(Ottawa) Two members of the Independent Senators Group say local police and the Senate security team have launched an investigation into threats that forced one of them to spend last weekend in a safe location.
Published at 8:50 p.m.
Mia Rabson The Canadian Press
This situation is part of debates in the Senate over Bill C-234, which aims to exempt certain fuels used by farmers from federal carbon pricing.
On Tuesday, Quebec Senator Raymonde Saint-Germain raised a question of privilege when she reported that she and her Ontario counterpart, Bernadette Clement, were physically and verbally intimidated by other senators in the chamber on November 9.
According to Ms. Saint-Germain, some senators would not have liked it if Ms. Clement had postponed debate on Bill C-234 instead of quickly passing it.
“After violently throwing away his earpiece, the Leader of the Opposition (Senator Don Plett) stood in front of Senator Clement and I, who were sitting in our seats, shouting and swearing at us for introducing this current affairs motion that would have allowed the debate to take place the following week after our return,” Ms. Saint-Germain said during her privilege question.
“Such an aggressive stance against a common practice aimed at prolonging the debate – and, by the way, often practiced by the opposition – highlighted the strong pressure to pass this bill on this day and violated the right of senators “to do their job appropriately,” in his opinion.
In addition to the incident in the chamber, the situation would have been broadcast on social networks when conservative senators distributed an image that looked like a wanted poster asking people to call and “harass” Ms Clement and Chantal Petitclerc. Another senator asked them why they wanted to limit debate on the bill.
According to Ms Saint-Germain, this situation is regrettable.
“I think it’s a wake-up call for our democracy,” she said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Wednesday.
Follow the protocol
For her part, Ms. Clement revealed that a very angry man called her to her office and threatened to come to her home in Cornwall, Ontario. After discussions with the Parliamentary Protection Service and Cornwall Police, the senator decided not to stay at home and spend the weekend somewhere safe.
“In general, I feel safe at home. But there they told me that was not the case,” the senator explained, adding that the two police forces reminded her of the importance of following protocol.
So she went to her apartment in downtown Ottawa, which she uses during Senate sessions and where she has her own security system. Police also advised him to keep his Parliament-provided panic button nearby.
Chad Maxwell, field operations inspector with Cornwall Police Service, confirmed on Wednesday that an investigation had been launched into the matter.
“The Cornwall Police Service is aware of the current situation regarding Senator Bernadette Clement and is in contact with the Parliamentary Protective Service,” Mr Maxwell said.
“These online threats and harassment are unacceptable and are taken very seriously by police. »
A bill that stirs passions
The private member’s bill, proposed by a Conservative MP, calls for removing from carbon pricing natural gas and propane, which farmers use to heat their buildings or run their grain dryers.
Since its adoption in the House of Commons last year, Conservative senators have put a lot of pressure on it to win quick approval from the House of Lords.
There remains a period of debate before a final vote in the Senate can push it through.
The bill received little attention in its early days, but has come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks, particularly since the Liberals voted to exempt home heating oil from carbon pricing for three years.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre therefore launched a large-scale attempt to pass Bill C-234 as part of his campaign to abolish the carbon tax entirely. He accused the Liberals of trying to prevent the bill from passing in the Senate.
Before the question of privilege was raised on Tuesday, Senator Plett, who leads the Conservative caucus in the Senate, returned to his role in that heated debate.
“No one is happy about what happened this Thursday and everyone has their reasons,” he said.
“I don’t like being called a bully. I don’t like acting like a bully either, but I am a passionate person. I am passionate and committed to defending the causes I care about. I will never apologize for this. I will fight vehemently to defend these causes and my party, but I want to do it with respect, colleagues, and if I didn’t do it at our last meeting, it was unacceptable. »
Several senators spoke in support of Senators Saint-Germain and Clement, acknowledging that the behavior they witnessed was unacceptable.