CANADIAN  SENATE:  It  needs  vast  improvement  (Part I)

The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch (represented by the governor general). The Senate is modeled after the House of Lords in England and consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. The term, ‘advice’ simply means that the prime minister is the only person who can choose who in Canada is to be a senator because unlike the Americans, they are not elected to this office.

The Senate is the upper house of the Canadian Parliament, and the House of Commons is the lower house. This does not, however, imply that the Senate is more powerful than the House of Commons, but rather its members and officers outrank the members and officers of the House of Commons in the order of precedence for the purposes of protocol. As a matter of practice and custom, the Commons is by far the dominant chamber. Although the approval of both houses is necessary for legislation, the Senate rarely rejects bills passed by the directly elected Commons but it can if the Senate is convinced that the proposed bill is contrary to the interests of Canadians in general.

There are two reasons why I feel that the membership of the Senate should be brought about by electing the members rather than by appointing them by the prime minister.

The first reason is that the prime minister picks who he or she wants on the basis of who is a member of his political party and whom he believes will vote in favour of any legislation he proposes. This means that the decisions of the Senate may be heavily slanted in his favour by the members he picked. 

Unfortunately, there have been times when the choices of senators by prime ministers have definitely been the wrong ones. Some people should never be trusted to serve Canadians in any capacity and especially if they are to serve as members of the Canadian Senate which is a life position, at least until they turn 75. I am going to give you an example of an undesirable person whom the Prime Minister of Canada (Stephen Harper) chose to be Canadian senator. Fortunately, there haven’t been many senators in the Canadian Senate like this man I am going to present to you.  

Patrick Brazeau

Stephen Harper sought out this young, brash aboriginal leader, making him, at age 34, the youngest Canadian senator ever, who is looking at an annual salary of more than $132,000 and job security for more than four decades when he turns 75 in 2049. He was sworn in as a senator in January 2009.

One is forced to ask this rhetorical question; “Why did Canada’s Prime Minister Harper choose Patrick Brazeau to be a senator?”  The answer is obvious. Brazeau is an aboriginal and a member of Harper’s political party. He was also the national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples from November 2006 until he was forced to resign in January 2009. Prior to his resignation as chief, he had immediately announced he would continue his six-figure job as head of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples after he was informed that Harper was going to send him to the Senate—that is until he was convinced that such unseemly double-dipping was officially discouraged.

It is right however that Canadian aboriginals should sit in the Canadian Senate so that the concerns of the aboriginals can be addressed.

Ms. Sandra Lovelace Nicholas is an aboriginal in the Canadian Senate and she has been a driving force in securing rights for Aboriginal women in Canada. She continues to make her home on the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick.

Liliam Eva-Dyke is an aboriginal from the Gordon Frist Nation in Saskatchewan (where I worked in the 1950s as a senior supervisor at the only Indian residential school on the reserve. She was no doubt one of the students in that school when I was there). She is also a member of the Canadian Senate. She is well-known as an advocate for women and Aboriginals and is a leading figure and role model in Canada’s scientific community.

With these two aboriginal members already in the Senate, why would Harper choose Brazeau, to serve in the Senate so that he could address the concerns of aboriginals? One of the reasons was probably because from February 2006 until January 2009 Brazeau held the position of national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.

This appointment of Brazeau to the Senate concerned Angus Toulouse, Ontario who is the representative at the Assembly of First Nations and who is backed up by every tribal council and chief across his province, when he wrote a letter of complaint about Brazeau to Parliament on February 9, 2013

“I am writing on behalf of the Political Confederacy of Chiefs in Ontario to declare our opposition to the current practice of parliamentary officials characterizing Senator Patrick Brazeau as a legitimate representative of the Indigenous Peoples in Ontario. Senator Brazeau was never elected to lead or to represent a First Nation in Canada. He has no authority to speak to our issues. Such authority can only come from our people. I’ve sat in the back seat of a police car, but that doesn’t make me a police officer. And, similarly, just because Brazeau comes from the Kitigan Zibi reserve (north of Ottawa), that doesn’t give him the right to officially speak on behalf of all of its people; (especially) when it comes to every reserve in Ontario. The only people Patrick Brazeau truly speaks for is—Patrick Brazeau.” 

My following statement was published in the Internet on February 10, 2013.

