“It would make any organization look bad that it took four years to resolve this issue,” Sen. Tannas says of Don Meredith’s victims. There still hasn’t been a resolution for people who allegedly suffered sexual harassment at the hands of the former Senator.
Sen. Saint-Germain says it’s completely unacceptable that it’s been six years since the first harassment claim was filed by one of Meredith’s alleged victim and yet there’s still no recognition of wrongdoing by the Senate.
“It’s a shame,” Saint-Germain says. She says money may be in order to compensate victims.
CIBA (internal economy) is discussing how to fund the new Canadian Senators Group (CSG). Under the rules, the group is entitled to $460,000 in funding. #SenCA
There’s debate about whether the funding should be proportionately reallocated from the other Senate groups to the new CSG or if new funds should be expended. ISG lost 9 of the 11, so there’s some suggestion it should be clawed back from their budget. #SenCA
Sen. Saint-Germain (ISG) says the funds should be reallocated from the other groups to fund CSG. There shouldn’t be a new injection of money - to save taxpayers the expense.
There’s some bickering over the membership of the new CSG. Conservatives and ISG trading potshots over where these senators have come from (many were former Harper appointed Tories turned ISG before they signed on to CSG). #SenCA
Tannas, the interim leader of the CSG, agrees that money should be reallocated. He says there should be discussions among the various parties and groups to see if there’s any “spare change” from their budgets to fund CSG. If not, they’ll make the case again at CIBA for new $.
Plett, the new Conservative Senate Leader, jokes saying hopefully the 43rd Parliament lasts only a few months. Independent Sen. Dalphond says “Hope springs eternal.”
CIBA chair Marwah says Senate caucus/group spending is roughly $1 million below budget for the year so there should be some sort of agreement between leaders to fund the CSG.
Conservative Sen. Tkachuk presses Tannas to explain what is the purpose of CSG, the new group. He’s obviously a bit hostile in his position given two of the members of this group were only recently Tories. He bristles at the name “Canadian Senators”
There’s some debate over the broadcasting contract for the Senate. The Tories are pushing for public discussion. Sen. Marwah says there’s not much to it so don’t worry about it. After some pressure, they’ll discuss it publicly at the next meeting.
The meeting has gone ‘in camera.’ In fact, it’s gone ‘super in camera’ meaning everyone including staff and Senate bureaucrats - just the Senators. This could be the part of the meeting where they discuss harassment.
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NEW: The @CPC_HQ leadership election organizing committee has *disqualified* @patrickbrownont from the race, citing “serious allegations of wrongdoing.” #cdnpoli
“We regret having to take these steps but we have an obligation to ensure that both our Party’s Rules and federal law are respected by all candidates and campaign teams,” LEOC chair Ian Brodie says in a statement. conservative.ca/statement-by-i…
Brodie says there are allegations that the Patrick Brown campaign violated financial provisions of the Canada Elections Act.
CPC will be “sharing the information it has gathered with Elections Canada, who is responsible for ensuring compliance…”
Good evening from Laval, Que.! We're 15 minutes away from the CPC French-language debate.
All six candidates will be on stage. Three of them can't speak the language.
The seating capacity for this room is about 1,000 — still some empty chairs as people trickle in from the bar.
The seats are all full and it's standing-room only at this Laval banquet hall.
Valerie Assouline, the vice-president of the party, tell us that this is the first time the French-language debate has been held in the Montreal area.
Assouline also announced the election results will be unveiled in Ottawa on Sept. 10. (We knew the date but now we know the city and the venue — it's the Shaw Centre.)
Just off the phone with a Conservative caucus member who's hopping mad about Denise Batters getting the boot.
"For Erin, this is the beginning of the end," this Conservative told me. "It's a position of weakness. A real leader would say, 'Let's have a vote,' and trigger a caucus vote to see just how much support he really has."
This person says the more O'Toole tries to "suppress" dissent, the bigger anti-O'Toole movement will be — comparing O'Toole to Wojciech Jaruzelski, Soviet puppet leader in 1980s Poland who imposed martial law to silence opposition only to be toppled by invigorated anticommunists.
Just off the phone with a Conservative caucus member who spoke very frankly about Monday's election.
They're not happy with O'Toole. Biggest issue? Campaigning as a "true blue" in the leadership and then abandoning many promises in the general. Carbon tax. Guns. Fiscal prudence.
"He campaigned as a Liberal. He wasn't even Liberal lite — he campaigned as a Liberal in this campaign with no input from caucus or the party or anybody else," the caucus member said.
The caucus member also said they and others were caught off guard by what was actually in the party's platform.
"I didn't even know what we were running on until I saw him on TV," the Tory said of O'Toole's platform launch on day two of the campaign.
The CBC Decision Desk has not made projections in 15 ridings.
They will likely need to wait until all the ballots are counted in some of them.
Trois-Rivières
Sault Ste. Marie
Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley
Edmonton Centre
Brome-Missisquoi
Kitchener-Conestoga
Vancouver Granville
Davenport
Fredericton
Coast of Bays-Central-Notre Dame
Hamilton Mountain
Richmond Centre
Nanaimo-Ladysmith
Parkdale-High Park
Spadina-Fort York
Poll workers are still counting special ballots. "We expect the vast majority of those counts will be completed by tomorrow," an Elections Canada spokesperson says. "That will give a better picture of overall turnout."