Mike Duffy trial: Attending funerals part of senators' responsibilities, court hears

The lawyer for Mike Duffy defended a series of funerals his client attended and expensed for thousands of dollars, suggesting that it was part of his "regional responsibilities" as a senator.

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.

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According to the RCMP charge sheet, some of the charges Duffy faces include those related to "inappropriate expense claims associated with personal attendance at funerals and related ceremonies."

Duffy is alleged to have filed at least five travel expense claims between April 2009 and March 2012 for these funerals and ceremonies. 

Court heard today about three funerals Duffy attended in P.E.I. — one for Robert LeClair, a former polling captain in P.E.I,  one for Cliff Stewart, a Second World War vet and former spy, and one for Isobel DeBlois, a descendent of George Coles, a Father of Confederation. The travel expenses to attend the funerals totalled more than $7,000.

Duffy read scripture for the funeral of LeClair and gave a eulogy at the funeral of DeBlois, who was also a friend of Duffy's mother, court heard.

Thane Arsenault, who was coached by LeClair in high school basketball, was asked by Duffy's lawyer Donald Bayne if he was "aware that it's well recognized that senators have regional responsibilities?"

"Yes," Arsenault said.

"And funerals are an important public paying of respect to community members?" Bayne asked. "I would like to think so," Arsenault replied.

Bayne also highlighted the accomplishments of those who had died, suggesting their prominence justified Duffy's presence at their funerals.

Stewart, who had trained at Camp X, the Canadian spy training camp, was a "special man for many reasons, would you agree with that," Bayne asked Myrna Sanderson, a friend of Stewart.

"One hundred per cent," she said.

"My family, when we saw Senator Duffy at the funeral, we thought that he was representing the federal government to honour this man," she added. "That was our feeling. Not because he was Cliff's friend but because he was representing the government."

Bayne took the same tactic when cross-examining Alison Swan, funeral director of MacLean Funeral Home Swan Chapel in Charlottetown, who had been asked to testify about the funeral of DeBlois.

But Swan didn't seem ready to follow Bayne's narrative.

"In terms of P.E.I. life, we're talking about a woman who was part of a very important VIP-type family on the island, is that fair?" Bayne asked.

"I would suspect that would be fair in the earlier years. Yes," Swan said.

"If you're part of the descendants of one of the Fathers of Confederation, and the first premier of the province, you don't kind of lose that status over the years," Bayne said.

"Well, it could be debatable at times, Swann said, prompting laughter in the courtroom.

"All right," a somewhat dejected Bayne said, giving up on the point. "I'm certainly not going to argue with that because I don't know all the .. politics of the island."

The trial, which began April 7 in the Ontario Court of Justice in Ottawa, is into its 26th day. Court has already heard of previous trips Duffy took that the Crown alleges were for either personal or partisan reasons and should not have been expensed to the Senate.

But Bayne has countered that these trips were all related to parliamentary work, and that the expenses are justified