Suspended senator Mike Duffy is facing 31 charges of fraud and breach of trust in a trial scheduled to begin on April 7. (Courtesy Wikimedia Commons)
By Ian Burns
The Senate expenses trial of Mike Duffy is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
Duffy is facing 31 charges, including bribery, fraud and breach of trust in connection with his claimed travel expenses as a member of the Senate.
The scandal began in December 2012, when the Ottawa Citizen first revealed that Duffy had claimed more than $33,000 in living expenses for living in Ottawa, despite Senate rules stating that senators living in the Ottawa area were ineligible to claim housing expenses.
Duffy later repaid over $90,000 worth of expenses, but claimed that this repayment had been part of a cover-up orchestrated by the Prime Minister’s Office. Nigel Wright, the prime minister’s chief of staff, later resigned when it came to light he had written a cheque to Duffy in order to cover what he owed.
Duffy was suspended from the Senate, where he represents Prince Edward Island, in November 2013 over the scandal.
Below is a timeline of the key events in the Duffy scandal.