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At a time when millions of Canadians are sifting through their receipts and invoices, the occupants of Courtroom 33 are doing much the same with the paper trail of Mike Duffy’s Senate career — albeit in a much more agonizingly slow fashion.

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Among the minutiae of Senate paperwork, however, a bizarre and unmistakable pattern has emerged: The wild variability of Mike Duffy’s signature.

On documents that Duffy knew might be seen by the public, he composed a careful artisanal signature complete with loops, flourishes and a dramatic underline.

On routine expense forms, however, the Senator’s mark devolved into inconsistent and half-hearted assemblages of jags and circles. On one, his signature is an “m” and a “y” bookending three loops. In the most hurried example, his name becomes a 20-point jagged line capped off with a half-hearted scribble.

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Signature degradation is apparently a lingering concern in any signing-heavy profession, be it professional athleticism or public service. The degeneration of Duffy’s mark was likely made more rapid by the sheer volume of expense requests he filed.