Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
Suspended Senator Patrick Brazeau, who is facing several criminal charges in Quebec and Ontario, is out of rehab and undergoing therapy, according to court documents.
Brazeau was sent to the Domaine Orford treatment centre in Sherbrook, Que., last October after Gatineau, Que., police charged him with breaching previously set conditions. Police allegedly found Brazeau drunk and with a knife while he sat parked in a Dodge Journey SUV in a dirt parking lot at the end of a Gatineau street.
Quebec provincial court records show he was released from rehab in January. A court filing changing his conditions was filed on Jan. 21.
Brazeau is now required to live at specified addresses in Maniwaki, Que., and Buckingham, Que.
He is now also required to attend weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and submit to therapy by a specified psychologist.
Before his October arrest, Brazeau had spent a stint at another rehab centre in Saint-Andre-d’Argenteuil.
Brazeau’s second release from rehab coincided with his reappearance on Twitter. Brazeau tweeted a little over a week ago that he was willing to volunteer with the Assembly of First Nations or the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples to work on “Aboriginal issues.” He also published an op-ed piece for an online political news website calling for a national inquiry into the high number of murdered and missing Indigenous women.
Brazeau is facing trial at the end of March on sexual assault and assault stemming from February 2013. He is also facing assault, possession of cocaine, uttering threats and breaching bail conditions charges from a separate April 2014 incident.
Across the Ottawa River in Ontario, Brazeau is facing charges of fraud and breach of trust in connection with his Senate expense claims. He is scheduled to appear in Ontario court Jun 1 for a preliminary hearing on those charges.
Brazeau appears to believe he will be cleared of the Senate expense related charges. He describes himself in his Twitter profile as an “Independent First Nations Senator of Canada (suspended) for now.”
Brazeau was appointed to the Senate in 2008 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
@JorgeBarrera
good luck and hang in there Patrick