Northwestern Ontario Senator Lynn Beyak has been suspended from the Senate.
The Senate accepted the recommendations of its ethic committee late yesterday which includes Beyak being suspended without pay for failing to remove letters containing racist comments from her website.
The recommendations also included Administration removing those letters.
As of this morning, none of the letters posted related to her discussion of Indian Residential Schools can be found on Beyak’s website.
In a speech before the vote, Beyak insists she’s done nothing wrong.
“The only conduct or action that is condemned is my refusal to censor Canadians and shut down debate about sensitive issues on which Canadians have expressed various opinions,” says Beyak.
She also called the sanctions leveled against her as excessively severe.
“The Senate Ethics Officer did not have jurisdiction to review the letters in issue as the letters were of Canadians exercising rights protected by the charter of rights and freedoms,” says Beyak.
Beyak also took issue with the lack of time given to her to respond to the Ethics Officers report which took a year to compile.
Beyak says she was given just two weeks to respond.
Beyak wanted her fellow Senators to delay the voted until next week so they could reflect on her 15-minute statement. No other Senator spoke in her defence before the vote was taken.
The suspension is only temporary.
She will be able to return to her seat following the October’s federal election.
