Don Meredith

Donald Meredith (born 13 July 1964) is a Canadian Pentecostal minister and former politician.

Born and raised in Jamaica, Meredith immigrated to Canada and became a Canadian citizen in the early 1980s.

He attended Ryerson Polytechnical Institute but never graduated; while he was a student at Ryerson, he began Donscape Landscaping Services (c. 1994), which he still owns and operates.

Meredith is a member of the Chief's Advisory Council for the Toronto Police Services; he was also a member of the York Regional Police Police Community Advisory Council (PCAC) from 2004 until 2012, as well as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Consultative Committee since 2005.

He is the former Co-Chair of the Black Community Police Consultative Committee, an advisory group of community members who advise the police on various issues.

In opposition, Stephen Harper had opposed Siksay's predecessor, former NDP MP Svend Robinson's successful private member's bill that added sexual orientation to the law in 2004.

Meredith was ordained a minister in 2006, is a graduate of Rhema Studies of Theology Association, which is a non-degree granting association.

He is the volunteer senior pastor at the Pentecostal Praise Centre in Maple, Ontario close to Richmond Hill, Ontario where he now lives.

Meredith participated in the "Black Family Summit," held in August 2006, he described the event as "a great way to meet young women".

Meredith placed fourth in the by-election which saw him receiving 12.5% of the vote, down from the 18.2% received by the Conservative candidate in the 2006 federal election and also down from the 18.3% that the Conservative candidate would receive in the federal election held seven months after the by-election.

Meredith is a social conservative who has spoken out against pre-marital sex and stated that "when we have marriages, we don't have these social problems."

Meredith has also stated that he would like to see the age of sexual consent raised to 18 from 14 which was at odds with the then-Conservative government's stated intention to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16.

Nonetheless, Meredith had supported New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament (MP) Bill Siksay's private member's bill to add gender identity to the list of distinguishable group traits protected from hate speech by the Criminal Code and to allow judges to take into account whether crimes were motivated by hatred of transgender or transsexual people when determining the offender's sentence.

Meredith was also the Conservative candidate in the March 17, 2008 federal by-election in Toronto Centre.

He received 12.5% of the vote, and placed fourth behind Liberal victor Bob Rae.

In December 2007, he was nominated by the Conservative Party of Canada as its candidate in the downtown Toronto riding of Toronto Centre federal by-election held on March 17, 2008.

Meredith won the Conservative nomination by acclamation several weeks after the party controversially removed Mark Warner as its standard-bearer.

Meredith was appointed to the Senate of Canada on 18 December 2010 as a Conservative.

Meredith was appointed to the Canadian Senate on 18 December 2010 on the advice of Prime Minister Harper, and joined the Conservative caucus.

In September 2012, Meredith was criticized for attending a cultural event at Carleton University organized by the Iranian embassy at a time when the Canadian government was urging a boycott of Iran.

In contravention of his government's position on Iran, Meredith travelled to Iran in 2012 in attempts to forge business deals with the government.

Workplace harassment and bullying in Meredith's office were first brought up with a human resources manager in 2013.

In 2014, despite not being authorized by the Senate, he attended the National Prayer Breakfast for notable preachers and politicians in the United States.

Meredith expensed the first class trip for himself and his wife along with the hotel cost to the Senate and was later forced to repay the expense.

He was expelled from the Conservative caucus on 17 June 2015, however, following allegations that he had groomed a teenager for two years, starting when the girl was 16.

Two years later, in February 2015, Quintet Consulting Corp, a third-party firm, was hired to investigate because Pierre Claude Nolin, the Speaker of the Senate of Canada, had noticed a higher than usual turnover rate in Meredith's office.

The Quintet report was submitted in July 2015 and led to Meredith being formally investigated by the Office of the Senate Ethics Officer.

Meredith initially denied that an ethics investigation existed despite having been interviewed for it.

The ethics investigation included allegations of unwanted sexual advances, innuendo, and rude behaviour from eight women: four of Meredith's former staffers and four Senate employees.

Meredith was expelled from the Conservative caucus on 17 June 2015, following allegations that he had groomed a teenager for two years, beginning when the girl was 16.

In October 2015, the Office of the Senate Ethics Officer suspended its investigation pending the result of the concurrent police investigation that took over the file.

Ultimately the teenager, known by the pseudonym, "Ms. M," declined to press criminal charges to protect her identity.

After the police investigation was dropped the Senate ethics office investigation resumed in February 2016 and found him guilty of ethics violations in March 2017 after he conceded he had sexual intercourse with the woman after she turned 18.

The woman said that Meredith "continually encouraged her to be in a relationship with him" and that he frequently masturbated on-camera during video chats while he was in his GTA Faith Alliance office.

Meredith called the encouragement a gross lie and did not recall masturbating, but said that if he did "it was an interaction".

Meredith was expelled from the Independent Senators Group he had joined the previous year.

Meredith repeatedly apologizing for his "moral failing" and begging forgiveness but refused to step down, while taking sick leave on doctor's orders.

He was found guilty of ethics violations by the Senate ethics office in March 2017.

The Senate Ethics Committee recommend in May 2017 that Meredith be expelled from the Senate.

He announced his resignation on 9 May, before a vote could occur; his resignation took effect the next day.