issues such as perceived lack of support for the manufacturing sector and what it sees as anti-labour policies.

The Steelworkers' charity draws largely on a one-cent-an-hour donation from union members, worth between $20 and $40 annually from workers, who can also opt out.

The fund gives about two per cent of its annual revenues to the non-charitable Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability, an umbrella group that includes faith groups, environmental NGOs and others, and is avowedly political, working to hold mining companies accountable in Canada for overseas misbehaviour.

Revenue Minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay has repeatedly rejected any suggestion that she directs which charities the Canada Revenue Agency will audit for their political activities. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Under the tax agency rules, charities can devote up to 10 per cent of their resources to political activities, and the Steelworkers' charity fund reports no political activities other than its small role in the CNCA, worth two per cent of all expenses.

The audit is looking specifically at the fund's formal agreements with the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability, as well as any "non-partisan actions concerning the retention, opposition or change to any law, policy or decisions of any level of government in any country."

Clashes with government

The network clashed with the Harper government as recently as last month, when it said a newly appointed ombudsman for corporate social responsibility was toothless, and that Canada needs tougher laws to deal with rogue mining companies.

"They would see us as a thorn in their side," said Neumann. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has "got his scope clearly on us. … These [audits] aren't random."

Last month, the charity Dying With Dignity had its charitable status annulled after a Canada Revenue Agency audit. And the charity Environmental Defence says it is appealing an adverse ruling from the agency after an audit.

The agency says that, as of March 31, it has completed 21 political-activity audits, with 28 still underway. Another 11 audits are to be started before the project ends in 2017. Officials will not identify any of the target charities because of the confidentiality provisions of the Income Tax Act.

So far, five charities have received notices of the agency's intention to revoke their charitable registration, while six have received education letters, and eight have been asked to sign compliance agreements for more grievous problems. There has also been one voluntary revocation, and one annulment, Dying With Dignity.

Follow @DeanBeeby on Twitter

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Feds say provinces won't hit their greenhouse gas targets

The federal environment minister has sent a letter to the provinces outlining how most of them are falling short of their targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

Leona Aglukkaq sent the letter Friday, a few days in advance of a provincial/territorial meeting on climate change in Quebec City.

The federal data shows that most provinces will not meet their 2020 targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

British Columbia and Alberta are the furthest behind. Ontario and Saskatchewan follow, with Quebec rounding out the top five.

When the provincial gaps are tallied up, they amount to 109 megatonnes, which is just 7 megatonnes short of the amount by which Canada will not meet its commitment for 2020.

New federal commitment

Aglukkaq also asked the provinces for more detail on what they plan to do after 2020.

Canada is putting together its new federal commitment in preparation of a world summit in Paris this December.

Many other countries have already published their post-2020 promises, including the U.S. and Russia. Aglukkaq says she needs more detail from the provinces and territories about their plans.

"There continues to be ongoing engagement between our officials to collect these inputs," she writes, adding, "That said, we have not yet received information for the post-2020 period at a level of detail that would satisfy the expectation of the Lima Call for Climate Action."

This weekend while on a trip to Panama, Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised to have Canada's commitment ready by the upcoming G7 summit in June.

"We wanted to wait for awhile to, at least, give the provinces the chance to have the conference they're going to have and address some of their own target issues and we want to see the outcomes of that," he told reporters. 

Dale Marshall, a program manager with Environmental Defence, said that the bulk of Canada's efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions have been done at the provincial level. Aglukkaq's letter is an attempt to draw attention away the federal government's failures, he said. 

"For those provinces to now be turned to by the federal government and asked, 'What are you going to do for us now?' seems irresponsible. For the letter to come this late ... seems very much like a deflection away from the federal government and it's repsonsibilities."

Cap-and-trade agreement

The letter also comes on the eve of an expected announcement from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. CBC News has learned she will sign an agreement on Monday to join Quebec in a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In a statement sent to CBC News Sunday evening, Ontario's Environment Minister Glen Murray said "Canada needs a federal government that is willing to work with provinces."

The cap-and-trade system Wynne is expected to implement allows companies to either limit their emissions or buy credits from companies that have.

