Just Cause

"There are some people who believe that there should only be disciplinary action taken if a senator is found guilty or is charged with criminal wrong-doing. I don't think, and I don't think most Canadians believe, that that is an acceptable standard. It is beyond a shadow of a doubt that these senators collected up to six figures worth of ineligible expenses, did so willingly and over a long period of time. What I think most Canadians would say is that, if you did that in your work, your boss would not wait until you were convicted of a crime. Your boss would say that that alone requires that action is taken in terms of your job. To say, 'Just repay the money', we are way past that stage in these cases. What Canadians expect is that when people abuse a position of trust at this level over this time period and this clearly, there will be appropriate action taken that removes them from the public payroll."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Once news hounds grip a story that they feel has immeasurable traction they become bulldogs, unwilling to let it go, indulging in the giddy perception that they are performing a huge service to the country in revealing corruption where none should exist, betraying the Public Trust. No one within the public, on the other hand, unless they are perpetually in a state of self-delusion, believes that those elevated to political office whether by popular vote or appointment, is anything but human.

Those human beings for the most part think of themselves as decent people, as people who dedicate themselves to furthering the public weal, and in their belief in self, feel they are entitled to respect and to the emoluments that result from the office they hold. What greater respect than to sit in the House of Commons, or in the Senate; to be a part of the Parliament of Canada? Sometimes their situation simply is too much to bear and dreams of entitlements capture their spirits.

Government revenues represent a huge treasury, and it all too often seems impersonal, amorphous, there to be used, or to be taken for causes meant to further the agenda of government serving the public. That furtherance can be reflected in new services to the public, or it can be reflected, in the opinion of the entitled, in claiming greater entitlements. Three senators chose the last route, while convincing themselves they were creating the first route.

Within the general public people know that if an employer in private enterprise feels they have cause to be displeased with the performance of an employee, that employee can be dismissed. In the case of an employee being found engaged in activities useful to himself but injurious to the company, this is considered reason for discharge. Employers in Canada have the legal right to fire employees they feel do not serve the interests of the employer.

Due process can be served legally in Canadian law once an employee is fired if they seek redress for "wrongful" dismissal. If everyone who was ever let go from a job in the private sector made the kind of denials of wrong-doing and insistence on reconsideration that is being seen in the case of Senators Patrick Brazeau, Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy in the face of charges of feather-nesting, chaos would result.

But the three senators feel entitled in reflection of their Senate appointments. They are the elite within society.

Meriting public attention and the helpful scrutiny of the news media to uncover wrong-doing by their employers, while themselves insisting that fault lies not with them but with the actions of others. Their lack of meretricious judgement is what impaled them on the stake of restitution of what they wrongfully, unethically claimed, but with the skill of their former livelihoods they aid the very news-gathering-and-issuing community they were once part of.

Senators Wallin and Duffy in particular brazenly claimed a gaspingly large sum of money for themselves in recompense for situations they personally felt themselves imperiously entitled to receive. Yet Senator Duffy has the unmitigated gall to claim that he is innocent of suspicion that he bilked the taxpayer of considerable sums of treasury, and was forced to explain himself at the demand of the PMO. He will not go willingly into the dark night of infamy without besmirching Mr. Harper.



Everyone adheres to the valuable notion that justice must be done, and it must be seen to be done fairly. Although the actions and activities of the senators were not quite fair to those who trusted them, we can do better, and we await the formality of charge-and-trial before discipline may be enacted. But what is being considered as discipline is not the cessation of employment, but a hiatus and the punishment of the suspension being unpaid, for good measure.

If the three people involved in this imbroglio bent out of all proportions to the importance it has in the business of administering the affairs of the country were to see their demands met, why shouldn't all Canadians who are hired and fired demand equal treatment? Even ordinary Canadians who hold executive positions in companies are susceptible to being let go if they are suspected of having been dishonest; why should appointed senators who flagrantly abuse trust placed in them be treated differently?

They had the opportunity to intimately address their peers in the Senate, denying all charges of improper conduct, despite the clear and consistent evidence that has been revealed to the contrary. That the PMO staff made an attempt to protect the Prime Minister from a back-lash is understandable enough. That the Prime Minister of Canada was complicit in this whole unfortunate affair is a charge that cannot be seriously considered. His personal character flinches from any such association.

If ordinary Canadians must observe the norms of decent, honourable and trustful behaviour in the commission of their employment, why should those expectations be relaxed in relation to extraordinary Canadians given the opportunity to serve their country and choosing instead to immorally serve themselves at the expense of their country?