Senator ran afoul of ethics rules over girlfriend’s job
Report says no to punishment
OTTAWA — A Quebec Conservative senator violated Senate ethics rules when he tried to help his girlfriend gain employment perks in the upper chamber. But he shouldn’t be punished, the Senate ethics watchdog says.
In a report Wednesday, Senate ethics officer Lyse Ricard found that Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu tried to use his position to advance the interests of Isabelle Lapointe when he attempted to get her two weeks of leave between a job in his office and one with the Senate’s administration.
The report is the first find- ing by the Senate ethics office since its creation in 2005.
Ricard did not feel Boisvenu should be disciplined for the transgression, or for rehiring Lapointe.
It is up to a committee of senators, not to Ricard, to decide whether Boisvenu should face any sanctions for his actions. He will have a chance to defend himself before the upper chamber’s conflict of interest committee.
Boisvenu did not respond to a request for comment. The senator who filed the initial complaint about him, Céline Hervieux-Payette, a Quebec Liberal, declined to comment.
Boisvenu met Lapointe in 2010 and hired her that year as his executive assistant. She worked in his office until March 2013.
While Lapointe worked for Boisvenu, the two began an “on-and-off ” relationship, Ricard wrote. The ethics office had previously warned Boisvenu of a conflict of interest and told him “the relationship should end.”
It was only after Boisvenu repaid about $900 in improper housing expenses claimed while he was living with Lapointe in the summer of 2012 that the relationship came under heightened public and media scrutiny.