Ever since the trial of Mike Duffy began, I keep getting asked the same haunting question:
If Duffy is being charged with accepting a bribe, why wasn't Nigel Wright charged with bribing him by cutting him that $90,000 cheque?
And I have to explain that the RCMP has yet to explain that decision. But it seems that they didn't believe that Wright obtained any "personal benefit" from that blatant bribe to try to keep Ol' Duff from opening his big mouth.
And then I have to explain that yes it's true, and no I'm not insane, and since I'm not a lawyer, and legalese gives me headaches, I'm really glad to see that Democracy Watch is still demanding justice.
Today, Democracy Watch again called on the RCMP and Crown prosecutors to prosecute Nigel Wright, and PMO and Conservative Party officials who aided him, for bribing Senator Mike Duffy (instead of only prosecuting Duffy for accepting a bribe).
Democracy Watch also reaffirmed its plan to pursue a private prosecution if RCMP and Crown prosecutors continue to fail to uphold the law and cover up the reasons why Wright and others have not been charged.
And trying to explain to Canadians why they believe Wright and those other Cons in the PMO who were in on the deal should be charged:
In Democracy Watch’s opinion, the key legal measure for the prosecution is subsection 119(1) of the Criminal Code, which prohibits even offering (as well as giving) “corruptly” any benefit to any public official “in respect of” any action or inaction by the official in their capacity as a public official (even if the official never acts). This subsection also prohibits the public official from even attempting to obtain (as well as obtaining) the benefit. And under section 21 of the Criminal Code, it is a violation to aid or abet anyone in violating any prohibition in the Code, and under section 24 it is a violation to attempt to violate any prohibition in the Code.
Democracy Watch’s opinion is that to violate subsection 119(1) there does not have to be a “corrupt bargain” or a trading of favours between the person who offers or gives the benefit and the public official attempting to obtain or receiving the benefit. All that is needed for a violation is for the benefit to be given in a corrupt way (for example, in secret with a commitment to keep it secret), and for the benefit to be “in respect of” actions or inactions by the official.
Because although I can understand why the RCMP might hesitate to lay charges, faced with the unusual fact that Wright paid the bribe out of his own pocket.
When you boil that legalese down into ordinary English or Canadian, the facts seem clear to me.
Wright and his PMO accomplices may not have received a financial benefit. But they are all right-wing fanatics, they lived for their party and their depraved leader. So by protecting him and their party from scandal, they were helping to keep the Cons in office.
And by keeping their jobs, and their power, they were in fact giving themselves a personal benefit.
But of course it was probably another consideration that determined the RCMP's final decision. One that had nothing to do with subsection 119(1).
And that is because they surely knew if they charged Wright, the spotlight would inevitably come to focus on his shadowy boss...
And that could possibly bring down his government, they simply chickened out.
Or submitted to their Con masters...
The sinister right-wing extremists who are trying to turn this country into a police state.
And the good news? I wouldn't be surprised if Duffy's lawyer brings up the decision not to charge Wright when he gets a chance to cross examine him. Or if he also asks the RCMP to explain their decision. If only to reinforce his claim that his client was treated unfairly.
Which at the end of a trial which would by then have exposed the innards of the PMO, would make sure it ends with a bang.
So if the Cons had hoped that Canadians would lose interest in the trial as it went along, they would be sorely disappointed.
And the resulting explosion could rock Stephen Harper's foul regime to its very foundations, less than three months before the election.
And leave Great Leader in a very vulnerable position. Fiddling furiously for his survival.
Looking like a liar. Again.
Or just a ridiculous figure clinging pathetically to power...
And definitely good to go.
Isn't that a happy thought?
The more Stephen Harper gets dragged into the Duffy trial.
The easier it will be to destroy him...
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21 comments:
subsection 119(1) of the Criminal Code
Nails Nigel and the boys in the short pants in the PMO's office as well as Harper himself. Nothing not even an email goes down in the PMO without Harper knowing. Even if it is just guilt by association. He went to Panama not to attend but lick his wounds and decide upon which lily pad to leap on next.
Mogs
He leapt on one tiny lily pad. He said he had a long serious talk with Raul Castro. Really? And apparently we only have his word for that because he reported it himself to journalists. And we know what he is best at. Lies. Wonder if he told him that he was building a huge ugly atrocious monument to the victims of communism. Right in the middle of Ottawa on property that was to be used to build a building name the Pierre
Elliot Trudeau building. Bet not.
