Mike Duffy pre-signed Senate travel expense claims, court hears

Suspended Senator Mike Duffy pre-signed a stack of blank travel claims before any details about trips had been provided on the documents, his former executive assistant testified on Monday.

• Mike Duffy trial: Appearance at fair cancelled over expense fees, ex-MP says
• Read Kady O'Malley's live blog from court
• Mike Duffy trial: Attending funerals part of senators' responsibilities, court hears

Under questioning by Crown prosecutor Mark Holmes, Melanie Mercer said that they had a "different process" in their office. She said that Duffy signed the forms before details had been entered, even though, she admitted, he was supposed to sign it after to certify the claims. 

But Mercer said executive assistants from other Senate offices had suggested to her to have Duffy sign a stack of blank travel claim forms, because "that's what they did in their office to help expedite the process for filing claims."

​Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery related to expenses he claimed as a senator and later repaid with money from the prime minister's former chief of staff Nigel Wright. The trial, which began April 7 in the Ontario court of justice in Ottawa, is in its 28th day. 

She said since Duffy was going to be travelling quite a bit, it made sense to have some pre-signed claims, and he was in agreement, Mercer testified.

"How did you feel about that?" Holmes asked.

"At the time I didn't think anything of it. I thought it would be practical, that it would be efficient in filing the paper work."

Mercer said she couldn't recall just how many claim forms she'd have Duffy sign at once, but noted that after he went through a package, she'd be "set for a while." 

Mercer said there was nothing "malicious behind this" and that it was just an effort "to stay on top of things.

"I received the information from him, I would fill out the form, and everything coincided at the time —  the dates of travel, receipts, everything matched."

Mercer testified that she would fill out the claims either based on information supplied by Duffy or details from his organizer.

She said if there were any errors, one of her contacts at Senate finance would be able catch them and notify her. (Indeed, Holmes showed a series of travel claims in which Mercer had made errors).

Mercer also testified that she never told the finance official that Duffy was pre-certifying the travel claims.

"Did you think it was appropriate to do it this way?" Holmes asked.

'I didn't feel it was a major issue'

"I think because the other office was doing it, I didn't feel it was a major issue," she said.

Court has already heard of trips Duffy took that the Crown alleges were for either personal or partisan reasons and should not have been expensed to the Senate.

Earlier, Mercer testified that she wasn't aware of the services being provided to Duffy by a number of individuals who later received cheques for those services through a Duffy associate.

She said she didn't know what had been provided by George Radwanski, who received a $500 cheque for editorial work. She also had never heard of David McCabe, a cousin of Duffy's, who received a $500 cheque for media monitoring.

Although former Sun News host Ezra Levant's name was mentioned as someone who might be brought on for speech writing, she said didn't know at the time that Levant had written speeches for Duffy. (Levant received $4,200 for two speeches.)

Nor had she heard of the name Mike Croskery, a personal fitness trainer, who received more than $10,000 for what Duffy claimed were consulting services, but also included workout sessions

All these individuals had received cheques from Gerald Donohue. The former Duffy associate had been awarded a series of Senate research contracts with Duffy worth nearly $65,000 — contracts that Mercer herself had reviewed.

The RCMP has said Donohue received the money for "little or no apparent work." The Crown alleges that pool of money was used by Duffy to pay for a series of expenses. The Crown contends that some of those expenses would not have been covered by the Senate.