Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Christie Blatchford on Mike Duffy's testimony: "It was a miracle."

Christie Blatchford writes:
"And so it came to pass that Mike Duffy was at least briefly healed, for such is the sweet power of revenge.
"On Tuesday morning, the former veteran broadcaster and beleaguered senator from Prince Edward Island took the witness stand at his criminal trial on 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery.
"This medically frail 69-year-old man — and his lawyer, Don Bayne, already has made much of this, suggesting Duffy was particularly vulnerable to the brutish charms of the dapper set from former prime minister Stephen Harper’s office — has had two open-heart surgeries, suffers from diabetes and osteoarthritis, is on 14 medications and goes to bed with a CPAP machine forcing air into his lungs so he doesn’t wake up every 40 seconds because of sleep apnea.
"And yet, this particular morning, Duffy talked almost non-stop for two hours, barely pausing for breath, never short of wind: It was a miracle."
The full column
Our favourite excerpts:
“'I don’t know if you’ve ever been through a big corporate layoff, Mr. Bayne,' he said, 'but it is awful. It hurts the people laid off, but it kills the people who are left behind.'
"So with that background, he said, he went home that night and talked things over with his wife, Heather. 'She said, ‘I’ll do whatever you want to do, but if you go (from CTV), it’ll give the bean counters more money' and perhaps in that way the jobs of some young people could be saved.
"He did it for the kids! He was sacrificing himself for the youth!"

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