CANADA
EXPENSES SCANDAL IN THE CANADIAN SENATE
Rt Hon. Stephen Harper, MP
In June 2013, the summer recess arrived as the government of the Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, MP, was dealing with several cases. In May, three Conservative Senators resigned from caucus while they were being investigated for allegedly claiming ineligible expenses and the Prime Minister accepted the resignation of his Chief of Staff, Mr Nigel Wright, who allegedly reimbursed Senator Duffy after the latter repaid some of the ineligible expenses he had claimed. By proroguing Parliament and launching a new session with a Speech of the Throne, Prime Minister Harper was probably hoping that the Senate expenses case would disappear from the public attention, but this was not to be the case.
Speech from the Throne On 16 October 2013, the Governor General, Rt. Hon. David Johnston, opened the Second Session of the 41st Parliament by reading the Speech from the Throne. It did not launch major new policy initiatives, but rather
reasserted the government’s commitment to Conservative policies. On the law and order side, it pledged to introduce legislation to implement a Canadian Victims Bill of Rights and legislation aimed at curtailing cyberbullying in the wake of several prominent incidents in which the victims committed suicide. On the fiscal side, the government vowed to rebalance the budget and to put in place legislation that would mandate a return to balanced budgets following times of economic crisis. The government also recommitted to reducing the size and cost of government and announced a programme to sell federal assets. The Speech from the Throne also announced the introduction of various consumer measures, such as more stringent regulation of cellphone charges. As far as the Senate
is unacceptable. The Senate must be reformed or, as with its provincial counterparts, vanish. The government will proceed
and questioning the work of the Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration, which was in charge of the matter. The suspension motions also
caused a procedural imbroglio when Mr Carignan moved time allocation to force their adoption. The move had been ruled out of order by the Speaker of the Senate, Hon. Noël Kinsella, as the suspension motions had not initially been moved as items of government business and time allocation motions are limited to government business.
Hon. Noël Kinsella
upon receiving the advice of the Supreme Court”.
Senate expenses scandal and Senate reform
Hon. Claude Carignan
was concerned, the Governor General said “the government continues to believe the status quo in the Senate of Canada
The first item of business for Parliament in the new session was the suspension of Senators who had allegedly made ineligible claims for travel and housing expenses. The new Leader of the Government in the Senate, Hon. Claude Carignan, moved motions for the suspension of Senators Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau and Pamela Wallin. (Liberal Senator Mac Harb, who was also alleged to have made ineligible claims for housing expenses, resigned from the Upper Chamber in August.) The adoption of the suspension motions proved contentious, with Senators questioning whether the Senators’ rights to due process had been respected
Mr Thomas Mulcair, MP
A motion for the suspension of the three Senators was eventually moved as an item of government business. Time allocation was imposed, and the motion was carried on 5 November with some members of the government caucus voting against it or abstaining. As these debates were unfolding in the Senate, in the House of Commons the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Thomas Mulcair, MP, persistently questioned
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