In addition to the expenses for which he stands accused of fraud, Sen. Mike Duffy topped up his $132,000 annual Senate salary by charging as much as $15,000 per event to speak to lobby groups and trade associations.
The suspended senator’s calendar, entered into evidence in his ongoing trial on fraud, breach of trust and bribery charges, records numerous references to speaking gigs with organizations representing car dealers, agricultural industry groups, police services boards and municipalities.
During cross-examination last Thursday, Crown prosecutor Mark Holmes pressed Duffy for details of speaking events he performed after his appointment to the upper chamber.
Duffy’s speaking work was featured in a 2012 Citizen report that showed, nearly three years after his Senate appointment, that he was continuing to offer his services as a paid orator through two speaker booking agencies, The Speakers Spotlight and the National Speakers Bureau.
At the time, Duffy told the Citizen he did “very little” paid speaking and that it had all been approved by the Senate ethics officer.
Until his calendar became public through the trial and testimony, the number and identity of the organizations and the fees they paid him were not known.
Based on calendar references and his testimony in court, the Citizen has identified at least $91,000 in speaking fees paid to Duffy by 11 different groups since he became a senator, and four other events that were arranged through a speakers’ agency but where the amount of fees paid, if any, is unknown.
Two of these groups have confirmed they paid Duffy but either would not or could not say how much.
We were questioning whether or not it was appropriate to have Duffy receive compensation while he was a publicly paid senator
Some of the events were booked before Duffy was named to the Senate in late December 2008.
While MPs and senators are allowed to earn extra money on the speaking circuit, the practice of parliamentarians charging for work similar to their official duties has become contentious. In 2013, the Conservatives repeatedly denounced then-Liberal MP Justin Trudeau when the Citizen reported he had accepted payment for numerous speeches after he became an MP but before he ran for his party’s leadership.
Multiple notations in Duffy’s calendar refer to events with the citation “MDMS” — in reference to Mike Duffy Media Services Inc., which he described in his 2012 Senate conflict-of-interest declaration as “a corporation involved in media consulting and public appearances.”
During cross-examination last week, Duffy said he had formed MDMS when he worked as journalist, long before he became a senator.
In February 2009, the month after he was sworn in, Duffy travelled to Saskatoon where he gave two speeches, one to the annual meeting of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association for $10,000, and another to Junior Achievement, which promotes youth entrepreneurship, for another $5,000. Duffy told the court Thursday that he donated the fees from the Junior Achievement speech because he felt it was his “new-found duty as a senator.”
SUMA agreed to pay for Duffy’s airfare, hotel, meals, ground transportation and parking.
The speech had been booked before Duffy had been appointed to the Senate but SUMA was uncertain about paying a sitting parliamentarian to speak, said CEO Laurent Mougeot.
“We were questioning whether or not it was appropriate to have Mr. Duffy receive compensation while he was a publicly paid senator,” Mougeot said.
Speaking events in Duffy’s calendar included:
February 24, 2009: Duffy spoke to the Ontario Association of University Registrars. Duffy’s calendar includes the notation “$8K plus GST.” This speech and the others in 2009 were booked before Duffy became a senator, Duffy confirmed during his cross-examination.
April 20, 2009: Canadian Automobile Association, at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa. Listed in Duffy’s calendar, with the notation “Kelly@Speakers Spotlight $5K net.”
May 8, 2009: Canadian Paint and Coatings Association, at the Delta Ottawa. No reference to any fee in the calendar entry but it also listed Cassidy of the Speakers Group.
June 5, 2009: Canadian Roofing Contractors Association, at the Château Laurier hotel in Ottawa. Duffy was paid $10,000 for the speech, through Cassidy’s company, according to the association.
Jan. 23, 2011: Eastern Regional Medical Education Program, at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa. The group’s president, Dr. Ross McLean, said he was disappointed by Duffy’s address. “It was a rotten speech to be honest,” McLean said. “He hadn’t prepared.” Duffy was paid in the $5,000 to $10,000 range, McLean said, but didn’t want to provide an exact figure.
April 1, 2011: Canadian Real Estate Association, at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa. The calendar listed the event at “$8K” and referred to a contact at Speakers Spotlight.
May 25, 2011: Canadian Marketing Association, in Toronto. Duffy’s speech “was just general observations about Ottawa and politicians,” recalled CMA president John Gustavson, who said the group paid a $5,000 fee.
April 18, 2012: Ontario Association of Police Services Boards, in Ottawa. Duffy was hired through the National Speakers Bureau and paid $5,000 for the keynote speech, according to Kathy Wallace, the association’s administrator.
Oct. 3, 2012: The Government Finance Officers Association of Western Canada, at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Conference organizer Sam Weller says his group paid a $10,000 fee, plus Duffy’s travel expenses, through the National Speakers Bureau.
Eventually the association elected to go ahead with the speech. Duffy’s address drew a mixed reaction, and was more political than Mougeot had expected when he booked Duffy the broadcast journalist, Mougeot said.
“He came in with a very politically charged message.”
