From the NationalPost.com

'Leave this room': Harper warns caucus amid promise to tighten Senate expense rules

Mark Kennedy, Postmedia News | 13/05/21

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday he is "not happy" with the actions of some Senators and with the conduct of his own office.

The message was delivered in a speech to the Conservative caucus on Parliament Hill, as the Senate expense scandal enveloped Harper's government.

"I did not get into politics to defend the Senate," said Harper.

He said that anyone who wants to use their public office for their own benefit should either leave office or exit the Conservative caucus.

"Let me be very blunt about it," Harper said Tuesday morning. "Anyone who wishes to use and have public office for their own benefit should change their plans or better yet, leave this room."

He reminded the caucus of a 2005 speech when he said that anyone planning to reap personal benefits from public life should change those plans or get out of the Conservative party.

Many in the caucus looked sombre as they awaited Harper's arrival, but they greeted his speech with an ovation.

Harper's office decided to briefly allow journalists into the closed-door meeting on Parliament Hill so they could record the prime minister's remarks before they were told to leave.

After reporters left, Tory MPs and senators were expected to grill Harper with questions over how the expense scandal in the upper chamber has escalated and how questions are now also focused on the involvement of the prime minister's former chief of staff Nigel Wright, who secretly paid Sen. Mike Duffy to repay his housing expenses. Wright resigned over the weekend because of the controversy connected to the affair.

Opposition parties are calling on Harper for a full explanation of what happened.

In his speech Tuesday, Harper focused on how the government must restore public trust in the Tories' long-standing promise to handle taxpayers' funds with care, and also to reiterate that Senate reform is long overdue.

Harper has not answered any questions on the scandal in recent days - a fact that is frustrating opposition parties who return to the House of Commons for question period Tuesday afternoon after a week-long break.

Section 17 (1) of the Senate Conflict of Interest code states: "Neither a Senator, nor a family member, shall accept ... any gift or other benefit, except compensation authorized by law, that could reasonably be considered to relate to the Senator's position."

Section 16 (1) of the Parliament of Canada Act states that "no member of the Senate shall receive or agree to receive any compensation, directly or indirectly, for services rendered ... in relation to any bill, proceeding, contract, claim, controversy, charge, accusation, arrest or other matter before the Senate or the House of Commons or a committee of either House." Moreover, Section 16 (3) makes "every person who gives, offers or promises to any member of the Senate" such compensation liable to imprisonment for up to one year.

Harper meets with his caucus after a tumultuous long weekend that saw two senators he appointed leave caucus, and his chief of staff resign amid a Senate spending scandal that appears to have no clear end in sight.

The Senate will also move Tuesday to reopen the review of Sen. Mike Duffy's expense audit, but the upper chamber's own investigative abilities are in tatters after the Conservative majority apparently toned down the final report on Duffy's spending.

Opposition parties are now calling for the Mounties to investigate allegations of political interference and review a $90,000 transaction between Duffy and Wright.

Duffy quit the Conservative caucus on Thursday over his spending, including reports he may have billed the Senate for expenses while he was campaigning for the Tories in the 2011 election. Sen. Pamela Wallin stepped out of caucus on Friday while she remains under investigation for her three-year travel bill of more than $300,000. Early Sunday morning, Wright's resignation was made public with a statement from Wright saying he "did not advise the prime minister of the means by which Sen. Duffy's expenses were repaid."

Duffy stopped co-operating with auditors reviewing his expenses once the $90,000 repayment of his housing allowance was made. When he did offer to help in late April, the Senate committee overseeing the audit turned him down.

However, it was not known if Harper would take any questions from the media Tuesday because he was due to fly to South America in the early afternoon for a trade mission.

Related

• Andrew Coyne: Wright's resignation not the government's moral reclamation. It's the next act in the tragedy
• Opposition NDP calls for RCMP investigation into $90,000 cheque from Harper's former top aide to Mike Duffy
• Michael Den Tandt: With Nigel Wright gone, Stephen Harper faces even more questions
• Longtime aide Ray Novak named Harper's new chief of staff