Ex-senator’s staff to be compensated $498K for harassment, abuse

OTTAWA – The Senate of Canada will pay nearly half a million dollars in compensation to nine employees of a now-resigned senator who say they suffered harassment, including sexual harassment, on the job.

The decision today to award $498,000 in compensation plus legal fees comes more than a year after a Senate investigation found a pattern of inappropriate behaviour by then-senator Don Meredith.

That included demeaning, belittling and humiliating staff members as well as kissing, touching and intimidation that created what the Senate ethics investigator described as a “poisoned work environment.”

But it was only this summer that a former Quebec appeals court judge was brought in to look at potential compensation for the employees following complaints about a lack of recognition of their suffering.

The Senate says the compensation amount announced this morning was based on Justice Louise Otis’s recommendations.

Meredith, who was first appointed to the Senate by prime minister Stephen Harper in 2010, resigned from the upper chamber in 2017.

Feature image by iStock.com/bukharova