OTTAWA - A report by the Senate Ethics Office concludes that Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu broke the upper chamber's conflict of interest code by intervening on behalf of an employee with whom he had a relationship.
But the Senate Ethics Officer Lyse Ricard says no sanctions will be imposed on the Quebec Conservative senator because he committed errors of judgment in good faith.
The report says Boisvenu hired Isabelle Lapointe as an executive assistant in 2010 and then developed a relationship with her.
It became public in March 2013, when the senator asked for a housing allowance because he had lived at Lapointe's home since the summer of 2012.
Boisvenu reimbursed the Senate, but his intermittent relationship with the woman continued.
Lapointe then sought work outside the Senate and asked for two weeks of sick leave before starting a new job.
The report says that after she ran into difficulties, Boisvenu personally intervened to make sure that she would get the leave.
The ethics officer says that's where the senator acted in an irregular manner.
Boisvenu has said that he did nothing wrong, maintaining that he acted as any employer would.
His office said Wednesday that Boisvenu was on vacation and not reachable.