Mougeot said that Saskatchewan Sen. Pamela Wallin did not charge a fee when she spoke to the association in 2011. Instead, she accepted the group’s offer to make a $1,500 donation to a charity of her choice, the Military Families Fund, and reimbursement for her hotel and meals.
Between 2009 and 2012, Duffy continued making speeches to trade associations and, in one case, a labour union, in addition to his Senate work. Duffy stopped charging for speeches after the Citizen reported that he and several other senators were listed with professional speakers’ bureaus.
His calendar shows events that refer to the speakers’ booking agencies. Some have notations indicating fees ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 per event; some do not mention fees and it is unknown if he was paid.
Duffy did not respond to an email sent by the Citizen in April asking about the speaking work, but his lawyer, Donald Bayne, replied that his client could not comment because of his ongoing criminal trial.
Bayne called the email to Duffy about his speaking engagements “mean and petty” and said it “can only be intended as a cheap shot which it was, and not worthy of any journalist with integrity.”
On Friday, in response to a followup inquiry sent by email, Bayne replied, “Sen. Duffy cannot reasonably be expected to comment on matters and evidence still very much before the court and awaiting the judge’s decision. At an appropriate time, Sen. Duffy may well be willing to answer your inquiries.”
The calendar shows three agriculture trade groups booked Duffy to speak, including the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
Duffy was a member of the Senate agriculture and forestry committee when, in October 2010, he gave the keynote speech at the CFA’s 75th anniversary dinner at the Château Laurier hotel in Ottawa, with a reported 23 MPs and senators in attendance.
During the trial, Duffy said he was a last-minute fill-in at the event for CBC commentator Rex Murphy.
Duffy was paid $15,000 for the speech, according to CFA director of communications Jessica Goodfellow.
In court, Duffy said he commissioned the writing of an essay from writer Nils Ling and edited it before delivering it as a speech. Ling was paid through a company run by Duffy’s friend, Gerald Donahue, the court heard. Duffy maintained during his testimony that he had commissioned an essay and that taxpayers paid for it because it was posted on his Senate website.
One entry in the calendar shows Duffy travelled to Edmonton in June 2012 to speak to the Alberta Association of Food Processors. His keynote speech at the Marriott River Creek hotel was titled, “Ottawa Insider’s view of how political realities will affect our industry both now and in the future.”
The association paid the speakers’ bureau a $10,000 fee and booked and paid his travel costs, according to its general manager, Melody Pashko.
As the event in Edmonton conflicted with a Conservative caucus meeting in Ottawa, a reminder was left in Duffy’s calendar to send a note to an assistant to national caucus chair Guy Lauzon about his absence.
On Dec. 4, 2012, Duffy travelled to Toronto to give a speech at the Royal York hotel to members of Ontario Agricultural Businesses Association.
Ron Campbell, the member services co-ordinator for the group, said Duffy had spoken to the association before he became a senator and they decided to invite him back. Duffy was booked through a speakers’ bureau and paid a fee for the 2012 speech, Campbell said, but he couldn’t recall the amount.
Three days after the May 2011 election, Duffy collected a $10,000 fee for a speech to the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association at an event honouring a group of dealers who had won awards for community service. The event was held in a Senate committee room that the association had booked for its meeting.
At the time, the CADA was registered to lobby government on budget measures related to automobile taxation, greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, and making more credit available to car dealers and their customers. The organization never lobbied Duffy personally, either before or after the speech.
Despite the Conservative government’s sometimes combative relations with organized labour, Duffy didn’t seem squeamish about speaking to a union group. In September 2009, his calendar showed, he gave an MDMS speech to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Prince Edward Island. The entry referred to Marilyn Cassidy, who booked speaking events for Duffy through her agency, the Speakers Group, but no fee is cited.
In court, Duffy said he spoke about “the news” and that his speech was a tribute to IBEW vice-president Phil Flemming, who was leaving his job. The event was also booked before Duffy entered the Senate.
When the Citizen reported in December 2012 that Duffy was offering his services through speakers’ agencies, he said in an email, “Everything I do on the public appearance circuit (very little) is with the knowledge and approval of the ethics counsellor.”
In her 2013-14 annual report, the Senate ethics officer said that senators can accept honorariums for speaking, but only if their participation in the conference is not related to their parliamentary functions.
“However, the senator may accept an honorarium if the speech is given in connection with an outside or professional activity, the expertise was acquired before the senator was appointed to the Senate, and the honorarium cannot reasonably be seen to have been given to influence the senator,” the report says.
In court, Duffy asserted that he gave “entertaining” speeches that were about news and current affairs.
Duffy’s profile with one booking agency — which has since been removed — promoted him as “a Canadian Senator and former Canadian television journalist.”
Duffy “provides delegates with a must-have primer on the key political issues of the day,” the profile said, promising that he “combines the latest buzz from ‘inside Ottawa’ with rollicking political humour, to provide a unique and memorable presentation you won’t want to miss.”
With files from Kady O’Malley, Ottawa Citizen