The CBC story about the 31 charges which the RCMP have laid against Mike Duffy contains surprising information about the most contentious charge — bribery of a judicial officer. The apparent allegation is that there was a corrupt element to Duffy’s acceptance of $90,000 from PMO chief of staff Nigel Wright to pay off expenses he owed to the government. Many have wondered how this represented bribery and the CBC story quotes Daniel Brown, Toronto region director of the the Criminal Lawyers’ Association on the subject. Brown says it isn’t clear to him on the evidence how the cops got to where they did. “It seems as though his intent of receiving the payment was to pay back the government and so it wasn’t clear to me what his corrupt intent would be,” Brown told the CBC. So why was the charge laid? Here Brown offers a view which must rattle the judicial process. It is essentially that the RCMP, possibly, are so gun shy they might lay a charge just in case there is evidence they haven’t found. “They want to ensure that everything appears to be above board. They don’t want to be criticized later on for not having laid charges where evidence may have existed,” Mr. Brown said.
