(Adds quotes by former aide to prime minister)
By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper's aides forced a political ally to repay expenses he was
probably entitled to because they wanted to quash a damaging
ethics scandal, Harper's former chief of staff testified on
Thursday.
Conservative Senator Michael Duffy is on trial for bribery
and abusing expense claims in a high-profile case that could
hurt the governing Conservatives in the runup to Canada's Oct.
19 election. The Conservatives have been in power since 2006.
Nigel Wright, Harper's former top aide, said when the
expenses scandal became "politically embarrassing" for the
Conservatives in February 2013, he leaned on Duffy to repay the
money, though the senator may well have done nothing illegal.
"We did not think the public would accept the
appropriateness of the expenses we are talking about," Wright
told an Ottawa court. "I was certainly putting pressure on
Senator Duffy to repay money that I felt he probably didn't, or
might not, owe."
The scandal erupted when it became clear Duffy had claimed
his full-time home in Ottawa as a secondary residence and filed
for tens of thousands of dollars in living expenses.
Duffy said rules in the Senate - Parliament's upper chamber
- were so vague that he had done nothing wrong by claiming the
expenses, which totaled C$90,000 ($68,800).
Wright said he insisted Duffy repay the money on what he
called moral grounds and said Harper agreed. The affair was a
crisis for the Conservatives, who came to power promising to
clean up federal politics.
"The fact that inappropriate expenses were being claimed by
a member of the government caucus was politically embarrassing,"
Wright said.
Duffy - appointed to the Senate by Harper - eventually
agreed to pay but complained he didn't have enough funds.
Wright, telling the court "I absolutely wanted the problem to go
away", secretly gave Duffy a personal check for C$90,000.
Wright left his job in May 2013 after news of the check
became public. Harper has said he knew nothing about the payment
to Duffy and took appropriate action to let Wright go when he
found out.
Duffy's lawyer, Donald Bayne, told Wright he had engaged in
a "a deliberately deceptive scenario" to fool Canadians into
thinking Duffy had repaid the money.
Opposition parties say the scandal shows the Conservatives
should be replaced. Opinion polls indicate the party could lose
its majority in the House of Commons in the election.
($1=$1.31 Canadian)
(Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson; and Peter Galloway)