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OTTAWA — The Senate took an unprecedented step Thursday by moving to suspend three embattled senators without pay — even though none has been formally charged with wrongdoing and one expects to take a medical leave.

The RCMP are investigating allegations of misspending against senators Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau and Pamela Wallin.

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The government Senate leader, Claude Carignan, told the Senate Thursday afternoon that all three should be suspended without pay due to “gross negligence” in their use of taxpayer dollars.

Carignan argued the suspensions should be made to protect the dignity of the Senate, and the public trust in the chamber, which has taken a beating over revelations of misspending and ethical lapses by some of its members.

None of the three faces charges from the Mounties, but their colleagues in the Senate are to vote on whether they should be removed from the red chamber until the end of the parliamentary session, an undefined period of time that could end in the fall of 2015 when the next federal election is scheduled.

Under Senate rules, the upper chamber can take whatever actions it needs to protect itself, even if it means withdrawing the parliamentary privileges of its members.

Duffy was not in the chamber Thursday. Neither were Wallin or Brazeau as the Senate returned for a new session from prorogation but the motions to suspend all three were introduced.