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New — Lynn Beyak is retiring from the Senate, eight years after her appointment by former prime minister Stephen Harper. #cdnpoli
"Some have criticized me for stating that the good as well as the bad of residential schools should be recognized. I stand by that statement. Others have criticized me for stating that the Truth and Reconciliation report was not as balanced... I stand by that statement as well."
"I have been criticized for offering concerned Canadians a space to comment critically about the Indian Act. My statements and the resulting posts were never meant to offend anyone," Beyak says.
Beyak has rocked the Senate for years. I first wrote about her insensitive comments about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the 'well-intentioned' Indian residential school system in March 2017: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/residential-school-system-well-intentioned-conservative-senator-1.4015115
Beyak was suspended - twice - from the Senate after declining to remove letters from her website that have been widely condemned as racist, and for refusing to apologize for posting them.
She failed Senate-mandated anti-racism training — a project that started off on the wrong foot when she told her instructors she was Métis because her parents had adopted an Indigenous child.
Beyak didn't make it past the first lesson because her "inflexibility and conduct made the learning environment unsafe," said the trainers' report card. She was asked to leave the premises. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/lynn-beyak-metis-anti-racism-training-session-1.5450372
Beyak showed little interest in the course material because she felt the "training is irrelevant because she will be reinstated anyway," the report said.
Beyak repeatedly told trainers she wasn't interested in the past but was focused rather on other matters, like taxation.
Beyak repeatedly told trainers she wasn't interested in the past but was focused rather on other matters, like taxation.
Then, last February, in a major about-face, Beyak told her colleagues in the upper house she accepts that posting racist letters on her Senate website was "ill-considered" — and she regrets the harm she caused by describing the Indian residential school system in positive terms.
She made this apology as the Senate was considering an outright expulsion, something that had never been done before.
There was also the time, after hearing testimony about the atrocities committed in residential schools, Beyak asked survivors at the Senate's Aboriginal peoples committee what they thought about her plan for a national audit on all First Nations spending. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/lynn-beyak-residential-school-survivors-1.4046329
"The speech that caused so much hurt and distress was actually a speech about taxes," Beyak said of the remarks she delivered in the Red Chamber when she defended the institutions as well-intentioned.
(In fact, little of her initial speech was devoted to the subject of taxes.)
(In fact, little of her initial speech was devoted to the subject of taxes.)
If you want to relive this multi-year saga, @jayme_poisson and I taped an episode of @FrontBurnerCBC in 2019, when Beyak was first suspended: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/racist-letters-on-senator-s-website-trigger-suspension-1.5133323
Beyak has been in the Senate long enough to collect her lifetime “gold-plated” pension. If she had been expelled, she would have had to forgo future pension payments, but would have had contributions she made to the plan reimbursed.
Pensions are governed by the Members of Parliament Retiring Allowances Act.
As per the legislation, if a parliamentarian resigns and has at least six years of pensionable service, they are entitled to receive a pension.
As per the legislation, if a parliamentarian resigns and has at least six years of pensionable service, they are entitled to receive a pension.
This pension issue came up during the other recent Senate scandal, when Don Meredith resigned after an inappropriate relationship with a teenager. He had been facing a possible expulsion. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/don-meredith-eligible-pension-1.4108605
