Brazeau: ‘I’ll be making a comeback’
He is fighting three separate criminal cases against him, but suspended senator Patrick Brazeau said he is plotting a comeback to the Upper Chamber, where he plans to serve as a “fully independent senator” and advocate on behalf of aboriginals.
“I’ll be making a political comeback,” he said in an interview. “At the end of the day, governments of every stripe have to stop putting roadblocks in front of what is aboriginal people’s rights and benefits.”
Brazeau’s tumultuous private life has led him from head of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and a Senate seat, to a boxing ring with Justin Trudeau, to a job at an Ottawa strip bar, to a Gatineau jail cell. But after a stint in rehab he said he’s healthy, busy writing a book, looking forward to the birth in October of his fifth child, and anticipating a return to public life.
On Friday, his lawyer will appear at the Ottawa courthouse to set a date for a fraud and breach of trust trial related to disputed Senate residency expenses. Brazeau last appeared in court last month in Gatineau on assault and sex assault charges. He has yet to appear in court on assault and cocaine charges from a separate incident last year at his current girlfriend’s home.
“With respect to all my charges before me, I’m going to fight vigorously and eventually I’m going to clear my name and I’m confident about that,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s just a matter of time.”
He is 40 years old, 35 years away from the mandatory Senate retirement age of 75. Lawyers say Brazeau’s confidence is not necessarily misplaced. He could be back in the chamber — and receive regular paycheques again — before all the cases are dealt with. His 2013 suspension only lasts as long as this parliamentary session, which will end sometime before this fall’s election call. Unless the Conservative-dominated body moves to suspend him again, Brazeau will be able to return. And in order to be permanently removed, he’d have to be convicted of fraud or breach of trust and be sentenced to more than two years in prison.
Rob Walsh, former law clerk of the House of Commons, said in an interview that unless that happens, Brazeau is going to get his old job back. “They could suspend him, but they’d have to do it every session,” Walsh said. “I don’t believe the Senate has the power to un-appoint a senator.”
The Constitution provides for a senator to be removed from office only in the event of a conviction of an indictable offence and a sentence of two years. The assault and sex assault charges Brazeau faces are summary charges, so even if he is convicted there, it shouldn’t prevent him from returning to the Senate. Brazeau could be found guilty of a number of charges and still return to the Senate, Walsh said.
“I’m not betting on it, but it could happen,” he said. Brazeau, who was appointed by Stephen Harper to the Senate in 2009, was suspended with pay in February, 2013, after he was charged with assault and sexual assault.
In November 2013, he was doubly suspended, this time without pay, along with fellow Conservative senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin, after Conservative senators voted to eject them, saying they had “claimed inappropriate expenses.” Duffy is currently on trial for 31 charges, including fraud and breach of trust related to disputed expense claims. In 2014, the RCMP charged Brazeau and former Liberal senator Mac Harb with fraud and breach of trust. Both are alleged to have falsely claimed living expenses for a primary residence outside the national capital region, which meant they were able to claim money under false pretences: $45,000 for Brazeau and $230,000 for Harb.
In court Friday, Brazeau’s lawyer, Christian Deslauriers, is expected to agree the trial will take place in February, by which time the Crown may know Duffy’s fate. Duffy’s lawyer, Donald Bayne, has been challenging the residency rules. If Bayne’s arguments succeed, the Crown may drop the Brazeau prosecution, lawyers say.
Brazeau, who spent two weeks in a court-ordered rehab centre after a violent incident at the Gatineau home he shares with his girlfriend last year, says he is doing well, and looking forward to becoming a father again. “I’m working a lot on my book and my legal cases. I’m loaded for bear.”
Debra Simms, who worked on his staff in the Senate, says she hopes that he eventually returns to his work as a senator. “I believe he has something to contribute to this country, something unique,” she said. “It’s the line he walks between the worlds. He’s a proud Quebecer, and he’s a proud Algonquin and he carries those traditions within him ... if tempered with time and age and wisdom, he could contribute something to where the country needs to go.”