Senator Gold: Thank you for your question, senator, but I repeat: Ms. Richard is a career public servant and served this country honourably and with distinction through the Harper government years and through the current years and is eminently qualified to discharge these roles.

Senator Batters: Senator Gold, as Interim Ethics Commissioner, Ms. Richard will be paid $338,000, a full $100,000 more than the next Ethics Commissioner. Perhaps that’s the Trudeau friends-and-family rate. Minister LeBlanc said he recused himself from the Trudeau cabinet vote to appoint his sister-in-law on March 28, but the order-in-council appointing Ms. Richard had already been signed the previous day. The government knew this appointment wouldn’t pass the smell test. That’s why they released news of Ms. Richard’s appointment on the afternoon of budget day, when most national reporters were cloistered away inside the budget lock-up without internet access.

Senator Gold, you’re ineligible to win the Tim Hortons’ Roll Up The Rim contest if you’re a family member of an employee. This is Ethics 101. So as I said in 2019, in what world is it appropriate that the sister-in-law of a senior Trudeau minister can snag this plum government appointment to judge the ethical infractions of her brother-in-law’s closest circle?