Mike Duffy returns to the Senate, pursued but silent
Senate sketch: The central figure of the Senate expense scandal takes his seat again
Departing from his office, Mike Duffy dropped his keys.
Turning around to pick them up, he saw several reporters standing in the hallway, watching him. He paused and then kicked the keys into the alcove of his office doorway. From there, he was partially obscured from sight as he bent down on one knee to pick up the keys.
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With briefcase in hand, he then ambled down the hallway in his slightly whimsical gait toward the elevator. A few moments later and two floors lower, he emerged to find a half-dozen television cameras, which followed him as he wordlessly strolled out to his car in the parking lot outside the east doors of Centre Block.
Returning to the red chamber
That was Monday. On Tuesday afternoon, just before two o'clock, Duffy emerged from his office with his wife, Heather, and proceeded toward to the nearby stairs that lead to the Senate chamber's back entrance. He and his wife parted company, Duffy descending down the stairs, his wife walking up to the Senate's north visitors' gallery.
A few moments later, Duffy appeared on the floor of the Red Chamber for the first time in two and a half years.
Senate business was to resume at a quarter past two, but in advance of that a photographer had set up in the south gallery to capture the official photo of the Senate of the 42nd Parliament. Senators with seats at the south end of the room were asked to move closer. Duffy took a seat near the middle of the back row on the government side.
He turned slightly to his right and looked up at the camera as the Canadian Senate, circa May, 2016, was immortalized.
Duffy then returned to his seat in the far right corner. For the two and half hours until the Senate adjourned at 4:53 p.m. ET, he said nothing for the official record.
Possibly there is, for now, nothing more to say.
Not shunned by fellow senators
He was not greeted as a long-lost son, nor was he shunned in his return to the ornate and obscure chamber of red carpet, leather-padded chairs and wood paneling. A series of senators came by to shake his hand and have a word, and there were at least a couple pats on the shoulder.
In the moments between the official portrait and the resumption of official business, Murray Sinclair, the former Manitoba justice nominated to the Senate by Justin Trudeau in March, sat down in the empty chair to Duffy's left and talked with him awhile. Later, Liberal Senator David Smith, a veteran partisan who is due to retire from the Senate in two weeks, came by for a similarly long chat.
(Duffy was spotted having lunch in the Centre Block cafeteria Tuesday with the similarly maligned Pamela Wallin. On Monday, Conservative Senator Don Plett, former president of the Conservative party's national council and a friend, stopped by Duffy's office to say hi.)
As the Senate proceeded with its work, Duffy — in a blue suit and yellow tie, pocket square and french cuffs — busied himself with his laptop and his smartphone. He looked up at a couple of points. He applauded a senator's speech on the value of establishing a National Seal Products Day.
What the Duffy affair hath wrought
When Stephen Harper put in writing that Duffy was "one of my best, hardest working appointments ever," it was likely not intended as a specific salute to the senator's contributions as a legislator. Rather, after being nominated in 2008, the famed journalist's most noteworthy work seemed to be in service of his party, travelling the country to campaign for the Conservative cause and pad party coffers as the star attraction of fundraising dinners.
But he is now a man without a party.
Still, the Senate's business on Tuesday, as a large contingent of reporters watched on, was dominated by some of what the Duffy affair hath wrought. (There was also, unrelatedly, a debate on the captivity of whales and dolphins, including a testy exchange between Plett and Liberal Senator Wilfred Moore on the subject of dorsal fins.)
First, was an exceedingly arcane debate about the attempt of the new government representative in the Senate, Peter Harder, to name a deputy representative and a "liason." Second, was the appearance of Finance Minister Bill Morneau on the floor of the chamber to be questioned by senators.
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Both are part of the reforms pursued by Trudeau, changes he might have not bothered to make if not for the cascading expenses crisis that Duffy helped start and then came to personify.
(Trudeau might have become prime minister regardless, but Stephen Harper's fall was certainly assisted by the grinding revelations of the Duffy affair; the matter of the senator from P.E.I seemed to be the antithesis of Harper's original promise and the epitome of what Harper's government had become.)
Duffy was a symbol of partisanship and executive intrusion and so Trudeau cut Liberal senators loose and has pledged to only nominate independents. And now, amid grumbling and quibbling and uncertainty, the Senate is stumbling forward.
What more can he say?
Perhaps in a new Senate, Duffy can find a new role. Maybe sometime this week or next, he'll stand in the Senate and address some matter of concern to the people of Prince Edward Island. Probably at some point reporters will stop waiting around for him.
A man who built his media and political careers on his ability to talk is now not interested in saying anything. He had Senate security escort him past reporters on his way to a meeting in Harder's office and, later, to his car parked outside.
After pulling back the curtain on the political machinations of the previous government, captivating political Ottawa, rattling one of the foundational institutions of Canadian democracy, standing trial on 31 charges and walking away without a finding of guilt, Duffy might be forgiven if he desires a little quiet.
