Ottawa

Claude Carignan tries to be a friend

‘It’s like every motion, it could be amended’

Asked on Wednesday about the motions to suspend Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau, the Prime Minister seemed fairly unequivocal.

Let me be unequivocal for the record. I fully support that motion. I do not believe that, under the circumstances, these individuals should be on the public payroll. I believe that in private life, had they undertaken such actions, they would not continue to be on the payroll. I believe Canadians feel strongly about this.

Today, Claude Carignan, the government leader in the Senate equivocated, at least in regards to Mr. Brazeau. Mr. Brazeau told the Senate that he had been offered a “backroom deal,” a description Claude Carignan quibbles with. Global has video of Mr. Carignan’s comments to reporters in the Senate foyer afterwards.

Yes, it’s ridiculous … I said to Senator Brazeau, look, Patrick, you could do amendments, you could propose some things and apologize. You listen to Senator Wallin, she apologized so you could do some things to try to help your case. It was only that … It was not a deal…

It’s like every motion, it could be amended. When we realize that if somebody apologized to Canadians … it’s something that we could take in account and perhaps change the motion. Or he could also move an amendment to say, look, I apologize and I want to reduce the sanction. He could do that. And it’s exactly what I said to him.

Mr. Carignan stressed though that there needed to be a sanction. He rejected, for instance, the suggestion of suspending any of the senators with pay.

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