With a Facebook message and a FaceTime video conversation, suspended former Conservative senator Mike Duffy may have given Karen Duffy a glimmer of hope.  The CBC's Evan Solomon confirms that Duffy recently reached out to the Peruvian woman alleging to be his daughter through the social network and had a real-time conversation with her. The conversation was "warm" and lasted two hours.  The relationship between Duffy and Karen has not yet been acknowledged or denied.  Karen Duffy said she wasn't able to share any details of what Mike Duffy told her or where their relationship stands.  "All I can tell you is that I was approached by my dad. He wrote me yesterday and we now have a conversation going on," Karen said to CBC News. "He got in touch with me. It was him, not any of his assistants."  "It was a beautiful thing that happened. I am super happy."  Karen Duffy's lawyer Jorge Razuri told CBC News that the conversation was meant to confirm her identity, as well as to send legal documents.  Speaking Spanish, Razuri said that he and his client hope there can be a closer encounter in the coming hours and that it will be a happy one.  The story first broke last week when Maclean's magazine published an interview with Karen Duffy, who said she was born after her father's relationship with a convicted Peruvian drug smuggler who served time at a Kingston, Ont., prison.  The magazine reported that Karen Duffy, now 32, and her mother tried to reach out to the journalist-turned-senator over the past few decades, with no response. She ultimately decided to file a lawsuit in Peruvian court, determined to receive acknowledgement that Mike Duffy is her biological father.  Karen Duffy told CBC News that she now has what she was looking for.  The suspended senator originally gave the allegations a cold reception.  "The Maclean's story contains untrue allegations, made by a convicted narcotics smuggler, and which go back more than 30 years. I will respond to any legal process from Peru in an appropriate manner. I will have no further comment," he said in a statement to CBC News.  The beleaguered senator currently faces 31 RCMP charges, including bribery and fraud on the government, related to Senate expenses, the awarding of consultant contracts and the acceptance of a $90,000 payment by the prime minister's former chief of staff.  Duffy said he would like to get the matter before a judge "as soon as possible," so that he can prove to Canadians he has not "breached the Criminal Code of Canada."  He is scheduled to appear in an Ottawa court on Sept. 16.
Mike Duffy, the suspended former Tory senator, has reached out to Karen Duffy, a Peruvian woman who claims to be his biological daughter, CBC News has confirmed.