PARLIAMENT HILL—The Senator who leads 35 Independent Senators in the Upper Chamber says it “grieves” her to eject a fellow Senator, but GTA Ind. Sen. Don Meredith’s breach of the Senate’s ethics and conflict of interest code was so serious it will need a “surgical tool to cure it.”

“I’m grieving. It hurts,” said Alberta Independent Senator Elaine McCoy, the facilitator of the Independent Senators Group, in an interview with The Hill Times. “Personally, I do support their recommendation [to expel Sen. Meredith]. It grieves me to do so, but I think it’s just gone too far. We need a surgical tool to cure this particular breach of the ethics code.”

In an historic ruling, the Senate Ethics and Conflict of Interest Committee recommended last week that Sen. Meredith be expelled from the Chamber for having an inappropriate relationship with a teenage girl. It would be the first time in history that a Senator has been expelled from the Upper Chamber. The report released on May 2 determined that the GTA Senator “abused his privileged position of authority and trust” by engaging in a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl, which continued for two years.

“Senator Meredith’s conduct has compromised his ability to continue to serve as a member of the Senate,” the five-member committee consisting of three former judges and two lawyers wrote in their report. “Senator Meredith has shown a serious lapse in judgment” which undermined “the especial trust and confidence” placed on him when he was summoned to the Senate. He has abused his privileged position of authority and trust by engaging in behaviour that is incompatible with his office. He has brought disrepute to himself and to the institution. Your committee is of the opinion that Senator Meredith’s misconduct has demonstrated that he is unfit to serve as a senator. His presence in the chamber would in itself discredit the institution. No lesser sanction than expulsion would repair the harm he has done to the Senate.”

The committee, chaired by Saskatchewan Conservative Sen. Raynell Andreychuk, held six formal in-camera meetings between March and early May to review the issue and make the recommendation against the Toronto Senator.

In one of the meetings, Sen. Meredith, who is a Pentecostal minister and married father of two, along with his lawyer, appeared before the committee to argue against expulsion.

According to the Ethics Committee report, Sen. Meredith’s lawyer Bill Trudell had suggested a two-year suspension without pay as the appropriate sanction, but the committee rejected it.

The 99 sitting members of the Upper Chamber will now vote on the committee’s recommendation this week likely on Wednesday, May 10. In the 105-member Red Chamber, six seats are vacant. Of the 99 Senators, there are 39 Conservative Senators, 18 Liberal, 35 belong to the Ind. Senators Group and six Senators are not affiliated with any caucus.

It would require a simple majority to expel Sen. Meredith from the Upper Chamber. So, if 50 of the 99 Senators voted for the Ethics Committee, the GTA Senator will be ousted from the Senate.

According to Senate procedure, the Senate has a minimum of five and a maximum of 15 sitting days to consider and vote on the Senate Ethics Committee’s recommendation. If Sen. Meredith chooses to speak in his own defence in the Chamber, the vote can be taken the same day he makes his remarks.

When Parliament is in session, the Senate sits on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. But this week the Senate will sit on Monday to expedite the process and complete the minimum of five days required required the vote sooner.

“We’re sitting Monday so we accelerate the process,” said Sen. McCoy. “We don’t think it’s good for him or us or Canada to drag this thing out.”

If a majority of Senators vote in favour of the ouster, this will be the first time in the history of the Senate that a Senator would be expelled. Sen. Meredith could avoid this by resigning from his seat before the Senators vote on it.

Sen. Meredith did not respond to an interview request last week, and it was not clear if he had any plans to speak in his defence in the Senate or if he had any plans to resign. But Sen. Meredith has apologized and said he deeply regrets his sexual relationship with the girl.

The Senate Ethics Committee took up the issue after the Senate Ethics Officer Lyse Ricard found Sen. Meredith in breach of the Senate’s ethics and conflict of interest code for having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a teenager. The relationship between Sen. Meredith, and the girl, who is referred to as Ms. M, started when the girl was 16 and continued for two years.

“I have concluded that Sen. Meredith breached subsections 7.1(1) and 7.1(2) of the code in the circumstances surrounding the relationship he had with a teenager, Ms. M.,” Ms. Ricard said in her May 9 report. She stated that at all times during this relationship Sen. Meredith did not treat this relationship with Ms. M as a “personal matter.” There was an “obvious imbalance of power” where Sen. Meredith was in a position of authority while Ms. M remained in a position of “relative youth and vulnerability,” Ms. Ricard wrote.

