Senate Sex Scandal Latest Headache for Canada PM
One lawmaker, a clergyman aged 50, allegedly had sex with a teenage girl. Another is on trial for fraud. Dozens are accused of padding their expense accounts.
Welcome to Canada's Senate, which Prime Minister Stephen Harper once tried to abolish.
The deliberative chamber is an un-elected body that critics say is more about rewarding party members than representing Canadians.
Harper failed to close it and probably regrets that, as the Senate more than ever a thorn in his side.
Scandals there are threatening his Conservative Party's chances for re-election in October.
The latest embarrassment saw Harper remove a senator from the Conservative caucus over allegations he sex with a teenager.
That triggered a Senate investigation Thursday.
Another senator is on trial for fraud and bribery linked to the prime minister's former chief of staff.
Two more have been suspended and 30 were criticized by the auditor general last week for filing inappropriate expenses totaling nearly Can$1 million.
This included nine cases referred to federal police for criminal investigation.
With polls predicting a close result in the October 19 election, the controversies are fueling public discontent that has become a drag on the Conservatives' popularity.
The latest mess involves a Pentecostal pastor appointed by Harper in 2010.
Senator Don Meredith, 50, was kicked out of the Tory party on Wednesday after a teenage girl came forward with allegations they had a two-year affair.
The young woman told the daily Toronto Star they began a relationship in 2013 when she was 16.
-- Online, then real, sex? --
She alleges they had sexually explicit online chats, in which she exposed herself and he masturbated on camera, and after she turned 18 they had intercourse twice.
Meredith, she said, broke off the relationship earlier this year, saying in a text message: "God... (is) not happy with me."
The age of consent for sexual relations in Canada is 16. It rises to 18 if there is exploitation or a relationship of trust, authority or dependency.
On Thursday, Senate Speaker Leo Housakos referred the "very serious allegations" to the upper chamber's ethics committee.
Housakos says in a letter to the ethics officer that Meredith "may have improperly used his position of trust and authority as a senator."
Meredith is also under investigation by the Senate after four former female employees in his office and four other Senate staffers alleged he made sexual advances.
Harper has regularly called for the Senate to be abolished during more than a decade in opposition and since coming to power in 2006.
The chamber's power is centered in the east, and Harper hails from the west of the sprawling country.
He appeared to give up after the Supreme Court last year rejected his reform plan.
In this electoral campaign his rivals The New Democrats have picked up the torch, pledging to abolish the body, even though experts warn it is not a realistic option.
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau proposed stripping senators of their party affiliations but that backfired when Liberal senators simply refused to sever ties with the party.
Under the current system, senators from various regions of Canada are appointed by the governor general -- the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth -- on the advice of Canada's prime minister and can hold their seats until they turn 75.
Critics say successive federal governments have stacked it with party hacks, organizers and supporters.
Harper himself appointed 59 of the current 116 senators, including his former secretary.
Constitutionally, any changes to the Senate require the support of seven of 10 provinces representing 50 percent of the population.
Abolishing the Senate would require unanimity, the high court affirmed last year.
Abolitionists and reformers also face opposition from several provinces fearing a dilution of their share of Senate seats, and from senators themselves.
Source: Agence France Presse
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