OTTAWA—A Liberal senator was still at work — casting her vote along party lines a dozen times — four months after a geriatric psychiatrist declared her legally incompetent due to her worsening struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Liberal Senator Joyce Fairbairn, 72, has been receiving round-the-clock care for a year and a half due to her declining health from dementia and will not return to Ottawa for the time being, according to a letter her niece, Patricia McCullagh, sent to Senate officials earlier this month.

The letter, dated Aug. 13, says that a geriatric psychiatrist signed a declaration of incompetence for Fairbairn sometime in February and that in April, McCullagh and Leonard Kuchar, chief of staff to Liberal Senate Leader James Cowan, co-signed a power of care that made them agents acting on her behalf.

Senate attendance records show that Fairbairn regularly attended sittings in the Upper Chamber after being declared incompetent, missing seven sitting days between February and the end of session in June.

She was away on public business for five of those days, leaving only two absences unexplained.

She voted along Liberal lines a dozen times during that same time period, including seven times in June on the Copyright Act, the omnibus budget implementation bill and changes to the immigration and refugee system.

A record of debates in the Senate do not show her rising to speak at any point, although representatives from several agricultural organizations were her guests were in the gallery as her guests on Apr. 3 and some of her colleagues singled out her work on the agricultural committee and her championing of literacy on several occasions.

She also attended meetings of the Senate agriculture and forestry committee, although transcripts from those meetings suggest she did not actively participate in the questioning of witnesses.

The letter from McCullagh said that Fairbairn, a former journalist and political staffer who Pierre Trudeau appointed to the Senate in 1984, is currently being taken care of at her home in Lethbridge, Alta.

“I have just returned from Lethbridge, having spent one week with my Aunt, and regret to inform you that Senator Fairbairn’s awareness and memory have deteriorated further in the past month,” McCullagh wrote in the letter obtained by the Star, which was addressed to Gary O’Brien, clerk of the Senate, and copied to several senators and officials.

“Senator Fairbairn has considerable difficulty carrying out any of her duties as a Senator and will not return to Ottawa for the foreseeable future,” wrote McCullagh, adding she made this decision as Fairbairn’s “closest family member and primary Agent under her personal directive”.

Telephone and email requests to Fairbairn’s office went unanswered on Monday, as did an email to McCullagh.

Conservative Senator David Tkachuk (Sask.), who chairs the Senate committee on the internal economy, said the committee has asked for a copy of the declaration and is seeking legal advice on what to do next.

“This is a new thing that has come before us. We’ve never had this situation before, so we’re kind of breaking new ground here having someone write and state this about a senator and saying that she won’t be coming back. This has never happened,” Tkachuk, who was copied on the letter, said in an interview Monday.

“It’s a very tragic thing and it seems to be totally out of her control, which makes it even more tragic. I like Senator Fairbairn. She’s been a wonderful senator and I feel really bad for how this is all taking place. We served on agriculture together for years and she was a very good chair. So, it’s a very sad thing and I know something of the disease. My father had dementia, so this can’t be pleasant,” said Tkachuk.

Marc Roy, a spokesman for Cowan, who was also copied on the letter, would not comment on the letter.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“I’m not going to confirm who her lawyer, her doctor, her agent, her caregiver. All that is not public information,” Roy said Monday when asked about the role that Kuchar was playing as agent.

“Those are Senator Fairbairn’s personal affairs and they have nothing to do with her duty as a senator. I couldn’t confirm or comment on that more than I could confirm or talk about who her doctor or her lawyer or her psychiatrist is,” Roy said.