Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Ottawa, The cost of Stephen Harper’s makeup for a public event in 2010 was covered by a fund at the heart of several criminal charges being faced by suspended senator Mike Duffy, court heard Thursday.
Duffy and the prime minister had their makeup done together ahead of a G8/G10 event on Parliament Hill and the $300 bill was paid by Maple Ridge Media, a company established by Duffy friend Gerald Donohue that the Crown alleges was given $65,000 worth of taxpayer money to help Duffy skirt Senate rules.
Last week, a government source told The Canadian Press that the makeup services Harper received that day weren’t paid for by taxpayers.
On Thursday, Jacqueline Lambert — the makeup artist herself — contradicted that assertion on the witness stand.
“On this occasion of the G8, did Prime Minister Harper pay you anything for the services he received, or did you take the $300 to be payment in respect to the services you provided the prime minister?” asked Duffy’s lawyer Donald Bayne.
“Yes, your latter,” Lambert answered.
Court has already been told the $300 was a flat-rate fee that would not have changed regardless of whether one or two people had their makeup done.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lambert was on the stand to testify about doing Duffy’s makeup on two occasions after he was appointed to the Senate. Payments she received for both are the basis for two of the fraud charges Duffy is facing.
In March 2009, Lambert did Duffy’s makeup for a formal photo shoot and sent him the bill. In a letter to Duffy the following month, the Senate informed him such expenses were not covered by their reimbursement policies.
When she was called by Duffy a second time in 2010 to do his make-up for the G8/G10 event, Duffy told her to send the invoice to Maple Ridge Media instead.
A copy of the invoice Lambert sent wasn’t submitted as evidence; her computer crashed and she no longer had a copy, court was told. She did say, however, that it would have referenced services provided to both Duffy and Harper.
A copy of the cheque she received indicated that it came from Donohue’s company. On the envelope, there was a notation that it was for “PM and Mike.”
The original contracts between Duffy and Donohue stated they were for editorial services, but the Crown has alleged those services were never delivered, with the money being funnelled elsewhere to cover costs Duffy couldn’t expense to the Senate.
An intern in Duffy’s office testified earlier Thursday that she was also paid by that same company, having received a $500 cheque after she’d been told she was doing good work in the senator’s office and he’d find some money for her.
Ashley Cain helped open mail, reply to correspondence and sort business cards, court heard, yet she worked in Duffy’s office without having completed any of the paperwork the Senate requires of its employees, even those on short work terms.
The payment she received is the basis for two of the other fraud charges Duffy is facing.
Bayne argued that paying Cain was a legitimate business expense, since the work she was doing for Duffy was similar to the work she is doing now in the Prime Minister’s Office.
