Canada

September 9, 2013 4:30 pm 

By Chris Purdy  The Canadian Press 

EDMONTON – A man charged in a bloody armoured car heist at the University of Alberta has admitted he killed three of his colleagues and seriously wounded a fourth.

Travis Baumgartner has pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder in the death of Eddie Rejano, two counts of second-degree murder for Michelle Shegelski and Brian Ilesic and one count of attempted murder for injuring Matthew Schuman.

...An overnight crew of five armed guards was reloading ATM machines on the university campus in June 2012 when shots rang out.

When the shooting stopped, 26-year-old Shegelski, 35-year-old Ilesic and 39-year-old Rejano lay dead...

original full story and source: http://globalnews.ca/news/828278/suspect-in-deadly-alberta-armoured-car-heist-pleads-guilty/

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The Canadian PressBy The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press – 4 hours ago [from 4:54pm EST, 09 September 2013]

QUEBEC - The Quebec government will release details tomorrow morning of its controversial "values charter" that would restrict religious clothing.

The Parti Quebecois' proposals will be laid out at a 10:45 a.m. news conference at the provincial legislature.

The announcement comes after days of heated debate about the plan, details of which appear to have been leaked to various media.

original full story and source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/quebecs-controversial-values-plan-released-tomorrow-160524510.html

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Senate expenses probe focuses on Mike Duffy

Mike Duffy's $90K cheque no crime, says former House law clerk

It may be difficult to find that a crime was committed when the prime minister's former top aide Nigel Wright wrote a $90,000 cheque to Senator Mike Duffy, according to a former Law Clerk of Parliament.

Related articles under caption:

    Article RCMP's Senate expenses probe focuses on Duffy-Wright deal

    Article Pay up by Sept. 16 or we'll dock your salary, Senate tells Wallin 

original full story and source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/canadas-senate-under-seige/

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CBCCBC – Tue, 3 Sep, 2013

While tourists were enjoying the splendours of Parliament Hill this summer, behind the scenes RCMP investigators were secretly hunkered down in a former Senate smoking room, interrogating witnesses in what has become the largest police probe involving parliamentarians in years.

CBC News has been given an exclusive glimpse inside the RCMP investigation of the Senate expenses scandal through interviews with a number of people close to the police probe. All spoke on condition of anonymity.

The investigation is being headed by Cpl. Greg Horton, a 21-year veteran of major crime investigations and now assigned to the special RCMP branch that deals with "sensitive" matters of "significant risk to Canada's political, economic and social integrity."

CBC sources were unanimous on one point: Horton and his investigators are tough, thorough, extremely well-prepared and seem deadly serious about a probe that could lead to criminal charges of fraud and breach of trust.

Sources say the federal Office of Public Prosecutions has already assigned a prosecutor to the Senate probe.

There is no indication the Mounties have interrogated any of the four senators actually at the centre of the expense scandal: Mike Duffy, Mac Harb, Patrick Brazeau and Pamela Wallin. Sources say investigators have not knocked on the prime minister's door either.

But CBC News has learned that over the past two months, Horton and his squad have questioned at least five other senators as key witnesses.

Some of those interviews were conducted in the sumptuous Salle de la Francophonie, an ornate meeting room near the main Senate chamber, decorated in paintings and sculptures of French kings, and used as a private smoking lounge for senators until the 1980s.

Although none of the senators questioned in the Francophonie this summer has been accused of any wrongdoing, sources say a Senate lawyer was usually present anyway.

So far, the sources say, the line of questioning has been focused in large part on Duffy's travel and housing claims, and on the now infamous $90,000 personal cheque he got from the prime minister's chief of staff, Nigel Wright, to reimburse the government for the disputed expenses.

They say the Mounties want to know what exactly was the deal Wright made with Duffy in return for the $90,000 cheque.

Who else in government and the Conservative Party knew about the deal? The RCMP say Wright has admitted telling three other high-ranking officials in the Prime Minister's Office, but not Stephen Harper.

Was there a secret deal in place with the Conservative Party — or some other source — to repay Wright the $90,000 he gave to Duffy?

For instance, sources say the Mounties have been asking specifically about Wright's sole access, as Harper's chief of staff, to a special stash of Conservative Party funds ostensibly to pay for partisan political activities in the Prime Minister's Office, a story first reported by CBC News.

