Senator ran afoul of ethics rules
Tory tried to get girlfriend job perks in Senate
A Conservative senator violated Senate ethics rules when he tried to help his girlfriend gain employment perks in the upper chamber. But he shouldn’t be punished for the transgression, the Senate ethics watchdog says.
In a report released Wednesday, Senate ethics officer Lyse Ricard found that Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu tried to use his position to advance the private interests of Isabelle Lapointe when he attempted to get her two weeks of special leave between a job in his office and one with the Senate administration.
The report is the first finding by the Senate ethics office since its creation in 2005.
Ricard did not feel Boisvenu should be disciplined for the transgression, or for rehiring Lapointe. It is up to a committee of senators, however, to decide whether Boisvenu should face any sanctions for his actions. He will also have a chance to defend himself before the upper chamber’s conflict of interest committee.
Boisvenu did not respond to a request for comment. The senator who filed the initial complaint about him, Senate Liberal Celine Hervieux-Payette, declined to comment.
Boisvenu met Lapointe in 2010 and hired her that year as his executive assistant. She worked in his office until March 2013.
While Lapointe worked for Boisvenu, the two began an “on and off” relationship, Ricard wrote. The ethics office had previously warned the senator of a conflict of interest and said “the relationship should end.”
After Boisvenu repaid about $900 in improper housing expenses claimed while he was living with Lapointe in the summer of 2012, the relationship drew sharp media scrutiny.
Lapointe left Boisvenu’s office for the Senate’s administration on a six-month contract so she could transition to other work, Ricard wrote. She said senators and the administration wanted to make sure Lapointe “not be treated unfairly under the circumstances and not be penalized for the events that had transpired.”
The conflict probe centres on Lapointe asking Boisvenu for two weeks of leave before joining her new job; she wanted to take time away from the glare of media coverage. The Senate thought she was taking two weeks of vacation; Lapointe thought it was sick leave. She turned to Boisvenu for help and he intervened.
The internal economy committee warned Boisvenu he had crossed an ethical line.
“It is inappropriate for you to be involved in the management of employees of the Senate which are not under your direction and to continue to raise questions about her terms and conditions of employment,” reads a June 4, 2013, letter quoted in Ricard’s report. “Cease to do so immediately.”
Boisvenu argued he didn’t violate any part of the conflict of interest code because Lapointe was neither his spouse nor his common-law partner, which the Senate ethics rules cover.
He also argued that he acted as an employer trying to help her find new work.
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