Senator Patrick Brazeau's drop a bombshell on Senate
Channel: GroundHog News
Date: 26/10/2013

http://www.peoplestandup.ca
Brazeau's bombshell
Senator Patrick Brazeau said he was offered what he described as -a backroom deal- in exchange for lesser punishmen
Patrick Brazeau says he was offered 'backroom deal'
Senator facing suspension says Senate leader told him to apologize in exchange for lighter penalty
In a dramatic moment during a Senate debate over his suspension without pay, Senator Patrick Brazeau said he was offered what he called a "backroom deal" by the government leader of the Senate Friday morning.

"The deal was," said Brazeau, "that if I stood in this chamber, apologized to Canadians and took responsibility for my actions, that my punishment would be lesser than what is being proposed."

Brazeau and fellow senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin are facing motions that would suspend them without pay and benefits because of inappropriately claimed expenses.

Brazeau said Claude Carignan took him aside outside the Senate chamber, and offered him the deal.

Carignan responded by backing up what Brazeau said, although he said his intent was not how Brazeau described it.

"I spoke to him out of friendship," Carignan said, "in saying, 'Senator Brazeau, please suggest something.'" Carignan said he suggested Brazeau's penalty could be "lighter."

It was an attempt to help Brazeau, Carignan said. "I regret he perceived it as an attack."

In a scrum with reporters in the Senate foyer shortly after Brazeau's statement, Carignan said, "I said to Brazeau, 'You could propose amendments or apologize. You could do some things to help your case.' And that was all."

Carignan said he's not dropping the motion to suspend Brazeau without pay, but, "I'm open and it's something that we could perhaps improve."

In a later scrum, after the Senate had adjourned for the day, Carignan said in French he has always been open to "friendly amendments." He said he was trying to explain that to Brazeau because, he said, Brazeau doesn't seem to understand the rules of the Senate very well.
Asked in English if he would have accepted amendments from Brazeau, Carignan replied, "I don't think so."
Wallin lays out her defence
During the same debate Friday, Senator Pamela Wallin seized the opportunity to carefully lay out her defence before her Senate colleagues as they debated whether to suspend her.

She said "the majority [Conservatives in the Senate] want my head on a platter," and then went through the accusations against her, point by point.