UBC prof Benjamin Perrin denies he was consulted on $90,000 payment to Senator Mike Duffy
A UBC law professor has issued a statement claiming that CTV News got it wrong when it claimed he was linked to a $90,000 payment to Senator Mike Duffy.
Benjamin Perrin, former special adviser and legal counsel to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, maintained that a story on last night's newscast by CTV's Ottawa bureau chief, Robert Fife, is "false".
"I was not consulted on, and did not participate in, Nigel Wright’s decision to write a personal cheque to reimburse Senator Duffy’s expenses," Perrin declared. "I have never communicated with the Prime Minister on this matter."
Fife's story, which was not attributed to any source, purported that while Perrin worked in the Prime Minister's Office earlier this year, he helped draft a legal agreement between Wright and Duffy.
Perrin is the author of Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute for Public Policy.
Comments
3 Comments
DavidH
May 21, 2013 at 3:38pm
Once again, the language is unclear. Mr. Perrin says that he was not consulted on the decision to pay.
He does not answer the fundamental question: "Did you prepare an agreement between Duffy and any other party, related to the payment?"
Wordsmith
May 21, 2013 at 6:44pm
As an expert in the so-called "epidemic" of human trafficking in Canada, Perrin is an expert in parsing words. There is only an epidemic if you change the meaning of human trafficking to include the more common term of pimping. Which many people have a moral objection to. And which was done while Perrin advised the Prime Minister in office. It's like the white slave hysteria all over again, which trains police to ignore serial killers and instead focus on purchasers of paid sex, whether they be the disabled, chronically shy, impotent, or politicians.
Anna
Jul 6, 2013 at 12:01am
That's not what the court documents says, Mr. Perrin.
"But the court documents say Wright let the RCMP know on June 21 that he told Gerstein and three people in Harper's office that he was going to write Duffy a cheque: David van Hemmen, Chris Woodcock, and Benjamin Perrin.
Perrin worked in the Prime Minister's Office as Harper's legal adviser and some media reports have said he was involved in arranging the Duffy deal, a claim he denies. Perrin issued a statement on May 21 saying he "was not consulted on, and did not participate in" Wright's decision and that he never talked to Harper about the matter."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/07/05/pol-rcmp-duffy-document...