Senate cracks down on racist posts

OTTAWA• The Senate’ s ethics officer says Sen. Lynn Beyak violated the upper chamber’s conflict-of-interest code by posting racist letters about Indigenous people on her website.

Pierre Legault says Beyak’s conduct did not uphold the highest standards of dignity required, nor did she perform her duties with dignity, honour and integrity or refrain from acting in a way that could reflect negatively on the Senate, as per the code.

Legault says he proposed that Beyak delete the racist letters from her website, post a formal apology and complete a cultural sensitivity course with an emphasis on Indigenous issues, but she hasn’t done those things.

Beyak posted the letters to show she had support for a Senate speech she gave January 2018, in which she argued residential schools did a lot of good for Indigenous children, although many suffered physical and sexual abuse and thousands died from disease and malnutrition.

In a report Tuesday, Legault concludes five of the letters contained racist content, suggesting Indigenous people are lazy, chronic whiners who are milking the residential-school issue to get government handouts.

Beyak was appointed to the Senate in 2013 by former prime minister Stephen Harper. She was kicked out of the Conservative caucus last year after refusing to remove the letters from her website.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer had been urged by a number of Indigenous leaders, including Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde, to remove Beyak from caucus following her remarks about residential schools.

Beyak responded by taking shots at Scheer. “When an inexperienced leader wins by a small margin, and does not adequately consider other viewpoints, some wisdom and common sense are lost.”