Senators for Life

Andrew Coyne: Senators are partisans, appointed for life. How could that not go wrong?

 The longer it goes on, and the more people it engulfs, the more it becomes apparent that the Senate scandal — for in truth it is one scandal, not several — really is about the Senate. The Senate’s defenders (there are some) like to say that a few misbehaving senators do not make the case for reform or abolition, any more than a few corrupt individuals would condemn any other institution, in toto. But what if the conduct in question cannot entirely be chalked up to individual fault? What if it’s endemic to the place, part of its very nature?

Like any other crime-ridden public housing project, the Senate is an example of the importance of environment in human behaviour. The observation does not mean everyone inside should be considered a criminal. Nor does it absolve the individuals involved of their own personal responsibility. It doesn’t mean that there weren’t rules that should have been followed, or that conscience should not have sufficed in any event. There are some things you just don’t do, for which the complaint that the rules “weren’t clear” or they were “applied retroactively,” even if true, would be no defence.

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