Quebec implemented its cap-and-trade system in January.  To date $190 million worth of credits to reduce emissions have been purchased by companies.

Quebec's operates its system with California. Monday's announcement means that Ontario, Quebec and California could set up a joint system to allow companies to trade their emissions between all three jurisdictions.

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Mike Duffy trial, Day 5

Live Blog

By Kady O'Malley, CBC News Posted: Apr 13, 2015 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 13, 2015 5:00 AM ET

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The House

• Week One of the Mike Duffy trial Apr. 11, 2015 2:01 PM This week on The House, with week one of the Mike Duffy trial now in the books, we break down the first week of proceedings and the political implications of the case with the CBC's Terry Milewski, Radio-Canada's Emmanuelle Latraverse, the former law clerk of the House of commons Rob Walsh and the Senate's longest-serving member Anne Cools.

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Mike Duffy trial: Senate expense rules, contracts to be focus in Week 2

The trial of Mike Duffy enters it second week in Ottawa today, with a Senate human resources official expected to testify on the rules of expense, and possibly shed some light on a $65,000 contract with the suspended senator's friend.

Sonia Makhlouf could provide some details on Duffy's contract with Gerald Donohue, who was hired by Duffy as an independent contractor.

Duffy has pleaded not guilty to all 31 charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust related to expenses he claimed as a senator.

In court documents, the RCMP has alleged that Duffy paid Donohue $65,000 for "little or no apparent work." Donohue is also expected to be a witness at the provincial court trial.

Entries in Duffy's diary, which has been entered into the court as an exhibit, reveals a reference to Makhlouf regarding the contract. 

On Dec. 21, 2010, Duffy writes he "faxes Gerry's contracts to Sonia." In a later entry, dated Dec. 30, Duffy writes: "hassle with Senate Finance re: Gerry Donohue's contract."

Duffy's lawyer, Donald Bayne, will likely continue his game plan to suggest Senate expenses rules lack clarity.

Last week, Bayne conducted an extensive cross-examination of Crown witness Mark Audcent, a former Senate law clerk, for nearly three days.

Bayne zeroed in on rules governing residency, travel and office expenses filed by members of the upper chamber, and repeatedly asked Audcent if these regulations were "broad."

Audcent admitted the rules carved out around residency, for example, do not include a clear definition of what constitutes a primary residence.

Residency is one of the core issues in the trial. Duffy designated his home in P.E.I as his primary residence and he maintains this made him eligible to claim meals and living expenses for his time spent in the capital.

The Crown argues P.E.I. is not Duffy's primary residence.

Author and journalist Dan Leger, who penned Duffy: Stardom to Senate to Scandal, says Audcent's testimony did not damage Duffy.

Suspended Senator Mike Duffy's trial started last week in Ottawa and is expected to run into June. (Greg Banning)

"The fact that Duffy emerged from that without any deep slashing wounds is probably a good sign for his defence," Leger told CBC News Network.

"The other major element in all of this is the tremendous document dump that has been done with the Duffy diaries, the expense logs and just mountains of documents people are going through in search of the real story."

The Duffy diaries, which were entered into evidence last week, give a rare window into the personal and political life of the embattled senator, including entries about movies and dinner companions.

The entries also shed light on the volume of Conservative functions attended by Duffy.

"Here was a senator who was essentially hired, if you will, by the Conservative government, by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to operate as a Conservative party fundraiser and sort of public relations man," Leger said. "This is what Mike Duffy did for a living."

Bayne emphasized Duffy's relationship with the government and the prime minister when he introduced a photo into evidence last week.

The photo signed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and dated June 11, 2009, carries the message: 'To Duff. A great journalist and a great senator. Thanks for being one of my best, hardest working appointments ever.' (CBC)

The picture, dated June 11, 2009, included a message from Stephen Harper, "To Duff. A great journalist and a great senator. Thanks for being one of my best, hardest working appointments ever."

Duffy's trial, which will be conducted in two phases, is set to run until at least June 19.

A forensic audit, ordered by the Senate, is also underway and an interim report is expected to be released this spring.

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