The fate of Sen. Don Meredith continued to hang in the balance Tuesday as the Senate’s ethics committee heard from Meredith himself about his past relationship with a teenage girl.
The embattled senator appeared before the committee members Tuesday morning, but the meeting was held behind closed doors. He finished his testimony around 11 a.m.
Reporters were blocked from the entrance to the committee room and Meredith was able to enter and leave without having to face questions.
READ MORE: Expelling Don Meredith from the Senate will be no easy task
Meredith’s lawyer, Bill Trudell, told reporters he anticipates the committee may want to meet his client again before reporting to the Senate as a whole with recommendations for how to move forward. The chamber will then debate how to resolve the matter.
“Sen. Meredith … will not be making any public statements, and we won’t either, of course, out of respect for the committee’s process,” he added.
The committee chair, Conservative Sen. Raynell Andreychuk, also said the committee’s work is ongoing and the group will be looking “at all the factors.”
“We had a good session with him, a lengthy session,” Andreychuk said. “That’s all I can say.”
Meredith is facing sanctions and possibly expulsion from the upper chamber following an ethics report that outlined an inappropriate relationship between the married 52-year-old senator and a teenager. The two had a sexual relationship, although Meredith maintains it did not begin until after she turned 18.
The report from ethics officer Lyse Ricard also found that Meredith had explicit online chats with the teen, and offered to help her parents and to get her an internship in the Senate.
WATCH: NDP demands Liberals to condemn Sen. Don Meredith actions
Outside the committee room on Tuesday, independent Sen. Anne Cools (who does not sit on the committee) said it’s important that Meredith be treated fairly by both the committee and the Senate.
“It should be fair and judicious,” Cools said of the process going forward.
New rules for ethics and potential conflict of interest cases were adopted by the Senate in 2014, but Cools said she’s unsure if rules linked to upholding “the highest standards of dignity” apply to a senator’s personal, private affairs.
The woman involved was also above the age of consent, Cools noted, calling the case “a slippery slope.”
But Sen. Andre Pratte, who was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, disagreed.
Pratte, who recently called on Meredith to step down in an open letter, reiterated on Tuesday that he can’t see how Meredith could possibly remain in his job given the circumstances. He said he’s hoping to Senate can find a way to expel him, following due process.
“When you do not act according to your duties … you do not have a place in this chamber,” Pratte said.
“I think that Mr. Meredith has not acted according to the duties of a senator, and (according) to the code of ethics. In fact he has violated the code of ethics in a very egregious manner and therefore he has no place in the Senate, in my view.”
Although suspending Meredith without pay would not be especially difficult, expelling him permanently would actually be unprecedented.
The Senate has very specific rules for when and how a member should be expelled, losing the title of senator. A permanent dismissal can be triggered in five situations under the Constitution Act (extended absence, bankruptcy, treason/criminal conviction, failure to meet residency requirements or declaring allegiance to a foreign power).
None of those situations apply to Meredith.
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