Sen. Don Meredith, who tendered his resignation yesterday amid a sex scandal, is “entitled” to his pension, his lawyer said.
“He has worked to engage with Canadians, the pension [is] vested, and I believe that he’s entitled to it.”
READ MORE: Disgraced Sen. Don Meredith resigns after sex scandal
Meredith was appointed to the Senate in December 2010 under then-prime minister Stephen Harper, and joined the Conservative caucus. He was kicked out of caucus in 2015, when allegations of an affair with a teenager surfaced.
Last month, the Senate ethics commissioner found Meredith guilty of violating the upper chamber’s ethics code, and a committee studying the matter subsequently recommended his expulsion.
WATCH: Does the Senate’s proposed punishment fit Don Meredith’s crime?
Such a move – unprecedented in the Senate’s history – would have required a vote which could have taken place as early as today, one day after Meredith announced his resignation.
But to suggest he jumped before he was pushed is not fair, Trudell said.
READ MORE: Expel Meredith, Senate ethics committee says
“Only a few days have passed … from the time the committee reported,” he said Wednesday morning.
“But [that time] has been spent looking at the options, looking at the power of the Senate to expel and really looking at the big picture. And, I think Senator Meredith said in his statement, the Senate is bigger than him.”
In his statement Tuesday, Meredith said he recognized that the Senate is more important than his “moral failings,” and hoped his absence from the chamber allows his peers to focus on other work.
Pension confusion
Despite any ethical violations, Meredith will indeed keep his $25,000 annual pension, calculated based on his six years in the Senate and his annual salary. Payments can begin in just over two years, when he turns 55.
WATCH: Historic Senate decision to remove Don Meredith
On Tuesday, the Senate directed all questions surrounding the senator’s pension to the Treasury Board. On Wednesday afternoon, the Treasury Board clarified that rules for pensions are set out under the Members of Parliament Retiring Allowances Act.
While there had been some suggestion that the government could somehow intervene and strip Meredith of his pension, that’s not the case.
“The Treasury Board does not have the unilateral authority to intervene or change the pension entitlements under the Members of Parliament Retiring Allowances Act,” an emailed statement from the Treasury Board read.
“Any changes would require a legislative amendment by Parliament.”
Changing the law would, in other words, require introducing a bill to amend it. Then MPs would vote on it, and if it passed the House, the Senate would vote on it. And any changes would apply to all parliamentarians, not just Meredith.
By resigning, the disgraced senator may have saved himself from being stripped of his pension upon expulsion. The Treasury Board confirmed that “if a member ceases to be a Senator by reason of disqualification, or if a member of the House of Commons is expelled, they are only entitled to receive a return of their (pension) contributions plus interest.”
It’s unclear if Meredith would have been subject to a similar return of contributions, plus interest, if he had been forced out. He did not fit any of the requirements for “disqualification” from the Senate, and it would have been the first Senate expulsion in Canadian history.
Senate ethics officer Lyse Ricard concluded earlier this year that Meredith, a 52-year-old married Pentecostal minister, had failed to uphold the “highest standards of dignity inherent to the position of senator” and acted in a way that could damage the Senate itself.
READ MORE: Don Meredith won’t address former aide’s allegations, lawyer says
She said Meredith began a relationship with an unidentified minor when she was just 16 and progressed from flirtatious online chats to fondling, sexually explicit live videos and, eventually, to sexual intercourse – once shortly before she turned 18 and twice after.
WATCH: Sen. Andre Pratte demands Meredith be removed from the Senate
Ricard also concluded that Meredith had abused his position as a senator to take advantage of the teen.
Meredith had called the affair a “moral failing” but insisted he did not have intercourse with the girl until after she turned 18.
— With files from The Canadian Press and Monique Scotti.