Senator urged to quit post over ‘disgusting’ behaviour

Damning ethics probe finds he used position to lure teen

OTTAWA— Senators are condemning the “disgusting” behaviour of Don Meredith and want the disgraced Ontario senator to quit his seat after an ethics probe concluded he broke the rules with his sexual relationship with a teenage girl.

“It’s pretty disgusting behaviour and certainly we have no place for that kind of behaviour from people sitting in the Senate,” Sen. Vern White said Friday, after the release of a damning ethics investigation into Meredith’s conduct.

“I thought he should have resigned back when it first came out . . . He should find himself another place to work,” said White, a former police officer.

Conservative Sen. David Wells said that Meredith should not “walk through the doors again.”

“I don’t think the Senate is any place for a person of that character. The things he has done are disgusting. They’re wrong by any measure,” Wells told reporters on Friday.

“I would also encourage Sen. Meredith to do the right thing, for once, and resign,” Wells said.

Sen. Elaine McCoy said she personally told Meredith in a phone conversation Friday that he should step down, imploring him to do what she called the “honourable thing.”

“He’s considering what his next steps will be, but when I spoke to him earlier he had not made a decision,” McCoy said. “I don’t think he’s had a chance really to consider all his options.”

McCoy leads the Independent Senator’s Group in the upper chamber. Meredith had joined the group after he quit the Conservative caucus when the Star first revealed details of the affair in 2015.

On Friday, Meredith was asked to leave that group too, McCoy said.

Released Thursday, the 30-page report by Senate ethics officer Lyse Ricard goes into disturbing detail about Meredith’s relationship with the teen, referred to as “Ms. M.”

It concludes that Meredith used the “weight, prestige and notability” of his Senate position to “lure or attract Ms. M, a teenager, who by virtue of her age, was necessarily vulnerable.”

“His conduct was substantially intermingled with his role as a senator,” the report said, noting that he used his Senate cellphone to call the teen and invited her to his Senate office.

He also tried to get the woman a committee appointment and an internship on Parliament Hill and engaged with her parents about doing business together.

“Sen. Meredith failed to uphold the highest standards of dignity inherent to the position of the Senate,” Ricard wrote.

The findings of the investigation have now been referred to the Senate’s ethics committee for deliberation. While the Senate is not due to resume sitting until the end of March, senators are calling on the committee to meet as quickly as possible.

The committee could decide on sanctions, to be confirmed by the Senate, that could include suspension, as it did in 2013 when it suspended three senators without pay over their expense claims.

But senators were unsure Friday whether they have the power to outright expel a senator, a move that would be unprecedented.

“It is debatable as to whether or not the Senate has the authority to force a resignation,” said Sen. Peter Harder, the government representative in the Senate.

Harder said he was unable to reach Meredith Friday and instead wrote him a letter, urging him to “exhibit judgment” and give up his Senate seat.

“I would urge you to adopt the proper course of action to prevent further trauma to persons who have been directly affected by your conduct,” Harder said in his letter.

Meredith did not respond to a request for comment.