“I agree with Angus Toulouse when he says that Senator Patrick Brazeau does not speak for all aboriginals. In fact, his sordid history in the Senate is evidence that even if he did speak for all aboriginals, his statements would be highly suspect as would be his motives. If there was ever a reason for electing senators, this fiasco with Brazeau is proof positive that prime ministers should never appoint senators to that high office. Senators should be elected and there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Brazeau would never, ever be seriously considered as a candidate if senators were elected instead of being appointed by the prime minister.”

Furthermore, whereas senators are expected to represent the good in society, Brazeau represents the worst in society.  He is a deadbeat who aside from driving an expensive Porsche; has fallen behind in his child support payments. He is indifferent on how he treats people he doesn’t like such as Canadian press reporter, Jennifer Ditchburn who said something about him he didn’t approve of and he subsequently retaliated by Twittering her a message that said  that the D in  her last name should be changed to the letter B. She had reported that Brazeau was woefully absent from the Senate and that he was within days of being fined by the Senate for those absences. Between June 2011 and April 2012, he only attended 18 of the 72 sittings. There was a CTV news in 2008 that said that from 2004 until 2008, Brazeau used the address of his now former father-in-law who lives in the Kitigan Zibi First Nation reserve in order for him to claim an aboriginal tax exemption when in fact he wasn’t living in his father-in-law’s home.  His home is actually across the river from Parliament Hill and he has another in Gatineau, both being in Quebec. In November 20, 2012, a media report said that Brazeau was collecting a housing allowance available to senators who live 100 or more kilometres outside of Ottawa by claiming his home is actually in Maniwaki, Quebec, which is about 135 kilometres north of Ottawa. Residents there say they have rarely, if ever, seen him in that home. Senators who live more than 100 kilometres outside of Ottawa can have a second residence in the National Capital Region and receive up to $21,000 a year to cover that expense. He was getting that additional money on top of his salary of $132,000. No doubt, he will have to pay that extra money back. I should add that two other senators are being investigated for the same reason that Brazeau is.

On February 7^th of this year, Brazeau was arrested at his home in Gatineau for the crime of assault and sexual assault which allegedly took place in his home. Of course the allegations are only allegations at present. He has however been ordered by the court to stay away from the woman he allegedly assaulted.

The government Senate leader, Marjory LeBreton, sent a letter to Brazeau’s office and to the Liberal caucus members informing them of his removal from the Liberal caucus.

Brazeau can still sit as an independent in the Senate but that isn’t going to happen. 

When the Senate resumes sitting on the 12^th of February, (the day after this article appears in my blog) Brazeau will be on a forced leave of absence, which preserves his $132,000-a-year salary but restricts his access to benefits which includes, access to government funds, goods and services along with home and moving expenses, transportation, travel and communications expenses.

Prime Minister Harper couldn’t stomach this man anymore. He publicly stated— “Obviously over a recent period, something has been going very wrong, and that is the reason for the situation that has developed. We all feel very let down.”

It has been suggested that if each province chooses to hold elections for senators, the prime minister will choose which ones who won the elections as to who is to sit in the Senate chamber. That is a stupid idea. Prime ministers are not the best people to make those kinds of appointments. Mackenzie King made decisions by reading his tea leaves, Brian Mulroney’s honesty was seriously in doubt while he was prime minister and Stephen Harper appointed Brazeau to the Senate chamber despite the fact that he was warned about Brazeau’s sordid background. I also suggest that hearings should be held to determine if there are any questions about the honesty of any elected senator before he or she is permitted to sit in the Senate chamber.

The vast majority of Canadian senators do an excellent job. They play an important role in our parliamentary system. But like all organizations, you get swaggering buffoons and dishonest people in them and like festering boils on our backsides; they are painful to live with. But like boils, they must be lanced so that these pus-like things can be excised from the body politic. 

UPDATE:

On February 12, 2013, the Canadian Senate voted by an overwhelming majority vote that Brazeau was to be suspended from entering the Senate Chamber on a motion brought before the Senate that he take a leave of absence.  The order said;

"In order to protect the dignity and the reputation of the Senate and the public trust and confidence in Parliament, the Senate orders a leave of absence for the Honourable Senator Brazeau to last until this order is rescinded."  He will still get his salary of $132,000 paid for by Canadian taxpayers while waiting for a final verdict from the court. 

If he is convicted of the charges against him, the order will not be rescinded. He could drag his case out for years while appealing his verdict if he is convicted and all that time, he will still be collecting his salary.