Dryden Sen. Lynn Beyak has been suspended from the Senate without pay for the remainder of the parliamentary session.
The suspension comes on the heels of a Senate ethics committee recommendation calling for her removal following the posting of anti-Indigenous letters to her website.
Beyak's letters are part of an ongoing effort to promote the positive aspects of residential schools.
In March, a year-long Senate inquiry ruled Beyak's letters violated two sections of the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Code for Senators.
Pierre Legault, the senate ethics officer, ordered the Beyak to remove the letters from her website, to make a formal apology for posting the letters, and to complete a cultural sensitivity course with an emphasis on Indigenous issues; all of which Beyak refused.
Beyak addressed her punishment in the Senate on Thursday, saying she is being treated unfairly, comparing the to the suspension to the totalinarism in George Orwell's novel 1984.
"This type of penalty is totalitarian and, as such, alien to the tradition of free nations like Canada."
Beyak also defended the letters on her website, calling them a "positive public forum."
"I will not act in a manner that interferes with the freedom of expression of the people I represent each day," she said.
The temporary suspension will include the remaining six weeks of the current session. The next parliamentary session begins after the federal election on Oct. 21.
Beyak was appointed to the Red Chamber by former prime minister Stephen Harper in 2013, and removed from the Conservative caucus under current leader Andrew Scheer.
