Senate must expel Meredith
Don Meredith could save himself and everyone else a lot of bother by simply resigning his seat in the Senate immediately. The longer he drags out the process of removing him from the upper chamber, the worse for him and the institution.
The Senate’s ethics committee is right to recommend that Meredith be expelled for carrying on a two-year affair with a teenage girl. The Senate is struggling to rebuild credibility among Canadians, and any lesser penalty would undermine its reputation even further.
The committee is forthright in condemning Meredith’s actions, as it should be. “He has abused his privileged position of authority and trust by engaging in behaviour that is incompatible with his office,” it concluded. “He has brought disrepute to himself and the institution. His presence in the chamber would in itself discredit the institution. No lesser sanction than expulsion would repair the harm he has done to the Senate.”
This is the most severe penalty the Senate can impose, and it has never been used before in the institution’s history. But it is the only penalty that would be proportionate to the offence.
Meredith’s conduct has been egregious. An ordained pastor and counselor to youth, he began the relationship in early 2013, when the girl was only 16 years old and he was 48. The Senate’s ethics officer found that he used his position to “lure or attract” her into an affair that turned sexual when she was just 17. It was an appalling breach of trust.
Meredith’s conduct since the affair came to light in 2015 has also been discreditable.
He acknowledged responsibility only in March, after the ethics officer’s damning report. Even then he admitted only to a “moral failing.”
As a Pentecostal pastor, he should know better than most people where his responsibilities lie. He should long ago have faced up to what he did, resigned his position, and started on the long road to redemption. Forgiveness is possible, but it starts by assuming responsibility and expressing true contrition.
Instead, he dragged out the investigation and ignored calls by fellow senators to step down. At one point he even blamed racism for condemnation of his actions. He made an awful situation even worse.
Meredith will have an opportunity to address the Senate before it votes on his fate. Rather than continue on this course, he would be better advised to accept the ethics committee’s judgment, apologize and step aside.
The Senate has been buffeted for years by charges of misconduct, mostly financial, by some of its members. It became a laughingstock, even an object of contempt, among Canadians.
But it has lately embarked on a journey to win back respect by adopting stricter rules of conduct. And the Trudeau government has taken positive steps by appointing more independent senators and trying to make the chamber less overtly partisan.
The Senate will help itself along that path if it deals swiftly and decisively with Meredith. Anything less will damage the institution even further.