A day before a trial date was to be set for his 2013 assault case, suspended senator Patrick Brazeau was arrested Wednesday night for an alleged incident of domestic violence.
The suspended senator is facing new charges of assault, cocaine possession, uttering threats and breach of conditions after police alleged that he was intoxicated and got into an altercation with a woman.
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Personal items, some belonging to suspended senator Patrick Brazeau, are seen in the backyard of the Gatineau home. THE CANADIAN PRESS gallery
In a short court appearance on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Brazeau pleaded not guilty to all charges. He will spend the evening in detention and is scheduled to return in court Friday morning for a bail hearing. He was in handcuffs and walked with a slight limp.
Police in Gatineau, Que., said they got a call for domestic disturbance at 3:53 a.m. Thursday. At the scene, officers saw that Mr. Brazeau and a woman had been fighting on the gallery of a private residence on Labrosse.
The 39-year-old Mr. Brazeau was intoxicated, a police spokesman said. He was arrested for assault 'in the context of conjugal violence,' Gatineau police said in a statement.
The former Conservative senator was already under court undertakings to keep the peace. As a result he was charged with breach of conditions.
Mr. Brazeau was taken into custody and spent the rest of the night at the Gatineau police headquarters.
Another person, 50-year-old Marc Lamontagne, whom police described as a friend of the woman, was inside the house and got into a confrontation with Mr. Brazeau, police said.
Mr. Brazeau is charged with uttering threats at Mr. Lamontagne, according to court documents.
Mr. Lamontagne will also face assault charges following a complaint from Mr. Brazeau.
The alleged victim, Vanessa Brisson, is the owner of the house. On her Facebook page, she identifies herself as a barmaid and last month referred to Mr. Brazeau as 'my love.'
Mr. Brazeau was charged last year with assault and sexual assault after a dispute with a woman where he is alleged by police to have ripped her clothes and grabbed her breasts in an aggressive manner. He was released on $1,000 bail and ordered not to enter into contact with the alleged victim.
Last summer the 27-year-old Ms. Brisson was charged with two counts of drug possession.
A trial date in that 2013 case is to be set in Quebec Court on Friday.
Stephen Harper named Mr. Brazeau to the Senate in late 2008, then the youngest face among the Prime Minister's 18 appointees. The former national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples was appointed to represent Quebec.
But questions have since surfaced about the expense claims of Mr. Brazeau and others in the Senate. In February, Mr. Brazeau was charged by the RCMP with fraud and breach of trust in a case relating to his Senate expense claims. He's accused in that case of claiming expenses on a primary residence in Maniwaki, Que., despite spending the majority of his time in the National Capital Region around Ottawa.
Mr. Brazeau had been ordered to repay nearly $50,000, the lowest sum among the senators involved in the expense scandal, but he declined and saw his wages garnisheed until his suspension in early November - he, Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin were suspended, all of them senators appointed as Conservatives. A fourth involved in the Senate expense scandal, Liberal senator Mac Harb, has since retired from the Senate. Mr. Harb was also charged by RCMP in February.
Mr. Brazeau will be eligible to resume sitting in the Senate after the next election, until age 75, unless suspended again, though the Conservative government that appointed him has asked the Supreme Court to rule on what powers it has for Senate reform, including term limits.
In the meantime, Mr. Brazeau began working as a manager at the Barefax Gentlemen's Club, a strip club in Ottawa's ByWard Market, near Parliament Hill.
A spokesman for Mr. Harper issued a brief statement following the arrest.
'Mr. Brazeau has been suspended without pay from the Senate and is no longer a member of our [Conserative] caucus. Anyone who commits a crime needs to face the full force of the law,' spokesman Jason MacDonald said Thursday. With a report from Daniel Leblanc.
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