Ottawa courthouse braces for Mike Duffy trial

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The Ottawa courthouse is preparing for an onslaught of spectators at the criminal trial of Sen. Mike Duffy.

The trial starts April 7 as the suspended senator faces 31 criminal charges over his Senate expense claims. Bracing for the onslaught of reporters and onlookers, the courthouse sent out a notice Thursday saying that it will be using its largest courtroom, and providing some seating in an overflow room, with a limited space set aside for journalists covering the high-profile trial.

Justice Charles Vaillancourt, brought in from Toronto, will run the trial. Crown attorneys Mark Holmes and Jason Neubauer will lay out the Crown’s case on 31 criminal charges, including fraud, breach of trust and two bribery charges stemming from a $90,000 payment Duffy received from Nigel Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff.

The Crown is calling a host of Conservatives on Parliament Hill to testify against the suspended senator, including current and past officials from the PMO. Top senators are also expected to take the stand for the Crown.

Duffy’s lawyer, Donald Bayne, is expected to zero in on ambiguity in the rules of the Senate as a central focus in his defence. Among the people Bayne has subpoenaed is an auditor from the firm KPMG. Two years ago, KPMG identified problems in the spending rules, a conclusion also reached by outside auditors from Deloitte who reviewed Duffy’s spending.

The trial is scheduled for 41 days. But given the number of witnesses and the volume of documents submitted – there remain hundreds of pages of emails the RCMP have yet to make public in its case against Duffy – the trial could last beyond its scheduled end date of June 19.

jpress@ottawacitizen.com
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