Senator’s relationship with teen girl condemned

Pastor says God and his family have forgiven him

OTTAWA — The Senate ethics officer says a Toronto-area senator broke the chamber’s code of conduct when he used the “weight, prestige and notability of his office” to have a sexual relationship with a “vulnerable” teenager.

In a long-awaited report released Thursday, Lyse Ricard said Don Meredith didn’t uphold the “highest standards of dignity inherent to the position of senator” and acted in a way that could damage the Senate itself.

The report found Meredith used his Senate cellphone for explicit chats, tried to help the woman land an internship on Parliament Hill, said he would appoint her to a committee looking at building a memorial to the first black soldier to receive the Victoria Cross, and seeing if he could help with her mother’s permanent-residency file.

“Senator Meredith brought into the relationship the power and influence of the office of senator, while Ms. M was a vulnerable teenager,” Ricard wrote in her, at times, blistering critique.

“That dynamic pervaded the entire relationship, from the time it was initiated through to when it became sexual.”

Ricard also said she believed Meredith had sex with the woman at least once before she turned 18, twice after she turned 18, and engaged in numerous sexually explicit chats with the woman. The report said Meredith acknowledged he had sexual relations at least once with the woman after she turned 18.

Meredith did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment on the report’s findings.

However, in a letter attached to the report, Meredith, an ordained pastor, told Ricard that he deeply regretted what happened, but that God, his wife, and his two children had forgiven him.

Meredith said he placed himself under the guidance of spiritual advisers, engaged in “continuous prayers of repentance” and sought the forgiveness of his family, went to counselling, started oneon-one ethical guidance with a former senator (who isn’t named in Meredith’s letter), completed a professional development course, and reviewed the ethics code.

“The lessons and habits that I have learned from these efforts will ensure that any breach of the code will never be repeated,” Meredith wrote.

However, Ricard said the measures weren’t enough and don’t remedy the harm his actions caused the Senate.

It will now be left to senators to decide what, if any, punishments Meredith will face. Appointed by former prime minister Stephen Harper, Meredith quit the Conservative caucus in June 2015 after the Toronto Star reported on the relationship. Meredith now sits as an independent.

Ricard said the two met in at a Black History Month event at a church in Ottawa in February 2013 where Meredith, then 48 years old, was a speaker.

The two then started text messaging and speaking on the phone.

As for her age, the report says the woman told Meredith three weeks after meeting that she was 16, but Meredith told Ricard he could not recall when that happened. Ricard sided with the woman’s version of events.