On August 12, 2015
© By John Arkelian
The dysfunction that permeates Canada’s Senate is far more pervasive than the revelations of unethical expense claims of recent months and the pernicious attempt by the Prime Minister’s Office to cover them up – however squalid those events are. Mike Duffy had no business claiming housing or living expenses in Ottawa (which was clearly his principal residence) on the flimsy fiction that his primary residence was in Prince Edward Island. Even if the Senate rules were so abjectly inadequate as to technically ‘permit’ such a claim, making such a claim had everything to do with cynical self interest and nothing to do with honorable stewardship of the public interest (and the public purse). Selfish greed and personal integrity are mutually incompatible. We now know that Duffy was far from alone in taking undue advantage of flimsy Senate rules: Other Senators, too, have chosen to put personal profit over personal integrity – by cynically using weak expense claim rules and weak oversight to their own advantage. Such behavior is insupportable – and it should result in permanent expulsion from the Senate, with a termination of the malfeasors’ Senate salaries and pensions. Equally outrageous is the fact the Senate has operated for countless years without adequate rules governing expense claims – without adequate rules, adequate oversight, or public transparency. There is no mystery as to how to establish such rules, oversight, enforcement, and public transparency. That they have been lacking all these many years suggests that the people we entrust with the levers of government prefer flimsy regulatory systems that they can twist and turn to their own selfish advantage.
Furthermore, it is long overdue that clear, sensible, transparent, and enforceable rules be established to govern precisely what constitutes “residency” in a particular province or region sufficient to qualify a person to represent that province or region in the Senate. Up till now, the government has clearly preferred lax, vague, and flimsy rules – to enable them to appoint a political crony who may have only a tenuous connection (like Duffy’s summer cottage) to the province they are purporting to represent. Lax, flimsy, and vague rules are all the better for manipulating things to the partisan advantage of whichever party happens to be in power. That’s no way to run a modern democratic country.
Then there is the involvement of the PMO. As the tab for Duffy’s dubious claims grew, the hitherto indulgent Prime Minister finally decreed that Duffy must repay the money, lest the growing political scandal damage Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party brand. Duffy refused. But a solution materialized. Nigel Wright, who was Harper’s chief of staff, paid the $90,000 bill himself, while the taxpayers were actively deceived into believing that Duffy had relented and was repaying his own contentious expenses. Before that happened, however, Wright told Duffy that he needed to run the plan by his boss. “Good to go from the PM” was the message Wright subsequently sent Duffy. Does anyone, can anyone, reasonably believe, in light of those words, that Stephen Harper himself was aware of, and approved of, the indirect repayment of Duffy’s tab? The payment in question is being characterized as bribery by the RCMP: It’s part of the 31 criminal charges against Duffy for fraud, breach of trust, and bribery. But, here’s a glaring puzzle: How can the recipient of the bribe (Duffy) be charged with a criminal offense while the man giving the bribe (Wright) is not? It makes no sense – legally or ethically. And the optics are rotten: It smacks of selective prosecution. And, is there anyone who believes that Nigel Wright was truly making a gift of $90,000 of his own money to Duffy? We’ve heard that there are “discretionary funds” within the PMO and perhaps also within the Conservative Party. Basic common sense (and human nature) suggests that Wright would be quietly reimbursed from one of those sources (away from public scrutiny) for his grandly benevolent out-of-pocket “gift” to Duffy. True, there has been nothing in the news to suggest such reimbursement was in the wings; nor have we seen media speculation on the point. But what reasonable man can believe that some such scheme was not quietly in the minds of those involved?
Those are the some of the recent indictments in the court of public opinion against Duffy, the Senate, and the PMO. But there is an even deeper malaise – one that goes back to the very founding of the country. It’s the ill-considered manner in which the “Fathers of Confederation” established the upper house of the Canadian Parliament in the first place. Why are Senators appointed (rather than elected)? Why are they appointed by one man (the Prime Minister)? Why were they appointed for life for most of the Senate’s history (with a retirement age, of 75, only being added later)? Remember the mantra of the old Reform Party, that the Senate should be refashioned to become “Equal, Elected, and Effective?” That model is the only acceptable one. Senators should be directly elected by the citizens of Canada – for fixed terms, and with term limits. There should be an equal number of Senators from every province (to balance the representation according to population model that applies, more or less, in the House of Commons). Or, if Canadians prefer, we could have an equal number of Senators from each region of the country (rather than each province). And, the constitution should be amended to provide a meaningful, effective role for the Senate vis-à-vis the House of Commons: If it doesn’t have real, meaningful powers, then there is no reason for it to exist.
John Arkelian is an award-winning author and journalist with a background in international and constitutional law, criminal prosecutions, and diplomacy.
Copyright © 2015 by John Arkelian.