{"id":124,"date":"2015-11-17T16:53:06","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T16:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/closeup\/?p=124"},"modified":"2015-11-23T13:32:32","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T13:32:32","slug":"duffy-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/closeup\/2015\/11\/17\/duffy-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Duffy matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_143\" style=\"width: 848px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/closeup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Kohler21.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-143\" class=\"wp-image-143 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/closeup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Kohler21-1024x768.gif\" alt=\"\u00a9 Rupert Nuttle\" width=\"838\" height=\"629\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/closeup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Kohler21-1024x768.gif 1024w, https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/closeup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Kohler21-300x225.gif 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-143\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 Rupert Nuttle<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Freelance journalist Nicholas K\u00f6hler believes that Sen. Mike Duffy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>K\u00f6hler has the pensive demeanour \u2013 and the fashion sense \u2013 of a young academic. Yet his quick wit reveals a man who can find humour in just about any situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe trial\u2019s like comedy. The whole trial\u2019s like comedy,\u201d said K\u00f6hler, adding, \u201c[Duffy\u2019s] lawyer is hilarious\u2026 it\u2019s like out of Shakespeare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>K\u00f6hler\u2019s coverage of the trial has at times been hilarious, too. In addition to daily web hits for Maclean\u2019s online, he collaborated with the Toronto-based illustrator Kagan McLeod to produce weekly satirical cartoons \u2013 Duffy as Yoda in a <em>Star Wars <\/em>spoof; Duffy as Gulliver, bound by lawyers; Duffy running for his life from \u201cthe boys in short pants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen all of those PMO staffers were appearing one after the other [to testify], it really did look like \u2013 it felt like \u2013 Lord of the Flies,\u201d said K\u00f6hler.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/cdn.knightlab.com\/libs\/timeline3\/latest\/embed\/index.html?source=1d7qYyQ81P8Iq1Bl2SrMbyzVwRn_l_fk8cpLdwRH1Hd8&amp;font=Default&amp;lang=en&amp;initial_zoom=2&amp;height=650\" width=\"100%\" height=\"650\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Other key testimonies will come from Gerald Donahue, an old friend of Duffy&#8217;s, and Nicole Proulx, the head of Senate finance at the relevant time.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, journalists are asking themselves if anyone should care about the trial&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>K\u00f6hler agrees. During the election, he said, there was a \u201cfeedback loop\u201d between the press and the trial.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe election was affected by the Duffy trial and the trial was deeply informed by what was going on in Canadian politics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>But K\u00f6hler said that since the Liberals formed government, the coverage of Ottawa politics has become \u201csaccharine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019re 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Duffy has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery related to expenses he claimed in 2013 \u2013 and later borrowed money to repay from then-PMO chief-of-staff Nigel Wright.<\/p>\n<p>K\u00f6hler said Duffy lends himself to such gentle mockery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was such an improbable media figure to begin with,\u201d he explained, \u201cThis 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 \u2013 that they\u2019re a drain on the taxpayer, that they grab whatever they can get \u2013 and he seemed to be emblematic of all of that. He\u2019s a larger-than-life figure in a funny way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Conrad Winn, a professor of political science at Carleton University with expertise in liberal democracy and public opinion, disagrees with K\u00f6hler\u2019s characterization of Duffy. He believes the charges laid against the senator are \u201cpreposterous,\u201d and that Duffy\u2019s expenditures were well within the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe one thing I\u2019m sure of is that the [trial] coverage has been totally unfair and inappropriate,\u201d said Winn, referring to what he perceives as a Liberal bias in the media, \u201cDuffy is a victim. His life has been foreshortened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Winn believes the media\u2019s motivations for \u201cmiscovering\u201d the trial were to bring down Stephen Harper\u2019s government, and they succeeded. \u201cIt\u2019s all so unfair and so absurd,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of the reasons for the Conservatives\u2019 demise, K\u00f6hler said, \u201cIt would have been a different kind of story had it continued to be a Harper government\u2026 [The trial] would have been driving the news in a way that it won\u2019t be now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Correction: Nov. 17, 2015. A previous version of this article misquoted Jennifer Ditchburn. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Freelance journalist Nicholas K\u00f6hler believes that Sen. Mike Duffy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-first-edition"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Does Duffy matter? - Close-up<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Rupert Nuttle. Mike Duffy&#039;s trial resumes this Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015. 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