Ottawa

Duffy: ‘I think Canadians have a right to know all the facts’

The latest news in this unfolding affair

Mike Duffy offers a few thoughts as he walks to his car. The Prime Minister allows that “perhaps” he should have accepted Nigel Wright’s resignation a bit sooner (the elapsed time between acknowledgement of a cheque and resignation was about four days) and offers his understanding of the agreement between Mr. Duffy and Mr. Wright.

The Star has news on the investigation of Pamela Wallin’s expenses.

CTV talks to David Tkachuk.

In a phone interview with CTV News Thursday, Tkachuk denied that Duffy’s audit was whitewashed. He also denied that Wright told him to change the wording in the report. “When we’re writing a report, I talk to all kinds of people,” he said. “Nigel didn’t tell me anything. He didn’t tell me what to do. “I never talked to him specifically about the report once.”

However, Tkachuk did say that he spoke to Wright about the expense scandal “on a couple of occasions” and that the prime minister’s former right-hand man “expressed his concern.” “We discussed political matters. This was hurting us,” Tkachuk said, adding that there was “nothing untoward” about his conversations with Wright.

As does the Globe.

The two men spoke regularly throughout the audit, Mr. Tkachuk said, but the senator insists he was not aware of Mr. Wright’s decision to write Mr. Duffy a cheque for more than $90,000. “He’d want to know things, like ‘When is it going to be done? When is this thing over with?’ ” Mr. Tkachuk told The Globe and Mail on Thursday. “This wasn’t a police investigation, it was an audit – and we had a political problem.”

And Mr. Duffy has at least one friend in the Senate.

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