Senator Patrick Brazeau says his push in the Senate to study aboriginal issues — and the fact that he, himself is First Nations — played a part in his suspension.
The embattled senator made the statements in an interview on CBC's Power and Politics Monday. Senator Marjory LeBreton, the former Tory Leader in the Senate, was specifically mentioned by Brazeau.
"I don't think she likes the aboriginal agenda or aboriginal people in general," Brazeau said. "Each time that I've tried to make proposals that advance this issue I've been turned down."
Host Evan Solomon was taken aback by Brazeau's statement, asking the senator if he was aware he was making a strong allegation. Brazeau said he believes LeBreton "doesn't like aboriginal people".
He pointed to his call for a national inquiry into the disappearances of aboriginal women as a reason he was suspended.
"My call for national inquiry led to my political downfall," he told Solomon.
"I'm being thrown under the bus."
In an interview with Global News' Laura Stone in September, LeBreton called Brazeau an "experiment gone wrong."
"Patrick Brazeau, to me he's a tragedy," she said. "Here's a person that got appointed to the Senate, could have done great work for his people. It's just a human tragedy and an experiment gone wrong."
Later in the CBC interview, Brazeau confirmed he was hospitalized for eight days recently, but denied it had anything to do with drinking or drugs.
He also said he owes Canada's aboriginal community an apology because "I put my loyalty and trusted this prime minister to do the right thing."
Paul McLeod, Ottawa bureau chief for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, asked LeBreton about Brazeau's comments Monday.
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