Does Duffy matter?
© Rupert Nuttle
Freelance journalist Nicholas Köhler believes that Sen. Mike Duffy’s trial is a product of internal rot in the former Harper government. He also finds the trial, which resumes Thursday after a two-month recess, terrifically entertaining.
Köhler has the pensive demeanour – and the fashion sense – of a young academic. Yet his quick wit reveals a man who can find humour in just about any situation.
“The trial’s like comedy. The whole trial’s like comedy,” said Köhler, adding, “[Duffy’s] lawyer is hilarious… it’s like out of Shakespeare.”
Köhler’s coverage of the trial has at times been hilarious, too. In addition to daily web hits for Maclean’s online, he collaborated with the Toronto-based illustrator Kagan McLeod to produce weekly satirical cartoons – Duffy as Yoda in a Star Wars spoof; Duffy as Gulliver, bound by lawyers; Duffy running for his life from “the boys in short pants.”
“When all of those PMO staffers were appearing one after the other [to testify], it really did look like – it felt like – Lord of the Flies,” said Köhler.
And there are highlights yet to come. When Duffy takes the stand in the coming weeks, expect a compelling testimony from the former broadcaster, said senior parliamentary correspondent for Canadian Press, Jennifer Ditchburn.
Other key testimonies will come from Gerald Donahue, an old friend of Duffy’s, and Nicole Proulx, the head of Senate finance at the relevant time.
Nonetheless, journalists are asking themselves if anyone should care about the trial’s outcome now that the Conservative PMO under scrutiny is no longer in power. With the news cycle now dominated by Justin Trudeau and his cabinet, public interest has trailed off.
Köhler agrees. During the election, he said, there was a “feedback loop” between the press and the trial.
“The election was affected by the Duffy trial and the trial was deeply informed by what was going on in Canadian politics,” he said.
But Köhler said that since the Liberals formed government, the coverage of Ottawa politics has become “saccharine.”
“It’s like we’re in a Disney film all of a sudden, and everything is sweetness and light. So maybe the public is going to want a little salt on their ice cream,” he said.
Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery related to expenses he claimed in 2013 – and later borrowed money to repay from then-PMO chief-of-staff Nigel Wright.
Köhler said Duffy lends himself to such gentle mockery.
“He was such an improbable media figure to begin with,” he explained, “This chubby, funny-looking guy who seemed very status-conscious. Then as a senator he sort of became everything we have trouble accepting about that institution – that they’re a drain on the taxpayer, that they grab whatever they can get – and he seemed to be emblematic of all of that. He’s a larger-than-life figure in a funny way.”
Conrad Winn, a professor of political science at Carleton University with expertise in liberal democracy and public opinion, disagrees with Köhler’s characterization of Duffy. He believes the charges laid against the senator are “preposterous,” and that Duffy’s expenditures were well within the law.
“The one thing I’m sure of is that the [trial] coverage has been totally unfair and inappropriate,” said Winn, referring to what he perceives as a Liberal bias in the media, “Duffy is a victim. His life has been foreshortened.”
Winn believes the media’s motivations for “miscovering” the trial were to bring down Stephen Harper’s government, and they succeeded. “It’s all so unfair and so absurd,” he added.
Regardless of the reasons for the Conservatives’ demise, Köhler said, “It would have been a different kind of story had it continued to be a Harper government… [The trial] would have been driving the news in a way that it won’t be now.”
Correction: Nov. 17, 2015. A previous version of this article misquoted Jennifer Ditchburn.
