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OTTAWA–The three senators at heart of the Senate spending scandal are expected to learn their fate Tuesday after the Senate Conservatives moved to close down debate on Monday.
The Conservatives moved to limit remaining debate on the unprecedented motion to suspend Senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, and Patrick Brazeau for two years without pay.
That means the debate, which has been politically damaging to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, will be limited to just six more hours. The majority of that time was used as senators debated late into Monday night, and a vote is now likely to take place Tuesday.
But closing the debate exposed more division within the Conservative caucus, with three of their senators — Ontario's Hugh Segal and Nancy Ruth, as well as New Brunswick's John Wallace — voting against the government.
Segal has been a consistent supporter of Wallin throughout the debate, but Ruth and Wallace had largely remained on the sidelines of the debate until Monday.
"It should go without saying that we must absolutely have sufficient time in this chamber in order for us to be able to adequately consider, question, and debate all of these facts and other information," Wallace told his colleagues Monday.
Two other Conservative senators, Ontario's Don Meredith and Manitoba's Don Plett, abstained from the government vote. Wallin, the only one of the three disgraced senators in the chamber, also abstained.
Meredith expressed concern with the way the suspension debate was proceeding last week.
In an impassioned speech Monday night, Sen. Plett said the Conservatives are free to vote their conscience, but he couldn't vote for the motion.
"Colleagues, I'm not suggesting how you vote, I'm asking you to do the right thing," Plett said.
Meanwhile, in a letter to MPs and senators Monday morning, Brazeau made a last-ditch appeal to stave off his suspension, saying other Conservative caucus members could later share his fate.
"Colleagues, if this can happen to me, it can happen to you," Brazeau wrote in an emailed statement to MPs and senators Monday.
"The rules may change without your knowledge and you may find yourself being kicked out of your caucus, being suspended without pay, and being scapegoated in the media as some kind of entitled 'fat cat.' "
Brazeau, who has maintained his innocence throughout the spending scandal, addressed the Senate late Monday. He said he's willing to go under oath to defend himself, and issued a challenge to senators Marjory LeBreton, David Tkachuk, Carolyn Stewart Olsen, and Stephen Harper himself to do the same.
Reading a statement to his children into the record, Brazeau said he's not a thief.
"We will get through this. I love you," Brazeau said, voice faltering slightly.
Claude Carignan, the government leader in the Senate, was unconvinced by Brazeau's earlier written appeal. Reading from a prepared speech, Carignan urged senators to vote for the sanctions backed by Harper and most of the Conservative caucus in the House of Commons.
"We need to put the interests of this institution above all else. This crisis demands setting aside our personal interests and putting first the interests of hard-working Canadians who pay their taxes and follow the rules," Carignan said Monday night.
The debate took a sharply partisan turn Monday. Carignan accused the Liberal opposition of delaying the vote for political reasons, suggesting that extending the debate makes them "accomplices" to the expense infractions of Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau.
"If we use procedural rules for partisan purposes and try to benefit from the fact that senators made inappropriate claims, we become accomplices; we try to profit from serious and reprehensible acts of conduct; we disrespect Canadians," Carignan told senators Monday evening.
"On one hand, (the Liberals) recognized that some senators committed serious and reprehensible acts of conduct. And on the other hand, they used due process arguments to extend debate, even though I believe strongly that all rules of fairness of this chamber have been respected."
Carignan's tone was noticeably harsher than over the last two weeks, when he referred to the debate as good for the beleaguered upper chamber.
The Liberals maintain they're trying to bring a measure of due process for the three senators. Several Liberal senators have argued that, should the Senate decide to sanction the three senators without giving them an opportunity to defend themselves before a committee, would infringe upon their Charter rights.
Liberal Senate leader James Cowan said the Conservatives have nobody to blame but themselves for the delay.
"They just seem unable to develop a plan and then stick to it, it's been changing by the day," Cowan told reporters.
One of the last remaining questions before the final vote is whether the three senators will be lumped together, or whether senators will pass judgment on individual cases.
On Monday, Conservative Sen. Pierre Claude Nolin requested that senators be allowed to vote on the individual cases. Liberal deputy Senate leader Joan Fraser argued there is nothing in the Senate's rules to allow three votes on a single motion. Senate Speaker Noel Kinsella is expected to rule on the matter before the vote.
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