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PMO Prosecution Fund

Democracy Watch is taking Prime Minister Harper’s Office to court for bribing Senator Mike Duffy because government lawyers won’t. Please help by making your donation now to the Harper PMO Prosecution Fund, and by sharing and tweeting this page.

Incredibly, Senator Duffy has been charged with taking a bribe, but no one from Prime Minister Harper’s Office or the Conservative Party has been charged with bribing him.

Democracy Watch needs to raise $55,000 to cover the costs of prosecuting everyone in Prime Minister Harper’s Office and in the Conservative Party who took part in the bribing of Senator Mike Duffy, and to keep the campaign going to ensure they are all held accountable.

You can help hold these Harper Conservatives accountable for their wrongdoing by donating now!

Thank you for your support, Duff, Tyler, Josephine, Brad and the entire Democracy Watch team

Latest News on the Case and Campaign

CBC News — Nigel Wright broke ethics rules during Mike Duffy affair – Democracy Watch will now prosecute Wright

News Release — Democracy Watch calls on Ethics Commissioner to rule, finally, on Nigel Wright, Patrick Rogers, Chris Woodcock and Benjamin Perrin intervening in Senate committee’s audit of Senator Mike Duffy

News Release — Given judge’s conclusions in Senator Mike Duffy trial ruling, Democracy Watch again calls for Nigel Wright, and PMO and Conservative Party officials who aided him, to be prosecuted for bribing Duffy

Ottawa Citizen — RCMP and government lawyers prosecute Senator Mike Duffy for taking a bribe, but won’t prosecute Harper PMO staff for giving the bribe, so Democracy Watch will

CBC TV’s Power and Politics show interview — RCMP and government lawyers prosecute Senator Mike Duffy, but not Nigel Wright and other PMO and Conservative officials, so Democracy Watch will prosecute them

Background

When the story about the $90,000 payment Nigel Wright, then Prime Minister Harper’s Chief of Staff, made to Senator Mike Duffy first became public in April 2013, Democracy Watch was the first to call for charges to be laid under the Criminal Code of Canada. Democracy Watch called for these charges because Nigel Wright required Senator Duffy to do three things in return for the money, and so Democracy Watch’s opinion was that the payment violated section 119 of the Criminal Code of Canada which prohibits offering or giving money or any other benefit to a senator or any other politician in respect of any action by the senator in their job.

Democracy Watch launched a national letter-writing campaign calling for the appointment of an independent prosecutor to oversee the investigation and make prosecution decisions, and more than 30,000 Canadians sent a letter to the federal party leaders and RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson.

Democracy Watch is the only organization in Canada that has consistently pushed since April 2013 for accountability for all the wrongdoers in this situation.

Incredibly, despite the evidence, the RCMP decided on their own in April 2014 not to charge Nigel Wright or anyone else from Prime Minister Harper’s Office. Then, in July 2014, Ontario provincial prosecutors also incredibly decided to charge Senator Duffy with taking a bribe, but not to charge Nigel Wright or anyone else.

The Criminal Code allows anyone to launch a private prosecution for certain offences, and Democracy Watch continues to gather evidence and legal support to take those responsible in Prime Minister Harper’s Office to court for bribing Senator Mike Duffy because government lawyers won’t.

Please help hold these Harper Conservatives accountable for their wrongdoing by making your donation now to the Harper PMO Prosecution Fund.