All
the recent news regarding the Senate and the Senators was basically making me
numb to the issue. Seriously, it seems
to be a part of a plan to make us all idiots.
After something happens, such as the Duffy Affair we get inundated with
glop from the media and from the Parties to the point where it just doesn’t
seem to matter anymore.
And
then Peter Van Loan opened his mouth.
What
Peter had to say was quoted in the National
Post:
|
“Senator
Patterson, Wallin and Duffy all own property in the provinces and territory
they represent,” Peter Van Loan, the government’s House leader, told the
Commons on Monday.
“They
maintain deep, continuing ties to those regions. In fact, all three senators
spend considerable time in their home provinces and territory.”
|
Well,
that ground my gears. Again we are
seeing the Harper Party and their Law
and Order™ agenda that applies to everyone except for the Harper Party
itself.
When
it comes to the Senate and more specifically the rules governing who can sit in
it, the Constitution is quite specific.
|
23. The Qualifications of a Senator shall be as
follows:
1)
He shall be of the full age of Thirty Years;
2)
He shall be either a natural-born Subject of the
Queen, or a Subject of the Queen naturalized by an Act of the Parliament of
Great Britain, or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, or of the Legislature of One of the Provinces of Upper Canada,
Lower Canada, Canada, Nova Scotia, or New Brunswick, before the Union, or of
the Parliament of Canada after the Union;
3)
He shall be legally or equitably seised as of
Freehold for his own Use and Benefit of Lands or Tenements held in Free and
Common Socage, or seised or possessed for his own Use and Benefit of Lands or
Tenements held in Franc-alleu or in Roture, within the Province for which he
is appointed, of the Value of Four thousand Dollars, over and above all
Rents, Dues, Debts, Charges, Mortgages, and Incumbrances due or payable out
of or charged on or affecting the same;
4)
His Real and Personal Property shall be together
worth Four thousand Dollars over and above his Debts and Liabilities;
5)
He shall be resident in the Province for which he
is appointed;
6)
In the Case of Quebec he shall have his Real
Property Qualification in the Electoral Division for which he is appointed,
or shall be resident in that Division. (13)
|
Pretty
straight forward aren’t they?
Well
except for maybe #3 which is written in lawyer speak…
But
the one I’m looking at is number 5.
Pretty
simple rule. You shall be resident in the Province you are to represent.
I
stressed the word shall for a very
important reason. In certain circles,
words such as “can” or “may” or “should” are referred to as “weasel words”
basically meaning that you can weasel your way around them. “May” can also mean “may not”, it is not
definite. “Shall” on the other hand is a
directive, there is no way to weasel around “shall”.
What
Van Loan is saying is an affront to Canadians who believe in the rule of law,
and the Constitution is the highest law in the land.
In
Stephen Harper’s efforts to twist the Senate into his distorted view of what it
should be, he is opening up a Pandora’s Box that could put us into a “Constitutional
Crisis”. It’s not me saying this, those
are retired Senator Lowell Murray’s words.
Part
of the reason that this could cause such a crisis is found in Section 31 of the
Constitution, part 5
|
31. The
Place of a Senator shall become vacant in any of the following Cases:
5) If he ceases to be qualified in
respect of Property or of Residence...
|
If
any other Senators are found to have voted in Ontario, or carry an OHIP Card
rather than their home Province’s Health Card, or fail to meet another of the
criteria that the Senate Committee looking into the residency of Senators is
using, they could be unceremoniously put out into the street.
What
happens then? Do we trust Stephen Harper
to restock (or restack if you like) the Senate?
Does the Governor General use his power to select enough people to fill the
Senate? Maybe we should let the Privy
Council do the selecting.
Or
we could just leave the seats vacant and save a few bucks.
I
honestly don’t know if the current Senate kerfuffle was created intentionally
by the Harper People, I certainly hope not. One
thing I do know is that these Senators have been doing pretty good on the
public dime, and if they weren’t eligible to sit in the Senate from Day One,
someone needs to be reimbursing us. If
they were in the Senate and knew they shouldn’t be, then they should be paying…
but if they were put in by someone who knew they shouldn’t be there, maybe He
should be writing the cheque…
A
closing thought. CBC contacted 104
Senators and asked them the same 5 questions that the Senate Committee has been
asking asking. Of the 96 that responded,
17 refused to provide information… 15 of those were Harper’s appointees...
Kinda
makes you think, doesn’t it?
If
you’d like to see the article, click here: CBC
News
I’ve
maintained for some time now that any member serving in the House of Commons or
the Senate for that matter should be required to take an Oath and part of that
Oath would be to protect the Constitution, similar to what our friends to the
South have.
Maybe
we could at least have them read it?
Cheers,
BC
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