Suspended Senator Mike Duffy arrives at the courthouse for his trial in Ottawa Monday, April 20, 2015.SEAN KILPATRICK/The Canadian Press
One man from Prince Edward Island says he sent newspaper clippings and family updates to suspended senator Mike Duffy. Another says he edited speeches and did research. Both were paid by a company owned by one of Mr. Duffy's friends.
David McCabe, a cousin of Mr. Duffy, testified on Monday during the suspended senator's trial that he started sending him tidbits of news from PEI when Mr. Duffy was still a broadcaster and continued to do so after his Senate appointment. "I thought he would be interested in what was happening on the island," Mr. McCabe said.
Some of the material that he scanned and then e-mailed to Mr. Duffy was pulled from the Charlottetown Guardian and another community newspaper. Some was more personal, such as "pictures of my brother's kid's soccer team" or news about a family member winning a chess tournament.
Mr. McCabe said he did not ask for compensation from Mr. Duffy and was not expecting any. But, in 2010, he received a cheque for $500 from a company called Maple Ridge Media, which is owned by Gerald Donohue, a long-time friend of Mr. Duffy.
Mr. McCabe told the court he had never met Mr. Donohue and had to ask Mr. Duffy who sent the money and why. Mr. Duffy explained it was for all of the scanning he had done, said Mr. McCabe.
Mr. Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges in relation to his Senate living and travel claims, his contracts with Mr. Donohue and allegations of bribery.
The Crown is trying to make the case that Mr. Duffy sometimes asked Mr. Donohue to pay questionable expenses through Maple Ridge Media, then had the government pay Maple Ridge.
The court also heard Monday from Peter McQuaid, who met Mr. Duffy at social functions in Ottawa when he worked for former Conservative premier Pat Binns.
Mr. McQuaid lost his job in the premier's office when the Liberals won the PEI election in 2007 and went to work at his family's gas station in Souris, but also started a consulting company.
When Mr. Duffy became a senator, Mr. McQuaid edited some of his speeches for small audiences on the island, kept the senator up to date on island news and did two research projects for him.
Much of the consulting work was "sporadic," Mr. McQuaid explained, consisting of phone calls every couple of weeks. So he submitted his invoices only once a year, charging Mr. Duffy at the rate of $125 an hour.
The first invoice from Mr. McQuaid, in the amount of $2,887.50, was paid in 2009 by the Senate.
But in 2010, he told the court, Mr. Duffy said Senate money was tight and he "talked about how he couldn't do it though the Senate, but he'd find another way to do it." That year, a cheque for $2,881 arrived from Maple Ridge Media.
Under cross-examination from Mr. Duffy's attorney, Donald Bayne, Mr. McQuaid agreed he performed exactly the same job for Mr. Duffy in all three years at exactly the same rate of pay. And, in two of those years, the Senate approved his invoices.
Mr. Bayne also pointed out that Senate bureaucrats agreed in writing that Mr. McQuaid could have billed the government for more money than he requested on his invoices. "You billed a fair fee for honest work done?" Mr. Bayne asked McQuaid.
"That is what I tried to do, yes," replied Mr. McQuaid.
The trial continues Tuesday.