Crime and Punishment

The venerable and honourable Senate of Canada gave the matter of three of its sitting members sober second thought as to actions to be taken to indicate the general opprobrium of their self-serving, unethical behaviour to use taxpayer money to benefit themselves personally. And, as a result, some element of consequences for such scurrilous entitlement has alerted all within the Senate that their privileged position comes with responsibilities that must be acknowledged and honourably acted upon.

"A severe disciplinary action against three senators who clearly had a pattern of behaviour which clearly abused the rules of the Senate. That's quite different than making an honest mistake.
"I don't think that this sets a precedent which would carry forward into the future to other parliamentarians, but I think it's a bad day for the Senate."
Liberal Senate leader James Cowan

"It's never easy. When I was a police chief, the most difficult thing you ever do is discipline people. It's extremely difficult, but you have to do what you have to do."
Conservative Senator Vern White, former Ottawa Chief of Police

"It is very important that you know I am not a thief, a scammer, a drunken Indian, a drug addict, a failed experiment or a human tragedy. Your father is a man who took things at face value, who maybe didn't question things enough. I never deliberately sought to take anything that did not belong to me. I was trying to follow the rules but, somewhere along the way, something went wrong and I'm here for it now, and I don't understand why."
Senator Patrick Brazeau, addressing the Senate after the confirming vote of suspension, in an exculpatory message to his children

OTTAWA, ON: NOVEMBER 5, 2013– Senator Patrick Brazeau arrives on Parliament Hill as senators prepare to vote on a motion to suspend embattled Senators Patrick Brazeau, Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy for their improper expenses in Ottawa on Tuesday, November 5, 2013. The Senate voted to suspend Brazeau without pay 50 yays, 29 nays and 13 abstentions. (Justin Tang for National Post)

"I said to one senator, 'I've never seen anything like this in the senate. I'm not here today to pass judgement on any of these senators, but I just feel pretty tied up about this whole issue. What we've seen here is a trial, a very public trial, and in some ways it hurts to watch this happening this way."
Liberal Senator Jim Munson

NOVEMBER 5, 2013– Senator Pamela Wallin steps after speaking to reporters as she leaves the Senate on Parliament Hill after being suspended along with Senators Patrick Brazeau and Mike Duffy for their improper expenses in Ottawa on Tuesday, November 5, 2013. The Senate voted to suspend Wallin without pay 52 yays, 27 nays and 12 abstentions. (Justin Tang for National Post)

"It's a question of (whether it's) gross negligence versus a simple error. If there are other people who behaved in the same way, we have to expect the same type of sanctions."
Government leader in the Senate, Claude Carignan

They must live with their conscience, but it appears that their consciences are completely clear. They have repeatedly said that they have done nothing wrong. That "nothing wrong" claim hasn't passed the most casual of smell tests. From evidence presented from a variety of sources, not the least of which is an ongoing RCMP investigation, Senators Pamela Wallin, Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy and Mac Harb all embarked on an interpretation of Senate entitlements that were clearly unethical.

Former Senator Harb, although threatening to sue for the suggestion that he had set out to enrich himself at the expense of the taxpayer, claiming housing allowance entitlements for a primary residence which was in unlivable condition, and another that he also never resided within while being a long-time owner of a number of Ottawa properties, wisely chose early withdrawal from the Senate, to safely secure his pension.

Which left Mike Duffy whose heart was too heavy with grief to attend the Senate meeting on 5 November to hear the verdict of his peers, and Senator Wallin to speak heavy-heartedly about the lack of democracy in the land of her forebears, and Senator Brazeau to assure his children through a speech he aired in the Senate chamber that their father is an honourable man whom detractors set out to discredit through sheer malevolence.

All will now forego their salaries and any perquisites relating to their positions in the Senate. No use of Senate chambers of electronic devices, no travel expense claims, no (sigh!) respect due them through the manner of their now very-public malfeasance. But their health and dental and pension benefits to remain intact. The suspension of pay and privilege is meant for a two-year-period or until this session of the Senate is complete.

Before that time, legal action will doubtless be taken on the basis of evidence that is being accrued through the RCMP investigation into claims that the Conservative-appointed  trio (oh, and Liberal Senator Harb as well) abused their privileges and entitlements at a quite steep cost to the treasury of the land. Should criminal prosecution succeed, all three remaining and disgraced Senators will then be out of luck, unable to re-enter the Senate. And justice will have been done.

The NDP is all for abolishing the Senate. This position was stated clearly well before the scandal erupted, engulfing government and tarnishing the PMO in the opinion of the voting public as a result of journalists having extended themselves on a collective expedition of payback for the Prime Minister's penchant for making himself unavailable for interviews.

The Liberal leader had advanced to his Senate caucus abstention rather than "defend these three people who have abused the public purse and the public trust."

There might have been some suspense over whether the Senate vote to suspend the three Senators would pass, given some measure of support for allowing the investigation to conclude before passing judgement, but within the Senate Chamber, though some colleagues attempted wanly to support their offending colleagues, the vast majority passed their opinion of the offending actions in clear disgust of the three claiming that justice failed them.