QUESTION PERIOD — Ethics and Conflict of Interest for Senators
Business of Committee
May 1, 2019
Honourable senators, my question is to the chair of the Senate Ethics Committee in regard to the report that was tabled yesterday, and in particular on Recommendation 1 in that report, which states:
. . . that unless Senator Beyak has removed from her website the five letters that the Senate Ethics Officer has identified as containing racist content, the Senate administration be directed to immediately remove the letters.
How much longer will we have to wait for the racist letters to be removed from the Senate website? When will the Senate administration have to take action? Does this matter have to come back to this chamber for direction to the administration before the letters are removed if Senator Beyak continues to refuse to take them down?
Thank you. I will say that the committee has explored these issues. As you know, the process is that we filed our report and spoke to it yesterday. Within our code, there will be five working days to allow a reply from Senator Beyak. Should the Senate move at that point, and should the result of the decision of this place be that you accept our recommendation, it would happen immediately.
