Senator tried to censor damning report
Detailing his affair with teenager would breach their privacy rights and ‘harm’ Senate, Meredith said
Sen. Don Meredith tried to keep secret the lurid details of his affair with a teenage girl, Senate ethics documents reveal.
“The publication of the report would put all parties at risk of serious emotional and other harm,” Meredith wrote in a letter to the Senate investigator one week ago. “Publication would also harm the institution of the Senate.”
Lyse Ricard, the Senate ethics officer, refused his request and the report was published late Thursday.
A few days before sending the letter, Meredith had also attempted through his lawyer to censor the damning report, saying it would breach his privacy and that of the woman with whom he had the relationship.
A Pentecostal minister who was appointed to the Senate in 2010, Meredith was the focus of a Star investigation in 2015 over a two-year sexual relationship with a young woman that began in 2013, when she was 16 and he was 48. Ricard’s investigation found that Meredith violated “the highest standards of dignity” of the Canadian Senate when he “lured” the girl into a sexual relationship, despite how “vulnerable” she was due to her age.
The report as published first takes the reader through the challenges Ricard faced. Meredith objected to the probe, questioning whether Senate ethics rules covered the allegations, and saying whatever he did with the teen was on personal time. But Ricard determined that the code of conduct applies broadly and that a senator must uphold the highest standards in both public and private life.
Then came the police. After Ricard first interviewed the complainant (called “Ms. M” in the report), she determined that the case might be criminal and passed the file to the Ottawa police in September 2015. The police later closed the file because the woman was concerned that her identity would be released through a court proceeding and decided not to give a statement to police.
Ricard took up the case again. She promised Ms. M confidentiality and interviewed her twice, and Meredith twice. Meredith had no texts or emails, saying he had deleted them all. Ms. M provided a series of texts, emails and correspondence from Skype and Viber. Meredith’s government cellphone records also showed multiple calls to her number.
Ricard concluded that Ms. M was more credible.
The report describes how a meeting at a church function in 2013 led to a full-blown sexual relationship. At first, there were flirtatious chats. Then Meredith asked the teen to send naked or partially naked photos of herself. At times, they used Skype or Viber to have video sex. Meredith was either in his taxpayer-paid suite at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, in his church office at the GTA Faith Alliance north of Toronto, or in his home office in the Toronto area.
The report goes into great detail about the intimate relationship, stating Meredith would masturbate while looking at the girl on a screen. As for their sexual play, the report says Meredith told her “this is what adults do.” During their two-year liaison, she called him “uncle” or “daddy.” He called her “daughter,” which Meredith, when interviewed, told Ricard was a “running joke” between them. On one occasion, Meredith introduced her to his wife and daughter.
Early on in their relationship, he invited the teen to his hotel room and promised he would “only take off his socks,” the report says. That encounter ended up as just dinner at a restaurant. Later, she did visit his room. There, he would fondle her. His pants would be down, her top would be off. They had intercourse once before she turned 18 and twice after, the report states. She was a virgin when she met Meredith and the report notes that Meredith, in a Viber message exchange, told her “no rush baby, no rush.”
Their liaisons typically involved dinner, with intimate times at either his hotel room or her apartment. On one occasion, the report says, she returned to his Chateau Laurier room to collect some takeout food after a sexual encounter and Meredith flew into a rage — angry, he said, because somebody might see her. “I am a student and food means a great deal to me,” she told Meredith in a text.
The report notes that Meredith wanted Ricard to prepare two reports, private and public, leaving out most of the detail from the public report. Ricard determined that her report had to tell the full story because the “details are essential to understanding the narrative” and because of the “need to promote public confidence in the fact-finding process.”
While questioning him, the Senate officer told Meredith that Ms. M alleged the senator said he “could introduce (her) to people in the future.” Meredith said he did not recall this, but told Ricard he is always looking out for “how we can help to promote our young people.” Kevin Donovan can be reached at 416-312-3503 or kdonovan@thestar.ca.