Senator’s trip to women’s summit nixed amid scandal
Meredith is under fire for relationship with teen girl
OTTAWA— Disgraced Sen. Don Meredith, under fire for his sexual relationship with a teenage girl, was scheduled to attend a United Nations conference on the status of women this week before internal protests scuttled the trip.
Delegates from around the world have convened in New York for the annual meeting of the Commission on Status of Women, which began Monday. The organization is “dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women,” according to the United Nations.
A Conservative senator originally scheduled to attend was forced to cancel. The Independent Senate Group, a group of senators, named Meredith, one of their members, as a last-minute substitution, Conservative Sen. Don Plett told the Star.
At the time, Meredith was under an ethics investigation after the Toronto Star revealed his sexual relationship with the teenage girl.
“I found out about it and put an immediate stop to it,” Plett said.
“There is no way on this Earth that Don Meredith is going to a status of women conference when he’s under investigation for unethical activity with regards to a young woman,” Plett said. “It would be absolutely, entirely inappropriate for him to go on his trip.”
Last week, the Senate ethics overseer published a report concluding Meredith violated “the highest standards of dignity” of the Senate when he “lured” a teenage girl into a sexual relationship.
Several of his colleagues have since called for his resignation, including the leader of the government in the Senate, members of the independent group and Conservatives.
Meredith’s office turned down an interview request on Tuesday and declined to comment on the report and multiple calls for the senator to step down.
The Senate’s ethics committee, which has the power to recommend sanctions on Meredith or potentially compel him to step down if he refuses to resign, is scheduled to hold an in-camera meeting on March 22.
The Ontario senator resigned from the Conservative caucus soon after the Star revealed details of his relationship with the young woman last year, but he was taken in by the Independent Senators Group.