8 of the most scathing quotes about the former PMO in the Duffy judgment

Sen. Mike Duffy (left) and Ontario Court Justice Charles Vaillancourt attend Duffy's trial in Ottawa on Thursday, April 21, 2016 in this courtroom sketch. (Greg Banning / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

When Justice Charles Vaillancourt cleared Senator Mike Duffy of 31 criminal charges Thursday, he levelled some of his harshest criticism on staffers in the office of former prime minister Stephen Harper.

Vaillancourt said he accepted the defence’s argument that Duffy was “just another piece on the chessboard” in the Prime Minister’s Office’s larger strategy of managing the public relations fallout of Duffy’s residency and expense claim scandal.

He slammed the actions of PMO senior staff as “shocking” and “unacceptable in a democratic society.”

As Robert Fife, the host of CTV’s Question Period, told CTV’s Canada AM Friday: “Justice Vaillancourt resoundingly acquitted Sen. Duffy, but he convicted Stephen Harper’s prime minister’s office.”

Here’s a look at some of Vaillancourt’s most scathing assessments of the Harper PMO:

1. “If anyone was under the impression that this organization was a benign group of bureaucrats taking care of the day -to-day tasks associated with the prime minister, they would be mistaken.”

2. “In the case of Senator Duffy’s situation, the common theme was to get it done. The “it” refers to the political storm created by Senator Duffy’s residency and expense issues. The goal was to calm that storm. As the evidence will reveal, the methods employed to achieve a successful outcome to the problem seemed to have known no bounds. “

3. “Was Nigel Wright actually ordering senior members of the Senate around as if they were mere pawns on a chessboard? Were those same senior members of the Senate meekly acquiescing to Mr. Wright’s orders? Were those same senior members of the Senate robotically marching forth to recite their provided scripted lines?... The answers to the aforementioned questions are: YES; YES; YES; YES; YES; and YES!!!!!”

4. “The political, covert, relentless, unfolding of events is mindboggling and shocking. The precision and planning of the exercise would make any military commander proud. However, in the context of a democratic society, the plotting as revealed in the emails can only be described as unacceptable.”

5. “I have included the emails earlier in this judgment to highlight the unbelievable lengths that Mr. Wright and his crew went to in order to deal with the quote “Duffy Problem”. Could Hollywood match such creativity? To say that the circumstances of this case are unusual amounts to gross understatement.”

6. “The PMO employed a two-pronged approach to deal with Senator Duffy. The primary approach involved the use of a steady stream of threats and pressure being applied from all quarters. These have been well documented throughout this judgment. The other approach involved using the “do the right thing” message. It is interesting that no one ever suggested doing “the legal thing”. The message was always to ‘do the right thing’.”

7. “I find that the “do the right thing” message had only one meaning. Senator Duffy was to do the politically right thing by admitting “his mistake” and repaying back the accrued living expenses.”

8. “I agree that this entire 'Scenario' was not for the benefit of Senate Duffy but rather, it was for the benefit of the government and the PMO. This was damage control at its finest.”