Who in their "right mind" would hand over a $90,000 cheque for Nothing??????????????????? They All lie through their teeth..........but the sharks are going to get them! haha
I've been of the belief all along that he was not charged to maintain his credibility as a Crown witness. He would hardly be the first person to have also broken the criminal code who was not charged by the Crown so as to nail what is seen as the main target of an investigation. One of the things we all in the political realm need to keep in mind is the Crown will have approached this as a criminal prosecution of Duffy, not the political trial of the Harper government, and therefore will have made decisions accordingly. Indeed, I find the silence on the reason why Wright was not charge from the RCMP may be the Crown trying to preserve whatever credibility Wright has left by not even suggesting this is the reason, this is something MoS believes the Crown/RCMP would have made public already, me, I'm not so sure.
I also have as a second possibility, albeit a much lower possibility that Wright is being preserved credibility wise because the Crown will as a part of the Duffy trial from their own investigations be building a larger case to prosecute afterwards of the Harper machine, possibly Harper himself, and if so then preserving Wright's credibility is vital, and also would be the LAST thing the RCMP/Crown would want to telegraph ahead of time.
I cannot believe that the RCMP/Crown would not understand just how difficult it would be for the average citizen to understand how the bribee gets charged but not the briber. That they would not understand just how much in as high profile a case as this one what kind of credibility issues it would raise on the entire process. So why do it? I have to believe either they have some really good reasoning behind it, or I have to believe that the legal system in both enforcement and prosecution is so completely corrupted and controlled by the Harper regime that it is already the Harper State in full, and as much corruption I have seen of government institutions by Harper to date I am unwilling to go that far. I might buy the leadership of the RCMP being so, but the wider force, not yet, and as for the Crowns of this nation, again, the courts are the one area Harper has had the hardest time corrupting, so I have to believe that what we are seeing here is not because the courts are already in Harper's pockets so completely that if this was happening there wouldn't have been some true believers in due process leaking it somewhere already.
I know, for someone with as much railing about how Harper is the Destroyer and Salter of the Scorched Earth that I do for me to seem hopeful and positive thinking this way may seem odd, but there you go.
Just look at how the RCMP handled the Dziekanski murder. Or their announced investigation of Ralph Goodale. Or their mishandling of the Picton case.
I don't see any concerns about preserving Nigel Wright's "credibility" in order to prosecute Duffy. Especially for some larger case against harper himself.
Nigel Wright gets away with it, the same way Michael Bryant gets away with it. Their elite white males.
The RCMP has no real concern for appearing to be brazenly, blatantly corrupt servants of stephen harper. The same way the Canadian Forces top generals disgrace themselves on a routine basis for him. There's some kind of psychotic culture among those sorts that makes them craven "Conservative" supporters.
Wright wasn't charged because the RCMP wants to limit the punishment to Duffy. If they wanted to prosecute harper, they've got more than enough evidence to charge all those fuckers in the PMO. Offering money to a Senator for ANY benefit (not just a personal one) is illegal. There are other laws against paying money for something that isn't a personal benefit, but the law is pretty clear about bribing a Senator.
Our elites just don't care. They're pretty sure most Canadians don't care either.
how often do we see the 1%ers go to trial for anything in this country?
Duffy wasn't a 1%ers. He may have had a life style similar to them, but he wasn't one of them. Now stevie isn't exactly one of them, but he serves their purposes. When he no longer does, watch him be kicked to the curb. When big oil and China see he no longer serves their purposes, he too will go. He just is too irogant to know better.
When the Crown is deciding whom to charge and not to, a large % of weight is given to the chance of conviction. If they don't think they will have a chance of conviction, they don't charge. In this case, they knew they had a better chance of convicting Duffy, because they could paint him any colour they wanted to. Nigel, that was another show. he exited stage right to England. he doesn't have to come back if he doesn't want to and they won't extradite him either. Why do you think he is testifying from England?
We don't know if Nigel Wright made a deal with the RCMP either, now do we. He may have provided "information" regarding the inter workings of the PMO which may or may not be used at some future date should it be necessary for other purposes.
The "staging" of Duffy's trial has more to do with political agenda's than with what Duffy did or didn't do. With this "trial" and the "audits" Stevie and slimers may well make a case for eliminating the senate. Then its just stevie and his slimers running the show. Given what has transpired it might be easier than any time in history to get rid of the senate. No bothersome worry of having to have legislation pass a senate which isn't happy with a P.M. No need to appoint friend to a senate and have to play around with all that entails.
Duffy had been trying for a Senate seat for years. He finally did a big enough favour for some one to get the appointment. When his usefulness was over, time to get rid of him. Duffy just didn't know he wasn't one of the "boys". he was just a hanger on.
When Robert Fife broke the story of the Wright-Duffy deal on the May 14/13 CTV National News, the PMO and Duffy's lawyer released IDENTICAL statements.
Yet Harper said in the House he only learned of the deal on the morning of May 15 by Wright himself.
No one in the PMO thought it might be a good idea to phone, text, or email Harper to tell him to watch Fife's May 14 report that evening, to give him a heads up?
