The senate debacle is bad, not only for the Conservative
Party but for the country. For too long this establishment has taken Canadians
for granted. As appointed members of the Upper House they not only enjoy many
perks but it seems that some of them may
also enjoy a different form of justice.
The case of Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau
has shed a light on how brazen these
people can be in their use of public funds. It seems that the rules can be
interpreted in many ways so as to extort as much as possible from the public purse.
The rules which has sunk these three senators is about the
expenses claimed, among other things, for the use of an address used to claim their
main place of residence. It appears that on top of some other expenses which
have been deemed to be out of line, the main problem is that these senators
claimed that their place of residence was in the constituency they represent.
That is P.E.I, Quebec and Saskatchewan. But it seems that all three of them
rarely spent any time in these abodes and more importantly were rarely seen to
be in the residences.
The more important question is why the delay and high drama
theatre being used to deal with this matter. In the private sector people who
are found to have breached rules of employment are summarily dismissed. They
are also allowed due process if they so wish and address their grievances in
court, post dismissal. Here what is interesting is that these people get the
opportunity to waste time in the senate to argue their case in front of their
peers. Who in many cases may be suffering from ‘cold feet’ because they may be
found to have perhaps broken some of the rules themselves.
As a result all three senators are using their membership in
the senate to release information about their treatment at the hands of the PM
and the Senate majority. These bits and pieces of troubling information may or
may not be true. The result of the RCMP investigation is yet to be released. At
this time it seems that it may well be a case of ‘he said and I said’. The
somewhat daily revelations are like the ‘dance of the seven veils’. While Mr.
Duffy’s performance may not be erotic it is certainly very revealing on how the
system works and how entitled the performer feels.
The Prime Minister
who appointed these senators finds himself in a very precarious situation,
since he did not take immediate action when these troubling facts were first
released. The role of the PM’s staff is even more troubling. Did they or did
they not inform the PM when the $ 90,000 and legal expense fees transactions
were taking place? If not what else do they not divulge to the PM? Or is it
that the PM is so embarrassed by his decision to appoint three persons that I
would never consider as true conservatives to the Senate.. Or is fighting an
internal move by the Progressive Conservative members in his caucus to assert
themselves before any change in future leadership? Because it seems to me that
the reluctance to punish these alleged culprits is coming from senators from
the East rather than those from the West,who express their opinion, may be not
publicly, but want to deal with this issue as soon as possible.
Furthermore it is clear that the public is
taking a very dim look at the PM’s performance as is reflected in the latest
polls, which now places him behind the two other leaders of the opposition.
There are far more important issues to discuss and this is a distraction of enormous
proportion that may lead to the demise of the government, which as a result may
derail the economic gains that Canada has enjoyed over many of its competitors. Politics continues to be a theatre, that citizens do not
want to pay for with their hard earned money.
Get rid of the three senators, and let them fight it
in court if they so wish, but get rid of them now. May be this incident may
give rise to stopping the ‘Kabuki’ and the dance of the seven veils’ by
abolishing the Senate . Canadians have had enough.Marcel Latouche
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