She said the Senator violated both subsections that required from all members of the Red Chamber to uphold the highest standards of dignity inherent to the position of Senator and that a Senator refrain from acting in a way that could reflect adversely on the position of Senator or the institution of the Senate.”

Ms. Ricard wrote that in the “improper relationship,” there was an obvious imbalance of power” between Sen. Meredith who was 48 and Ms. M who was 16.

“He engaged in a physical sexual relationship with Ms. M that included two encounters before she turned 18, one of which involved intercourse, and two encounters just after she turned eighteen, both of which involved intercourse. He also engaged in numerous sexually explicit chats with Ms. M.,” the Senate ethics officer wrote.

Sen. Meredith has denied that he had sex with Ms. M before she was 18-years old and has publicly apologized for his actions.

Prior to Ms. Ricard’s report, Sen. Meredith was a member of the Senate National Security and Defence; and Aboriginal Peoples Committees.

But, after the report came out, he was dropped from both committees.

Also, before the report came out, Sen. Meredith was a member of the Independent Senators’ Group led by Sen. McCoy. He was dropped from the Group after the report.

Sen. Meredith was booted out of the Conservative Party’s national parliamentary caucus in June 2015 when The Toronto Star first reported the Senator’s relationship with the teenager. The then-Senate Speaker Leo Housakos (Wellington, Que.) asked the Senate ethics officer to undertake an inquiry.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper appointed Sen. Meredith to the Upper Chamber in 2010. In a 2008 by-election in the GTA riding of Toronto Centre, he ran unsuccessfully for the Conservative Party. Sen. Meredith came in fourth place behind the Liberals, the NDP, and the Green Party.

Presently, Ms. Ricard is conducting two more investigations against Sen. Meredith, including one into allegations of workplace harassment from some of Sen. Meredith’s former staffers, and another into a trip he led to the Caribbean in 2015 that included his business partner.

Recently, The Huffington Post interviewed some of Sen. Meredith’s former staffers who alleged that the Toronto Senator harassed and sexually abused staff for years. In some instances, a female staffer said that Sen. Meredith used the intimacy of prayer to “touch her breast and her bottom.”

“The way that his religion prays is to actually put a hand on the person next to you— and he would use that excuse to touch me more than just putting his hand on my shoulder for the prayer,” the former staffer told The Huffington Post.

Prior to the release of the Senate ethics officer’s report in March, the Independent Senators Group decided to send Sen. Meredith and Manitoba Ind. Sen. Marilou McPherdan to the Untied Nations Status of Women Conference in New York. Sen. McCoy changed her mind after Conservative Senators protested against it, arguing that the GTA Senator was under investigation facing an inappropriate sexual relationship and sexual harassment charges. Sen. McCoy, however, defended her initial decision at the time explaining to The Hill Times that Sen. Meredith was “innocent until proven guilty.”

Meanwhile, Sen. McCoy told The Hill Times last week that she would vote in favour of Sen. Meredith’s expulsion and added that it appears a majority of the Senate would do the same.

Quebec Ind. Sen. André Pratte told The Hill Times that he would vote in support of the Ethics Committee’s recommendation.

“It’s sad in a way still because it’s not a joyful occasion when you’re thinking of throwing out someone after doing what Mr. Meredith did,” said Sen. Pratte.

Nova Scotia Liberal Sen. Terry Mercer also said he would vote for the expulsion of Sen. Meredith, but said he was disappointed that this issue arose in the first place.

“I’m disappointed that we’re having this conversation at all that somebody has done something that’s prompted this complaint and report and a review by the Ethics Committee,” said Sen. Mercer. “I stand by the report of the Ethics Committee.”

Quebec Conservative Sen. Claude Carignan (Mille Isles, Que.) said he’s keeping an open mind on how to vote on the recommendation to expel Senator Meredith from the Red Chamber. He said he would make his final decision after Sen. Meredith makes his remarks in the Senate. Sen. Carignan, who in the past served as the government Senate leader and leader of the opposition, said voting on this issue will not be “easy” for him, but will do it because it’s his “constitutional duty.”

“It’s our constitutional duty, sometimes we have to vote, it’s very difficult and it’s a vote that we have to decide,” said Sen. Carignan. “It’s something that is not easy, but you have to do. You have to take a decision and you have to decide. It’s why we’re here.”

The Hill Times