Liberal Senator Mac Harb resigned from the Senate last week. He will immediately start to collect a six-figure pension for his time as MP and Senator. Harb along with Senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau have all had their expense claims referred to the RCMP for further investigation. If charged and convicted of defrauding taxpayers, these Senators might have to serve hard time, but they won’t lose their generous parliamentary pensions if they resign before being convicted. (The three former Conservative Senators need to stick around until January 2015 to qualify for a pension). Resigning before being convicted is known as the “Lavigne maneuver,” named for former Liberal Senator Raymond Lavigne who quit the Senate shortly before his conviction in order to save his pension. In fact, Lavigne is currently collecting a parliamentary pension of $67,611 per year while he sits in an Ontario jail cell. Fortunately, the federal parole board recently saw fit to keep him there to serve the rest of his short sentence. Others will continue to enact the “Lavigne maneuver” unless we change the law.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 03:06:51 +0000
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