With the Duffy decision, the judge has accomplished two things. He’s declared open season on the taxpayers’ pocketbook and he’s taken us for fools.
It’s easy to point to the prime minister’s office and claim they were involved (no doubt they were) but it’s moot.
They’re not in power any longer. We taxpayers dealt with that last October when we voted them out.
But that option doesn’t exist with regard to the Senate. We’re forced to impotently fume while our pockets continue to be picked.
If the Senate were an elected body, the next time one of the members pulled his snout out of the trough long enough to whine, “but it’s not my fault,” we could act.
We could accept that they were stupid and incompetent and, perhaps give them another chance, or we could recognize fraud when we see it and vote them out of office.
The fact that we can do nothing is wrong.
Meaningful changes to the Senate must occur.
If it cannot be abolished, it must become an elected body.
At the very least, proper ethical standards must be established and the monitoring of those standards must be independent.
V.L. Harrison
Vernon
