Mike Duffy trial: Senator shopped for puppy during expensed trip, court hears

A Quebec dog breeder testified at the Mike Duffy trial in Ottawa on Tuesday that the suspended senator spoke to her at a 2010 dog show in Peterborough, Ont. about acquiring a puppy.

France Godbout, president of the Kerry Blue Terrier Club of Canada, said she briefly met with Duffy and his wife at the dog show and that he said they were looking for a Kerry blue terrier puppy. 

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Godbout said Duffy handed her his business card and asked her to let him know if she had something available later on.

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 on April 7 in the Ontario Court of Justice in Ottawa, resumed Monday following the three-week break. The case had been slated for 41 days, but both the Crown and defence made it clear during the trial they would need more time. The second part of the trial is scheduled to end June 19.

The Crown has accused Duffy of filing expense claims for events not related to parliamentary work. This includes $698, which the Crown alleges was for a trip he took with his wife to the dog show to buy a Kerry blue terrier.

"They did not get one from me. But they were certainly looking for one," Godbout said.

But Duffy's lawyer Donald Bayne questioned Godbout's memory of the events, saying she was trying to recall a conversation more than five years after the fact.

"We're talking about a few minutes of a casual conversation five years ago?" Bayne asked.

"Yes," Godbout said.

"And you have and would be able to offer no evidence whatsoever​ as to why he was in Peterborough at all that weekend?" Bayne asked.

"No," she said.

​The Crown has spent some time focusing on this trip.

During the first part of the trial that began in April, court heard from Louise Lang, secretary of the Kerry Blue Terrier Club of Canada, and Barbara Thompson, a New Brunswick Kerry blue terrier breeder, who testified that Duffy and his wife, Heather, purchased a puppy from her home in New Brunswick in January 2011. Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro had also testified that Duffy told him he was in town for a dog show in 2010 when they met at a Tim Hortons in Peterborough.

Earlier today, Bill Rodgers, a former Parliament Hill journalist and one-time Conservative staffer,  resumed his testimony that was cut short by the three-week hiatus.

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Rodgers, who also goes by the last name Kittelberg, had previously testified he received a cheque payment in 2012 from Duffy after the two had conversations about a number of issues, including climate change, aboriginal affairs and water quality.

Rodgers had said he did not expect any payment, and that he didn't believe it was necessary because he and Duffy were friends. But Duffy said he was going to check with his friend Gerald Donohue as to whether there was any money left.

Court has heard that Donohue had been awarded a series of Senate research contracts with Duffy worth nearly $65,000. The RCMP has said Donohue received the money for "little or no apparent work." Instead, the Crown alleges, that pool of money was used by Duffy to pay for some inappropriate or non-parliamentary services — expenses, the Crown believes, wouldn't have been covered by the Senate.

Cheques signed by Donohue to pay for those services came from either Maple Ridge Media, or later Ottawa ICF, companies owned by Donohue's family, court has heard.​

On Tuesday, under cross-examination by Bayne, Rodgers said he had given advice to Duffy on a range of issues over many months.

"It was to advance his knowledge on those issues so he could discuss them with his colleagues?" Bayne asked. "Yes," Rodgers said.

"This was not... a matter of personal benefit or advance to Senator Duffy, but rather advance in his role as a senator?" Bayne asked. "Exactly," Rodgers said.

Rodgers also confirmed that in his statement to the police, he had said that Duffy's view was the advice he had given him was "invaluable" to him as a senator.