I have long railed against the Canadian senate and wanted to see either a massive reform of the institution or outright abolition of it..In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the pursuit of a Triple-E senate was a foundational plank of the Reform Party as it gained steam in the West. That stood for equal, elected and effective. It was presumed if we got the first two Es, the third would follow. The examples of the senate being ineffective were myriad..In 1990, the senate looked as if it would take a stance and shoot down Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s GST legislation. Mulroney then expanded the number of senators and appointed enough loyal PC senators to ensure his bill would pass. The move demonstrated just how weak and beholden the senate is to a prime minister with a majority government..The Canadian senate for the most part has been a patronage pit. A place to return political favours to well-connected party supporters where they could garner a good income with an incredible pension plan while putting in a minimum of work..Andrew Thompson was a prime example of a useless senator with an appalling sense of personal entitlement to taxpayer’s dollars. Thompson served as a somewhat lackluster leader of the Liberal Party of Ontario in the early 1960s. As a reward for his time representing provincial Liberals, he was appointed to the senate by Prime Minster Lester Pearson in 1967. There, Thompson kept his head low for decades while collecting a fine salary..In 1997, Thompson suddenly hit the public spotlight when it was found he only attended senate sessions for a few days a year. Not only had he done next to nothing in the senate, he was actually living in Mexico. He had rarely set foot on Canadian soil in years..Thompson was indignant at being called out for his absences. With the exposure of such an embarrassing example of a senator, the Liberal party expelled Thompson from caucus and senators struck a subcommittee to examine the issue. Thompson wouldn’t even come back from Mexico to speak to it. He was found in contempt of the senate and stripped of some compensation. Still, Thompson remained as a senator until 1998 when he resigned on his own. He continued to collect a generous pension for the remainder of his life. Nice work if you can get it..Those kinds of examples had made me give up all hope of senate reform..Over the years we've seen some senate committees scrutinizing or amending some bills at times, but the senate really hasn’t done much and were forgotten for the most part, aside from when periodic scandals would hit. Senators Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau made the news for all the wrong reasons..While the senate still needs reforms that likely will never happen, I have been seeing some signs of life in there lately and have allowed a sense of optimism into my view of the Red Chamber. They have been scrutinizing bills and questioning the actions of the government in ways we haven’t seen in parliament..A joint commons-senate committee examining Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act has been putting ministers on the spot and asking all the right questions..Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino has been under fire for months as the narrative crumbles for the justification of invoking the act. Despite Mendicino’s claims police asked for the invocation of the act, committees determined this wasn’t the case. Nor were there firearms found among protesters, nor rape gangs nor arsonists. The Russian funding narrative was shredded as well..The government had built a mountain of BS in trying to justify the act and thanks to tough questioning from MPs and senators, it has been exposed. The judicial inquiry into Trudeau’s actions is not likely to end well for his government..In its latest action, a senate committee shot down bill S-7. The bill would have empowered border agents to search the personal devices of citizens on the most flimsy of justifications. It was a gross invasion of privacy rights and the senate called it out. While the bill is still alive, the senate committee has proposed an amendment which pretty much defangs it. If the bill does pass the senate and parliament, it won’t have much impact. The intent behind the government’s creation of the bill has been stripped from it..Trudeau’s government still has some odious bills coming down the pipe. Its trying to ramrod bills C-11, C-18 and C-21 through parliament. Those bills in their current form threaten free press, free speech and property rights as they are modeled to try and control the internet and going after law abiding firearm owners..Those bills will still have to pass through the senate before they are enacted. .I am hoping that now with many senators suddenly embracing their role of being the voice of sober second thought, those bills may be amended or even trashed altogether. Maybe some senators are relishing taking on an active role in policy creation and approval and want to take it further. The Emergencies Act itself was dropped within 48 hours of passing through the House of Commons and I suspect part of that reason was Trudeau didn’t have confidence it would make it through the senate..We have been through infringements upon civil liberties in these last two years unlike any seen in generations. We need to apply scrutiny to these actions in hindsight with a mind to prevent that sort of overreach again..My optimism could be misplaced but I hope not..The sleepy senate could start embracing its job again and I can’t think of a better time for them to get on it. Let’s be sure to encourage them and keep them awake and active.
