Last week, blogger Stephen Taylor and I found ourselves chasing down the same story: A secret report by a Senate subcommittee that was going to raise serious questions about the conduct of Liberal Senator Raymond Lavigne (left). Taylor was first to break a few of the details and I had a few more on that evening’s newscast.
Today, the report that details allegations of Senator Lavigne’s alleged misconduct has been tabled and the matter has been referred to the RCMP for investigation.
Opposition Leader Bill Graham issued this press release late today:
“The Senate today has adopted a report from their Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration on the subject of Senator Raymond Lavigne.
As a result of this, it is inappropriate for Senator Lavigne to sit with the Liberal caucus until any investigations have been completed.”
Some background on Senator Lavigne:
Lavigne was appointed to the Senate in 2002 by Prime Minister Chretien. He went into the Senate with George Baker. At the time of his appointment, Chretien appeared to trying to have some fun with Stephen Harper who had just been elected leader of the Canadian Alliance but did not yet have a seat in the Commons. In appointing Lavigne, who was an MP for nearly a decade representing a Montreal-area riding, and Baker, a Newfoundland MP, Chretien was seeming to bait Harper a bit by wondering why this newly elected leader wouldn’t want a seat in the Commons by running in a bye-election. Of course, Harper was never going to run as an Alliance candidate in Quebec or Newfoundland.
Press reports at the time of Lavigne’s appointment note that he appeared to be completely unremarkable. Some French language reporters, for example, said they were not able to recognize him by sight if they saw him — and, again, he had been in the House for nearly a decade.
Tim Naumetz, reporting for Southam News at the time wrote, on March 27, 2002: “An aide in his Montreal office said while Lavigne had earlier discussed the Senate appointment, the sudden announcement yesterday came as a surprise.”