Honourable colleagues, I rise today to speak on Motion 25, a motion brought forward by Senator Housakos on February 25 of this year.

The motion provides for the Report of Evidence Relating to the Workplace in the Office of Senator Don Meredith, commonly known as the Quintet report, to be referred to the Standing Senate Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration, or CIBA.

As an employer, a woman and an advocate for women’s rights, it is with great compassion and a sense of responsibility that I wish to see this motion adopted. It is important to note that there was a leaders’ agreement not to call votes on non-government business because many senators were unable to attend the sittings last week and this week due to COVID-19. This motion, however, should be considered an exception given the impact it could have on the people involved in these proceedings. I hope we will in fact call the question on the motion after my speech. It is in the best interests of the victims to move this process forward.

I wish to speak to certain issues with regard to this motion, but first I would like to acknowledge the progress that was made to date on this file.

The Subcommittee on Human Resources adopted a report recommending that a statement be made to acknowledge the experiences of the former employees and that an independent expert be appointed to determine financial compensation for employees impacted by the conduct of the former senator. Despite numerous delays, I commend this progress.

I will now raise some important questions about how the Senate has dealt with this issue over the years. More specifically, I would like to point out to my colleagues a questionable timeline and the timeliness of this motion. I’m particularly concerned with the circumstances that have lengthened the process to proactively and constructively deal with this matter. Providing CIBA with access to this report is a mere step in the right direction when compared with what needs to be done by our institution.

Allow me to briefly go back in time in order to explain where my concerns come from.

In or around June 2015, Senator Nolin asked a private accounting firm, Quintet Consulting, to conduct a workplace assessment of the office of former Senator Meredith. Senator Housakos, who had just been appointed as the Speaker of the Senate, confirmed through a press release issued on July 16, 2015, that the report was received.

Almost five years have passed since. In February of this year, we received a motion to give access to the report to CIBA. One can reasonably question the gap in the timeline and whether some were preventing the survivors, actively or passively, from accessing the Quintet report during all these years.

I would also point out that one of the explanations given by the Senate Ethics Officer to justify delays in the submission of his report was the fact that parliamentary privilege applied to the Quintet report. Why have we not worked on ensuring this investigation could be done in a timely fashion by lifting some of those privileges for certain relevant sections of the Quintet report? I have no doubt that it would have been done at the time while respecting the anonymity of the survivors and confidentiality of the report, as we intend to do today by moving forward with this motion. Since 2015, senators knew full well that, under the rules and practices of the Senate, this could have been possible.

On February 27, 2020, Senator Housakos first spoke on his motion. I put to him the following question:

We have been working on the harassment file for nearly two years and maybe even longer. We have heard from witnesses and done a lot of work. This much-talked-about document has never been made available, and we were told several times that we could not have access to it. Can you tell us why we can have access to it now? Why now, after all this time?

Senator Housakos did not provide information relevant to the timing of this motion or if and why access was denied since 2015. He spoke to me in private, saying that we could access any report at any time. All we must do is bring the request to the Senate, where it will be debated.

Senator Verner then asked Senator Housakos:

Senator Housakos, you heard and read the victims’ testimony in the media. My question is this: Why did you deny them access to a document that was about them at the time the Senate Ethics Officer, Pierre Legault, was conducting the investigation?

To which Senator Housakos replied that the intention at the time was to protect the victims’ identities. I’m not sure what has changed now, as we know that their identities can be protected throughout this process, especially since some of them have been demanding access to the report through the media. Since protecting the victims is of paramount importance, the report could be redacted to replace the names of victims with Xs or numbers. That way, if it leaks, it is less damaging to the victims. They have suffered for far too long and have been treated far too badly by this institution.

This situation has been ongoing for much longer than the debate that relates to this motion on the disclosure of the Quintet report to CIBA, which makes evident the urgency to take meaningful actions in the management of this matter.

The Senate Ethics Officer, Pierre Legault, ruled in June 2019 that former Senator Meredith had engaged in behaviour that constituted harassment and sexual harassment. Since that date, CIBA has had the ability — and I should say the responsibility — to ensure justice is rendered in due course and within a reasonable time.

I would therefore like to emphasize that this motion, by allowing the disclosure of the report to CIBA, is not essential in the decision making of the standing committee as it relates to reaching a resolution. Enough time has passed, and this motion is important, but this initiative cannot be seen as being sufficient when we assess, in the grand scheme of things, how this whole situation has unfolded in the Senate. The Senate cannot abide by completely different standards than that of other employers when responding to complaints of such nature.

I urge you, honourable colleagues, to try to act in order to move well beyond the adoption of this motion. Thank you for your attention.

Question, Senator Housakos?

Senator Moncion, what I would like to know is: Why is it that you insist on drawing conclusions on this particular case, a case that’s seven years old?It commenced seven years ago. There are a lot of details that you wouldn’t be privy to because you weren’t even in this institution. You continue to arrive at conclusions without having read the report.

You haven’t read this particular report of the investigator. I assume you haven’t read the HR report either. So I think you should refrain from coming to any quick conclusions before you read the reports and gather all the facts. I would like to know why it is that you’re so insistent on coming to conclusions before reading the report.

Furthermore, I moved this motion a number of months ago, when it came to my attention that the new members of CIBA were interested in this case and were told that they didn’t have access because of privilege. I did not know about it prior to that. If members of CIBA were given misinformation in terms of the procedures of this institution and how it works, you were free to come to me and ask me, and I would have resolved it in a matter of seconds, as I did when it came to my attention.

My second question is this: Why have you waited six months to pass this motion and provide the relevant information to the members of CIBA, like yourself and others?

To answer your first question, you had colleagues on the CIBA committee who knew that we were asking for access to this report. I was on the HR subcommittee and we were working on the harassment policy, so you knew about the work that we were doing on that policy. You knew that we were also trying to report on the issue of the harassment complaints.

This was information that was provided, and your colleagues on CIBA knew about this. I know that, as a caucus, you speak to your groups, to each other and provide information. Your colleagues knew about this, and we’ve been asking for this for two years. This was not an overnight thing.

If I may, just a final few words so that I answer completely. Why am I speaking now?

Well, six months later. You were in a hurry to get the report six months later.

We received your motion on February 27, we stopped sitting on March 13, and we had a break. I think we were in the chamber for about five days. Since then, we can speak on motions, but we cannot vote on them. Last week, Senator Dalphond spoke on this motion, and I took the adjournment. I am speaking today in the hope that we will be able to have a vote on this motion to advance this process further.

Are honourable senators ready for the question?

It was moved by the Honourable Senator Housakos, seconded by the Honourable Senator Mockler, that the workplace assessment report commissioned by the standing — shall I dispense?

Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

(Motion agreed to.)