Former senator Don Meredith was found not guilty Wednesday in his criminal trial on sexual assault charges.
It brings to a close a yearslong Senate scandal that tarnished the chamber’s reputation as a safe place to work and shone a spotlight on how difficult it is to remove a wayward member.
Meredith, who resigned from the upper house in 2017 before he could be expelled for an alleged sexual relationship with a teenager, was facing three counts of sexual assault and one count of criminal harassment relating to his alleged treatment of a former employee, who testified in this case that he engaged in unwanted touching and kissing and abused his power as a parliamentarian.
The former employee, who worked for the senator in 2013-14, told the court during the trial that Meredith called her pet names like “baby,” hugged, kissed her and touched her buttocks and once showed her his erect penis in an Ottawa hotel room while they were meeting to discuss parliamentary matters.
She also testified that the senator once asked her to take her top off while they were both on a virtual call and, on another occasion, asked her to dress in a revealing Caribbean-style costume. The staffer said Meredith rubbed her leg with his own while they were both at a dinner with his wife in Toronto.
The employee is protected under a publication ban, which prevents CBC News from using her name or publishing any information that could identify her.
The alleged victim testified that she did not report the alleged sexual harassment to Senate officials at the time because she feared it would ruin her future employment prospects.
The criminal charges were filed after the Senate ethics officer (SEO) probed these claims and others against Meredith and referred the matter to the Ottawa police after uncovering what he believed to be sufficient evidence of Meredith’s wrongdoing.
Meredith denied all of the allegations. Both he and his wife testified at the trial and refuted some of the details and timelines the employee raised.
Ultimately, Superior Court Justice Narissa Somji sided with Meredith, saying Wednesday she found his testimony more credible than the former employee, who she described as “fragile” during the trial, owing to the stress of the proceedings and an illness in her family.
But it wasn’t the employee’s demeanour that prompted Somji to deliver a not guilty verdict.
The judge said she found the employee’s “evidence was unreliable” and there were inconsistencies in what she said happened and what two other witnesses called to testify — another Senate employee and a parliamentary protective officer — said about some of the events in question.
She also found Meredith’s wife’s testimony about the dinner where he allegedly rubbed the employee’s leg — she said she would have noticed that sort of conduct — to be believable.
Speaking briefly to reporters outside the Ottawa courtroom after the judge’s decision, Meredith, a Pentecostal minister, said he thanks God for this result.
“It’s been several years of testing me and my family and I’m glad this day is finally over,” he said. “This cloud has been lifted and we’ll continue to work hard for our community.”
Asked if he had a message for the employee in question in this case, Meredith said: “I have no comments on that.”
After reports of a high staff turnover in Meredith’s office, the SEO probed workplace allegations against the Conservative appointee and concluded in a 2019 report that the ex-senator created a poisoned work environment by harassing six Senate employees, plus a constable in the upper chamber’s protection service.
The ethics officer at the time, Pierre Legault, found Meredith bullied, threatened and intimidated his own staff and repeatedly touched, kissed and propositioned some of them.
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can look for crisis lines and local services via the Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada database.