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Adela Rodriguez & Jennifer Wright Acting Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steve Maver Production Co-ordinator . . . . . . .Sharlane Burgess Electronic Production Specialist . . . Derek Welford Law Times Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON • M1T 3V4 • Tel: 416-298-5141 • Fax: 416-649-7870 www.lawtimesnews.com LT.Editor@thomsonreuters.com • @lawtimes u EDITORIAL OBITER By Gabrielle Giroday Senate side jobs can pay off O ur senators are picking up a little extra cash outside the Senate. It's all nice and legal. No Mike Duff y stuff . ere's no law that says their job is be- ing in the Senate all the time. ey only work about 82 to 89 days a year in the Senate in Ottawa. What they do the rest of the time is up to them. When people ask senators how much they make, the frequent reply is: "Sena- tors are paid $142,400 a year." Well, that's the minimum Senate salary. It doesn't include tag-on extras called indemnities. e Speaker of the Senate makes $200,900. e leader of the government in the Senate earns $222,500. Oh, yes, don't forget to add on an allowance for a car and a residence to the Speaker's sal- ary. e leader of the opposition in the Senate isn't forgotten either. He's in at $180,500. ere are all sorts of Senate committees. So Senate committee chair- persons earn $154,000 and committee vice chairpersons get $148,200. Senate salaries and indemnities are expected to go up again this year, as they usually do a er a new Commons budget is approved. It's a great way to convince senators to approve the government's an- nual budget. e Senate has a great schedule for senators who want to make money on the side. Here's why. e Senate meets one week on, one week off . In all, the Senate sits about 82 to 89 days a year. e rest is time off . at includes weekends and statutory holi- days. Toss in summer holi- days from June to September. Don't forget Christmas holi- days and Easter week, plus the occasional extra holidays and the great one-week-on, one-week-off routine. One of our most famous senators is retiring next month a er 21 years in the Senate. Céline Hervieux-Payette did it all the way the Senate allows it to be done. She never let her political career interfere with her law work. Her years as a Montreal lawyer at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP were good ones. e way the Senate works you can be a senator and still keep a steady job on the side as long as you show up in the Sen- ate when you are supposed to, avoid con- fl icts of interest, and keep your outside work separate from your political work. As we have seen, those who don't can end up in court or lose their jobs. Hervieux-Payette will be 75 years old in April, and that's the age of retirement for the Senate. Jean Chrétien put her in the Senate in 1995. By 2007, she was leader of the Liberal opposition in the Senate, an even better-paying job. But last month she got a nice letter telling her at 75 it's time to pack her bags and clear out of the offi ce. Time is up — compulsory retirement, they call it. She has two months to pack up. She's not sad to leave. She has done her time in the Senate, she says. Plus she's made good money on the side over the years at her law offi ce, and at the Steinberg's grocery chain, and at SNC Lavalin. Now she'll have even more time for her law work. Claude Carignan has been a law- yer since 1988 with a law degree from l'Université de Sherbrooke. Married to a lawyer, he is author of several books on civil litigation. He has extensive expertise in municipal and labour law. Carignan, a Conservative appointed by Stephen Harper, was leader of the government in the Senate last year. He was paid $222,500 a year plus whatever else he could make on the side as a law- yer. No problem there. But then there was a federal election last October and the Liberals came to power. Carignan slipped down to leader of the opposition in the Senate at $180,500 a year. He got a whole bunch of Conservative senators to look a er, a lot of administra- tion, and less time to make money on the side. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau changed the Liberal side of the Senate. He tossed all his Liberal senators out of the Liberal caucus and declared them all "independents." eir salaries all went down to $142,400, the same as any backbench senator. Senate Liberal opposition lead- er James Cowan did not automatically graduate to the highest-paying job as Senate government leader at $222,500 a year. Instead, Cowan became merely Senate Liberal leader, as boss of Trudeau's new Liberal independents. And Cowan's salary dropped down to $142,400 a year, the same level as that of any other "inde- pendent." ere was more bad news. e auditor general had done a big investigation of dozens of senators and told Cowan that he had to pay back $10,397 in misspent Senate expense money. As for Carignan, he owed $3,516. Both men immediately paid back the money they owed and got to keep their new jobs. at's how the Senate works. It's not enough just to sit around and watch poli- tics. You have to watch how you spend the Senate money as well. LT uRichard Cleroux is a freelance reporter and columnist on Parliament Hill. His e-mail address is richardcleroux34@gmail.com. The Hill Richard Cleroux Where the law and PR divide ere is doing what is legal. ere is doing what is morally right. And there is doing what makes sense for reputation management, or in lay terms, for public relations. Sometimes, these areas overlap. Other times, they diverge. Take the case of Merritt v. Tigercat Industries, 2016. Law Times reports that a judge has ordered an Ontario company to pay 10 months severance to long-time employee Keith Merritt, af- ter it fi red him for cause upon learning the 66-year-old was facing two counts of sexual assault against minors. e case highlights the complexities of labour law, as Superior Court justice Donald Gordon concluded Tigercat did not take the necessary steps to justify dismissal with cause. Merritt's case isn't the fi rst where a company has had to carefully weigh its options a er public scrutiny of an employee's off -duty conduct. Many a company may balk at keeping an employee on staff ac- cused of socially undesirable and potentially criminal behaviour. "Tigercat's position for terminating Mr. Merritt for cause is based on the criminal charges and reputational harm, dishonesty and the cumulative discipline record," said the ruling. In this case, Merritt had not been convicted of the charges against him. " e criminal charges are not associated with Mr. Merritt's em- ployment and do not involve other employees," said the ruling. " ere is no evidence as to damage, or potential damage, to Tiger- cat's reputation." Companies hit with this type of unenviable imbroglio are wise to consult legal counsel before any sudden moves. And therein lies the rub — by the time legal counsel comes in with a sure-footed course of action, the public relations damage may already have been done. In this case, the judge or- dered Tigercat to pay more then $41,000 in dam- ages to Merritt. And, the company has now experienced front- page media coverage of the issue. From a public relations perspective, the verdict is out. Tigercat may feel that by not having Merritt in its employ it's a win, but the ruling itself is a fi nancial loss for the company. LT

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