Senators vote to suspend Brazeau, Duffy, Wallin without pay
Posted Nov 5, 2013 05:56:12 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Senators have voted to suspend colleagues Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin for allegedly claiming improper living and travel expenses.
The three former members of the Conservative caucus will retain their health, dental and life insurance benefits, but will be barred from the upper chamber for the duration of the parliamentary session, which could last another two years.
Senators voted 50-29 to suspend Brazeau, with 13 abstentions, and 52-28 to suspend Duffy, with 11 abstentions. In Wallin’s case, the vote was 52-27, with 12 abstentions.
While the voting ends a protracted debate in the upper chamber over the suspensions, the bombshells lobbed by Duffy during that debate are still reverberating for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government.
Harper endured another question period grilling today, this time about a letter that shows the RCMP is seeking documents that “may potentially be evidence of criminal wrongdoing” by some in the Prime Minister’s Office.
In particular, investigators are looking for emails related to a “script” Duffy said he was given by the PMO to cover up the fact that Nigel Wright, Harper’s chief of staff at the time, gave him $90,000 to repay his disallowed expenses.
