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“It didn’t affect our objectivity,” Dent said. “It had no bearing on the work we were doing. We didn’t have any greater context to the call.”

According to an RCMP court document, Runia — who is the Conservative party’s official auditor — called the other Deloitte auditors at the request of Sen. Irving Gerstein, the chief Conservative fundraiser. The RCMP alleges that Gerstein did this at the behest of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Gerstein has declined to comment to reporters, but has spoken with the RCMP. Neither he nor Runia will be appearing before the Senate’s internal economy committee any time soon.

Runia was not invited to Thursday’s meeting. At the end of the meeting, Liberal senators tried unsuccessfully to have him called as a witness. The Conservative majority turned them down.

But Runia is not out of the woods yet. The Senate as a whole will be asked to decide whether to call him as a witness during a debate next week.

The Liberals put the Senate on notice Thursday to debate the motion on Tuesday.

The motion doesn’t include any mention of forcing Gerstein to testify. Gerstein declined to comment on his way into the Senate chamber Thursday afternoon, shaking his head when asked questions, smiling and walking away.

“This just smells like another cover up and we don’t like it at all. We’re very disturbed by it,” said Liberal Sen. Jim Munson. “We have to put the puzzle together and the biggest piece right now is Mr. Runia.”