Senate to claw back portion of Mike Duffy’s salary in latest expense dispute

OTTAWA — Sen. Mike Duffy is going to find his Senate paycheque will soon be a little lighter.

The Senate is going to start clawing back Duffy’s salary after the Prince Edward Island senator refused to repay almost $17,000 in disputed expense claims before Saturday’s deadline.

Duffy also opted against having an outside arbitrator hear arguments in the case.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Leo Housakos, chairman of the upper chamber’s internal economy committee, says the Senate must now garnishee Duffy’s salary under the dispute resolution policy set up in response to the auditor general’s audit.

Jacqui Delaney says the details of how much will be clawed back, and for how long, are still being worked out.

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The Senate previously withheld a percentage of Sen. Patrick Brazeau’s salary until the upper chamber recouped about $49,000 in disputed housing expenses.

Duffy was not immediately available for comment Monday.

The Senate decided last month that it wanted the money back after taking a second look at seven claims totalling $16,995. Senate officials said the action came about because of new information that “had surfaced in the public domain” during Duffy’s criminal trial.

The claims range from $10,000 for a personal trainer to $8 for personal photos.

Duffy’s lawyer told the Senate that the one-time Conservative senator’s spending was given the all-clear by an Ontario Court judge earlier this year when Duffy was acquitted of 31 criminal charges.

Lawyer Donald Bayne also said Duffy didn’t want to take part in the arbitration process because he does not want to “legitimize” a process that is “an improper collateral attack” on the judge’s verdict.

The Canadian Press