I wonder if the RCMP has obtained a list of phone records or text messages between Harper and Wright for May 14 and May 15.
Mike Duffy made secret deal with Harper's chief of staff during audit (May 14, 2013)
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/mike-duffy-made-secret-deal-with-harper-s-chief-of-staff-during-audit-1.1282015
Nigel Wright wrote Duffy a $90,000.00 cheque, to keep Duffy quiet.Quiet about his expense problems. Duffy did not think he owed the money, because of the vague senate rules. Once it became public, Duffy was told he'd have to pay the money. Duffy didn't have the money so Nigel wrote him a cheque and Duffy was told to shut-up and rehearsed on what he should and shouldn't say to the media.The RCMP did not charge him I think, because where possible, the RCMP does what Harper wants.
Smells like BC Rail: really bad.
As I have said before it was the imaculate bribe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohOtDA3dTAA
Take me there where the children of tomorrow share our dreams of a better life no corporations no 1% where everyone is truly equal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0G1Ucw5HDg
You can check in anytime you like but you can never leave.
WWIII is looming depending on who you read Benji and Steve's sabre rattling are egging it on so who is the terrorist now?
https://www.google.ca/#q=canada%27s+arms+sales+yearly+to+foreign+nations
How does selling weaponry lead to peace? It just leads to more firepower. Harper is will be and always been a chronic liar...
Mogs
hi Mogs...you know, I've never done Harper as a bull frog sitting on a lily pad, but there is always a first time...;)
hi anon...well apparently he did have a short chat with Castro, because the CBC got the picture from the Cuban Communist Party. And judging from his body language it must have been as awkward as his first encounter. What Harper doesn't seem to realize is that millions of Canadians vacation in Cuba, like me they love the Cubans, and his Cold War view of them and their country couldn't be more alien or less Canadian...
hi Kathleen...yes exactly, he did hand over the money for a reason, it wasn't charity, and it was done for the good of Wright's party and his precious leader, so he and all those who helped should be charged...
hi Scotian...I'd like to believe that they didn't charge Wright to preserve his credibility as a witness, but I'm afraid I hold to my view that they simply chickened out. They have admitted that they agonized about the decision, but having already influenced the result of one election, the didn't want to be seen to be influencing another. But that of course is the charitable view. For the RCMP like some of our top generals also seem only too eager to please the Cons, and seem to be forgetting that they are supposed to work for the Canadian people NOT the government in power...
hi thwap...I find your arguments very persuasive, but still can't decide whether they are merely incompetent or scared out of their minds, or whether they are collaborating with the Harper in the hope of getting more powers and influence. It is however extremely disturbing that we should have to ask these questions in a country like Canada. If you or I had committed a similar offence there is no doubt where we would be. And all I can say is that when the Cons are finally defeated I want a complete investigation into how the RCMP, the army, and agencies like Revenue Canada behaved during some of the darkest years in our history. Did they struggle to be independent or were they brazen collaborators? Because if we are to remain a democracy those questions must be asked. And if they are guilty they must be punished in an exemplary manner...
hi e.a.f...yes I'm afraid you're right too. There does seem to be two standards in this country one for the rich, and one for the rest of us. And I think you're right, I notice that James Moore has been making noises about changing the Senate. But of course it's easier said than done, and nothing will change the fact that Harper corrupted the place more than any other Prime Minister before him, with the worst appointments ever seen. If the Senate really was a place where decent distinguished Canadians could add their voices to the democratic debate, and it really was a chamber of sober second thought I could see some value in keeping it. But it's become a place for political hacks and bagmen to be feted, so it should be abolished...
hi David...all good questions but I'm not sure the RCMP ever dared look in that direction. So we will have to rely on the e-mails to give us an idea how the PMO works, and just how much information Wright conveyed to his boss. And I will never believe that after the way the PMO was convulsed with the Duffy problem, that Stephen Harper did not know about the deal. But then all it would take would be one e-mail to prove he did know, and his goose would be cooked. So I am keeping my fingers crossed...
hi Pamela...as I tried to do in my post, and as you do here, when you put it into ordinary English there can be no doubt that a bribe was paid to keep Duffy quiet, and protect Harper, so it should be a crime. As I've told the others I don't know whether the RCMP is in Harper's pocket, but it sure does look like it...
hi Hugh...I'm not familiar with the BC Rail case, but you're right something is not quite right. And I fear we may only find out after the Cons are defeated. But if anyone who should be working for Canadians is found to have been working for the Cons, they must be severely punished if only to dissuade others from ever doing the same thing...
hi Steve...I am told that Wright has higher moral standards than the gang he was working for, but when you lie with crooks and fraud artists their stench does tend to rub off on you...
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