Finally, sources say the Mounties are asking a lot of questions about how and why a Senate committee report on Duffy's housing and travel allowances was altered in the senator's favour, finding that he was merely the victim of errors and unclear rules.

original full story and source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/rcmps-senate-expenses-probe-focuses-duffy-wright-deal-023140276.html

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The Canadian PressBy The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press – Fri, 6 Sep, 2013

OTTAWA - The clock is ticking for Sen. Pamela Wallin to pay back her dubious travel claims.

The former Conservative has until Sept. 16 to repay tens of thousands of dollars in ineligible travel expenses.

A Senate official confirmed the upper chamber will start garnishing Wallin's wages if she misses that deadline.

The Senate called in the RCMP after an audit called into question a litany of travel claims spanning nearly all of Wallin's career as a senator, which began late in 2008.

The auditors flagged $121,348 in inappropriate expenses and the Senate committee later determined Wallin owed another $17,621, bringing her total tab to $138,969.

Wallin — who denounces the audit as "fundamentally flawed and unfair" — has already repaid $38,000, and has since promised to reimburse any disallowed expenses out of her own pocket, with interest.

Wallin is one of four senators in hot water over their expenses.

The Mounties are investigating the questionable housing claims of former Conservatives Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau as well as ex-Liberal Mac Harb.

The Senate has begun docking Brazeau's pay, while Harb used mortgages against four of his properties to get loans from a numbered company owned by an Ottawa businessman to pay back his ineligible expenses.

Harb has since resigned from the Senate.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, cut Duffy a $90,000 cheque to pay back his housing claims.

Meanwhile, La Presse is reporting the Senate ethics officer has opened up an investigation into another member of the upper chamber, Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu.

Boisvenu has admitted to a relationship with former aide Isabelle Lapointe. She eventually left his employ to work elsewhere in the Senate.

Le Presse said the ethics officer is to investigate whether Boisvenu gave an inappropriate benefit to Lapointe.

original full story and source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/pay-sept-16-well-dock-salary-senate-tells-195750594.html

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CBCCBC – 11 hours ago  [from 4:54pm EST, 09 September 2013]

A $90,000 cheque from former PMO aide Nigel Wright to Mike Duffy to repay the senator's ineligible expenses may raise questions, but it could be difficult to prove the gift constitutes a criminal offence, according to a long-serving former Law Clerk of Parliament.

Rob Walsh, who was Parliament's top legal adviser until 2012, says in theory, a criminal offence would occur if money was given to a senator in exchange for some kind of benefit.

But in case of the Duffy cheque, Walsh can't see what benefit Wright would have received for repaying Duffy's expenses.

No charges have been laid against either Duffy or Wright, but the RCMP is investigating the circumstances that led to Wright writing a personal cheque after Duffy told him he didn't have the money himself.

RCMP Cpl. Greg Horton states in a court document that a Senate report, meant to be critical of Duffy, was altered in Duffy's favour by the Senate's committee on internal economy to find no fault with his behaviour.

Horton concluded, "I believe there was an agreement between Duffy and Wright involving repayment of the $90,000 and a Senate report that would not be critical of him, constituting an offence of frauds upon the government."

“But what benefit did Duffy give to Wright in exchange for the $90,000?" asks Walsh, who retired in February after 14 years as parliamentary counsel, in an email to CBC News.

"That Duffy make no further media comments? This is not a benefit to Wright," he continued.

"Stop the audit report? Duffy didn't have the power to do this. Edit the committee report? Duffy didn't have the power to do this.

“The funds were given to Duffy to bring the Duffy expenses controversy to an end, like settling a lawsuit. This is not fraud, nor is it breach of trust."

He added, "I don't see any of this supporting criminal charges. It's just self-serving politics."

Duffy has not been charged with any criminal offence. However, he is also being investigated by the RCMP for charging expenses for a home in Ottawa he's owned for years, claiming his primary residence is his P.E.I. cottage. As well, the RCMP is looking at his claims for Senate per diems while on vacation, and while he was working for the Conservative Party during the last election.

Senators Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau are also the subjects of an RCMP investigation over their expense claims for living expenses in Ottawa. A Senate committee looking into expenses claimed by Pamela Wallin has referred her file to the RCMP as well, though the Mounties have not indicated whether they will investigate.

Each of the senators under scrutiny has said the rules were unclear, or that mistakes were made, or that the rules were followed as they existed at the time of the claims.

original full story and source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/no-crime-90k-duffy-cheque-says-former-house-090640246.html