Lynn Beyak was under fire for posting racist letters against Indigenous people on her official Senate website.

OTTAWA – A Senate inquiry committee has ruled Dryden Senator Lynn Beyak breached the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Code for Senators.

Pierre Legault, the senate ethics officer who released the 57-page report on Tuesday, said Beyak breached sections 7.1 and 7.2 of the Code by posting five letters on her Senate website that contained racist content.

Legault said he has ordered Beyak to remove racist letters from her Senate website, to make a formal apology for posting the letters in question and finally to complete a cultural sensitivity course with an emphasis on Indigenous issues.

Beyak has to date refused to agree to any of the conditions.

The anti-Indigenous letters were written in support of Beyak’s controversial remarks in the Senate regarding residential schools, saying the Truth and Reconciliation Commission failed by not “focusing on the good” of the “well-intentioned” institutions.

They included statements like, ”These people need to join the commerce world and work for money,” and another whose author wrote, “When all you need is to ask for an increase of benefits, why work?”

The inquiry was the result of four separate complaints, the first from Senator Frances Lankin, dated Jan. 12, 2018. Senator Andre Pratte, Senator Raymond Gagne and Senatore Ratna Omidvar followed suit with complaints of their own.

The complainants said by posting the letters on her Senate website, Beyak gave credence to their content, essentially endorsing their opinions as her own. Additionally, her actions undermined the credibility of the Senate and its senators.

Legault agreed.

“Posting racist letters is incompatible with upholding the highest standards of dignity inherent in the position of Senator. Senators are expected to protect Canada’s values and to represent the underrepresented, not to publish material on their Senate websites that denigrate them,” he said.

Beyak, who was eventually kicked out of the Conservative caucus by leader Andrew Scheer, doubled down on her rhetoric during the inquiry, which included two interviews under oath.

In a written submission, she said after she made her residential schools speech, many people, including Indigenous people, backed up her position.

“The good that has resulted in happy and productive lives is just coming to the fore and deserves to be told as well. That doesn’t excuse or diminish the abuse in any way. It just gives a balance,” she said.

Beyak added she chose to only post letters with positive outlooks on residential schools because she wanted her website to provide a better path forward.

“There is nothing on my website that says I want a dialogue about this. I am posting the positive side of the residential schools story. The dialogue is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, which is public and has been for three years, and that side of the story is well-known,” Beyak said.

“My website is the positive story of the good in the residential schools, and to open a dialogue on that. The open dialogue is to get the positive side of the story out there.”

Beyak also denied the segments of the letters that drew criticism were racist, especially when read in the context of the entire letter, assuring Legault if she thought they were she would not have posted them.

“In my view, there is no racism in Canada. Right now there are groups putting people into silos, trying to divide us, by saying that we have racism against violence, we have racism against indigenous people, Ukrainian, white privilege --- I find those people racist. Those who seek to divide us are the racists. The rest of us are Canadians. We all bleed the same colour, we all live together in peace and harmony. That’s the way Canada is supposed to be,” she said.



Legault said it’s his finding that Beyak demonstrated a “lack of awareness about racism in Canadian society.”

Beyak initially agreed to remove the letters, but rescinded the offer. She told the inquiry she would not agree to the second or third conditions, the apology and the sensitivity classes.