Former Liberal cabinet minister Joyce Fairbairn is now retired
Liberal Senator Joyce Fairbairn, 72, was still voting in the Upper Chamber four months after a geriatric psychiatrist declared her legally incompetent, the Toronto Star reports.
Senator Fairbairn has been receiving round-the-clock care for more than year due to Alzheimer’s disease.
Senator Fairbairn’s niece, Patricia McCullagh, sent Senate officials a letter on August 13th saying that a geriatric psychiatrist signed a declaration of incompetence for Fairbairn in February, although attendance records show Fairbairn was present in the Senate regularly until the end of session in June.
Before she was a Senator, Fairbairn was a Cabinet Minister with the Chretien government. She was also previously the leader of the government in the Senate. She will now be retiring to her home in Lethbridge, Alberta.