A group of independent senators is calling for an investigation into whether letters posted this fall on Sen. Lynn Beyak‘s website violated the Red Chamber’s ethics rules.
The letters of support, many of which contained language deemed racist or offensive toward Indigenous Canadians, were posted by Beyak after she made controversial comments last year about what she perceived as the positive aspects of Canada’s residential school system.
Among other things, the letters accused Canada’s First Nations of “constant backward-looking mentality” and cited “a culture that will sit and wail until the government gives them stuff.”
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Conservative leader Andrew Scheer booted Beyak from his caucus last week after she allegedly refused to take the letters down. Beyak fired back at Scheer earlier this week, accusing him of being “an inexperienced leader” who bowed to political pressure.
Now, a number of members of the Independent Senators Group (ISG) are asking the Senate Ethics Officer to review if there have been any breaches of conduct related to the posting of the letters; specifically whether Beyak may have violated the Senate Ethics and Conflict of Interest Code by failing to “uphold the highest standards of dignity inherent to the position of Senator.”
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The ISG, formed in 2016, is made up of more than three dozen senators with no formal party affiliation.
“Many of the messages posted on Senator Beyak’s website are deeply offensive to Canadians,” wrote the ISG’s facilitator, Sen. Yuen Pau Woo, in a statement made public on Tuesday.
“They can only serve to set back the much-needed reconciliation of Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous Canadians … Hosting such material on a Senate of Canada web domain is not consistent with the role of the Upper House as a unifying force for the country and as a defender of minorities.”
The independent senators are also requesting that the Senate’s standing committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration have a discussion at its next meeting “on whether the posting of such materials on a website hosted by the Senate and paid for by public funds constitutes a misuse of Senate resources.”
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