As suspended senator Mike Duffy enters his first week on trial for fraud and senate members face spending scrutiny, the Citizen asked retired senator Romeo Dallaire if his experience in the second chamber reflects current criticism that the body has created a culture of entitlement.
"I think the way the media is arguing this whole Senate affair is so simplistic," said Dallaire, adding "very few of any of the journalists or media reporting has reflected that they have a clue of what the Senate is about."
Questions around the senate's relevance - specifically whether it should be abolished - irk the former Canadian general, who left his senate position in June 2014.
The discussion shouldn't end with the senate, he said.
"I think that the debate is simplistic, superficial and if you're going to look at a system of governance, then you better be looking at all our programs of governance, from our provincial to federal."
Dallaire said the senate can be faulted for its failure to "sell its product," something he criticized while he was in the upper chamber.
Dallaire said everyone can agree that there are elements that need reform.
"I think it's unfair to blame processes that are there now that have been there for 20, 40, 50, 60 years and then all of a sudden because our social standards have changed, we expect a very sort of stayed and maybe a bit conservative institution to overnight be able to adjust."
Leaving gave him more time to focus on his humanitarian work, including the Child Soldiers Initiative, an organization he founded to stop the use of children in warfare.
He couldn't accomplish all he wanted to do by staying, he said.
"My work in the Senate was stagnating because we couldn't get anything done with the Conservatives from an opposition point of view so I felt it was becoming an ethical problem, making people work very hard - had a lot of staff at one point - but all the work they were doing for committees or for legislation simply was just shot down by policy from the other side."
Dallaire highlighted problems with the Veteran's Charter as well as attempts to create more legislative oversight in the area of security, including the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
But being outside of the body has its advantages for his advocacy work around child soldiers as a citizen rather than a public figure.
"Trying to influence people without the concern that they were talking to a person representing a political party, that has been helpful too."
