Senators must be held accountable, even if it means being kicked out of upper chamber,

Senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau deserve no sympathy for the scrutiny of their expense practices, and they must ultimately be held accountable for their actions — even if that means being kicked out of the upper chamber. But accountability means more than whether Duffy or Wallin or Brazeau remains a senator.

The more important issue is that Canadians need to know the whole truth about the government’s interference with Senate expense claims, from the moment Duffy was appointed to his interactions with senior Conservative leaders and the role of the Prime Minister’s Office in his repayment.

Monday’s explosive news conference by Duffy’s lawyer, Donald Bayne, throws into question everything Canadians thought they knew about the expense claims. Bayne’s assertion that the PMO first assured Duffy his expense claims were in order, and then, against his wishes, pressured him to pay back the money to placate their restless political supporters, is deeply troubling. The idea that the PMO concocted a scheme, complete with talking points and payback money, and then threatened Duffy to either accept it or be kicked out of the Senate, is a serious allegation. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a responsibility to Canadians to explain what happened, how it happened and what he knew about it. It is not enough to talk about trade deals when a huge moral scandal is brewing in his front yard.

Serving in the Senate should be an honour and a privilege, not a means to line one’s pocket with taxpayers’ money. The Senate residency rules may be arcane and confusing, but there is a common sense standard that Canadians expect their politicians, including senators, to meet. Duffy’s claims may have met the letter of the apparently lax Senate residency rules, but they certainly didn’t seem to meet the spirit of the rules. Duffy and his colleagues must be held accountable.

But it is unclear whether the process Conservative leaders in the Senate are now pursuing to deal with their three colleagues is credible and fair. Accusing Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau of “gross negligence in the management of parliamentary resources,” Conservative leaders are scheduled to begin debate Tuesday on a motion that will end in the suspension of the trio for up to two years without pay. The Senate rules clearly allow the Conservatives to do what they are planning, even though some experts question how far they can go. In particular, the manner in which Senate Conservatives are going about it has raised troubling questions. Suspicions that three senators, all appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and once darlings of the party, have become an embarrassment and had to be got rid of, have been confirmed by Bayne’s assertions. The claim that the PMO was all along pulling the strings in the Duffy affair does not bode well for the future, and a better way must be found to deal with allegations of wrongdoing without political interference.

The RCMP is conducting a vigorous investigation but no charges have been laid. In time, we’ll know if there is any criminal wrongdoing. But there has to be a way to deal with extreme forms of abuse of power and ethical lapses even in cases that do not result in criminal investigation or charges. The mechanisms in place today to deal with senators who stand accused of breaking the rules are woefully inadequate and dependent on political whim. There has to be a clear ethical threshold beyond which a senator loses his or her job, whether the government of the day has decided to protect him or get rid of him.