QUESTION PERIOD — Prime Minister’s Office
Revocation of Honorific Style and Title of “Honourable” from Former Senator Don Meredith
December 2, 2025
Senator Moreau, in 2017, an initial report by the Senate Ethics Officer found that former senator Don Meredith had breached our code of ethics by engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a teenage girl. In 2019, a second report found that he had also contravened the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Code for Senators in relation to cases of workplace and sexual harassment involving employees in his office and from the Parliamentary Protective Service. In 2020, compensation was awarded to the victims of these actions, and the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration, CIBA, expressed its regrets on behalf of the Senate.
Can you tell us what steps the Prime Minister’s Office has taken in response to the motion that was unanimously adopted on November 29, 2022? The motion was introduced by Senator Miville-Dechêne and myself, and it calls for the revocation of the honorific style and title of “Honourable” from the former senator.
Senator Verner, let me thank you for bringing this issue to my attention. It has been widely discussed in the Senate, and I know that you, your colleague and other senators have invested a great deal of time in this matter.
After you brought this matter to my attention — thank you, by the way — I therefore took the initiative of referring it to the Prime Minister’s Office.
I haven’t receive a response so far regarding the follow-up that will take place. However, I know that the procedure suggested at the time was a recommendation from the Prime Minister to the Governor General for the person referred to in the Senate motion you mentioned to be stripped of the honorific style and title of “Honourable.” I will undoubtedly have more information for you on this matter in the near future.
