The Senate’s Conflict of Interest and Ethics Committee has considered the Senate Ethics Officer’s report into the conduct of one Senator Lynn Beyak and found her response to be wanting. Because she has refused to acknowledge wrongdoing and hasn’t removed the racist letters from her website, let alone apologise for posting them, they are recommending that she be suspended without pay for the remainder of the current parliament (meaning that it would end when parliament is dissolved and the writs drawn up for the election). Part of the thinking is that the time away – without pay or access to Senate resources – will give her time to think about her actions, and they suggest that the sensitivity training about racism and Indigenous history should be out of her own pocket. And if she still refuses to take action, they’ll look at having Senate administration take the letters down from her site (though nothing would stop her from moving them to a site that she hosts on her own), and if she still refuses action, well, they can revisit her fate in the next Parliament.

A couple of things to consider in all of this. First – it may help to re-read my column on the subject – is that they are likely recommending suspension because they will be very reluctant to recommend full expulsion without exhausting all avenues, and to afford her every single bit of procedural fairness and due process they possibly can in order to ensure that if it comes to that, that they will be on unshakeable ground. Setting a precedent for the removal of a senator should be done very, very carefully, and it has been argued in some circles that the reason why Senators Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau remain in the Chamber are because the need to be politically expedient in their suspensions and not affording them proper fairness essentially made it impossible to recommend expulsion in the future because they could plausibly argue that they hadn’t been afforded the due process. Consider that lesson learned with how they are dealing with Beyak.

I can’t stress enough that recommending expulsion is an extraordinary step, and they can’t just do it because she’s an unrepentant racist (even though she doesn’t see herself that way) – especially because part of the whole reason the Senate has such strong institutional protections is because Senators are supposed to be able to speak truth to power without fear of repercussion. But it’s clear that this isn’t what Beyak is doing, and they need to go to great lengths to prove it and to provide enough of a paper trail to show that there is no other choice to deal with her than expulsion, because this is a very dangerous precedent that they would be setting. More than anything, the measures they are recommending are done in the hopes that she does the honourable thing and resigns, though it remains to be seen if she will get that hint (given that she refuses to believe that she’s done anything wrong). This will be a slow process. People will need to be patient. Demanding her immediate removal will only make things worse.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau is set to announce new measures to help farmers hit by the canola trade dispute with China today.
• Chrystia Freeland says that social media companies need to take more responsibility for the content that gets published by their platforms.
• Freeland also called the news that China has sentenced a second Canadian prisoner to death as “inhumane.”
• Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz told the Commons finance committee that he sees economic recovery in the second half of the year, given the strong revenues.
• Veterans Affairs is backing off on plans to give case workers more time to respond to disability claims, but there are no clues as to how they’ll meet their targets.
• Davie Shipyard got a contract to refit Coast Guard vessels (but I expect demands for more Davie contracts to continue).
• The government is holding off on changes to Nutrition North in favour of more consultations with the new Inuit-Crown working group on food security.
• The Grand Chief of Kasheshewan wants a timeline on his community’s relocation, which the government can’t give yet. (They are still securing land for the new site).
• More than a decade ago, SNC-Lavalin was involved in an illegal political fundraising scheme that was investigated and dealt with, but it’s news again.
• Sikh members of the Canadian Armed Forces marched in a Khalsa Day parade in Toronto with their rifles in completely improper manner, leading to consternation.
• Andrew Scheer won’t say if he plans to meet the Paris climate targets.
• Celina Caesar-Chavannes gave her first major interview since she left caucus.
• Jason Kenney was sworn in as premier of Alberta, along with his Cabinet, and then went to a Senate hearing to threaten litigation if Bill C-48 is enacted.
• Kenney says he’ll proclaim the law that enables him to “turn off the taps” but won’t do so right away – never mind that it’s unconstitutional and will face litigation.
• Kevin Carmichael looks at how poor weather has been impacting the Canadian economy, and making Alberta’s situation worse.
• Chris Selley is having difficulty taking Andrew Scheer seriously after his pronouncement about the need for action on climate change, but won’t say what.
• Susan Delcaourt deciphers the various messages being sent by the political donation figures claimed by the various parties.
• My column calls out certain leaders who continue to lie about carbon prices when there are credible facts on the table that they won’t cost most Canadians.

Odds and ends:

The new $10 bill featuring Viola Desmond has been voted as the world’s best banknote by the International Bank Note Society.

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