Conservative Denise Batters has been kicked out of all Senate committees after questioning Leader Erin O’Toole’s leadership following the recent federal election.
Erin O’Toole previously kicked the Saskatchewan senator out of the Conservative national caucus last month after she launched a petition to force a vote of confidence on her leadership within six months instead. than to wait for the vote scheduled for the party congress in August 2023.
Conservative senators have chosen to keep Ms. Batters in their ranks notwithstanding Erin O’Toole’s threat to expel anyone supporting the petition from her caucus.
But if she remains affiliated with Conservative senators, Senator Batters is visibly excluded from any participation in upper house committees.
Senator Leo Housakos, who serves as the leader of the Conservative Senate caucus, did not respond to our requests for comment to justify the exclusion of Ms Batters.
Denise Batters declined to comment on the situation.
Until this controversy, the Senator held numerous roles on various Senate committees, particularly in legal and constitutional matters. A committee of which she was a member since her appointment to the Senate in 2012 by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
In the previous parliamentary session, she was vice-chair of the committee, where she offered fierce opposition to expanding access to physician-assisted dying.
She was also a member of the Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament committee on which she served for eight years.
Previously, Ms. Batters held the roles of Vice-Chair of the Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration Committee, responsible for the management of the Senate. She was also co-chair of the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations.
Since it went online, Denis Batters’ petition has garnered more than 6,300 signatures.
The President of the Conservative Party of Canada, Rob Batherson, has, however, already indicated that the petition is invalid. The party’s constitution provides for various means of challenging a leader’s leadership, but no article talks about the possibility of triggering a vote through a petition or a referendum, he explained.
However, the CPC constitution specifies that a referendum on any issue can be called if five percent of members from at least five provinces sign a petition calling for it.
A former member of the national party council, Marilyn Elliott, reacted in writing to bring down in flames the interpretation of the party rules by Mr. Batherson.
In her letter, she writes that the president’s position is an “indefensible attempt to defeat a compliant petition and silence the thousands of members who want a referendum.”
Denise Batters relayed the letter of support for her cause on social networks.
After consulting with legal experts, Elliott maintains that the party’s constitution places no limits on what can be referred to a referendum among members.
According to her, Mr. Batherson’s reductive interpretation of the rules raises questions above all about the “fear” of party leaders about the potential for success of such a petition.
In launching her petition, Ms Batters argued that Leader Erin O’Toole had lost the confidence of voters by repeatedly changing course on his policy proposals, initially boasting of being a “real blue” Conservative in the race. leadership before adopting a more centrist posture during the federal election campaign.