Video: Jason Kenney discusses senate scandal with The West Block’s Tom Clark

OTTAWA — Canadians could learn more about what was happening inside the Prime Minister’s Office when one of Stephen Harper’s top aides handed a $90,000 cheque to a beleaguered senator, a top cabinet minister said Sunday.

There have been more questions than answers swirling around that cheque from Nigel Wright, since it was revealed Senator Mike Duffy used it to repay questionable housing allowances—especially since the senator twice took the floor in the Senate to tell his version of the story, one he has described as a nefarious conspiracy cooked up to deceive the public.

Asked why Canadians haven’t heard the whole story, Employment and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney speculated that ongoing investigations into the matter might have something to do with it.

“I’m sure that at some point Mr. Wright will reveal what he knows about this,” Kenney said in an interview on The West Block with Tom Clark. “But the prime minister has been clear. He did not know about this.”

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Kenney defended Wright as a man of “strong ethical character,” even as Harper last week fingered his former chief of staff for being the sole person responsible for “this deception.”

The prime minister has consistently and vehemently denied knowing anything about Wright’s plan to cover Duffy’s repayment, a claim Kenney has no doubt is true.

“He disapproved of it, he never would have agreed to it had he known about it,” Kenney said Sunday. “And people have been held accountable where mistakes and errors in judgement were made.”

As the Senate takes steps toward suspending Duffy and his two colleagues, Senators Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau—all for expenses the Senate says were inappropriately claimed— Kenney says the focus should shift toward “fixing” the Senate.

“This isn’t just about what three people did, this is about the institution that, frankly, Canadians have lost confidence in,” Kenney said. “It renews our drive to get fundamental Senate reform. Stephen Harper didn’t get elected as a Reform MP 20 years ago to defend the status quo in the Senate.”

The Conservatives have presented their proposed Senate reform legislation to the Supreme Court of Canada, asking the highest court in the country to clarify the government’s powers to reform or abolish the institution.

The government introduced the reform bill in June 2011 and blamed the opposition for slowing down its passage, even though the Conservatives didn’t bring the legislation to the House of Commons floor for more than a year.

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The bill proposes limiting senators’ terms to nine years and allowing provinces to hold elections and choose senators-in-waiting.

The Conservatives are also looking to change the rules requiring senators to own property with a certain value in order to be appointed to the upper chamber.

-With files from The Canadian Press