1. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu was born on February 12,1949 and is a retired Canadian politician and victim's rights activist, who was appointed to the Senate of Canada on January 29,2010, on the advice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, representing the province of Quebec under the banner of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu retired from the Senate on February 12,2024, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu is co-founder of the Le Nid centre, a shelter for abused women in Val-d'Or, and of a camp for underprivileged youth in Estrie.
Professionally, Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu is a former provincial civil servant in Quebec, and was regional director for the Department of Recreation, Game and Fisheries and for the Department of the Environment before becoming Deputy Minister for the Department of Regions.
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu has a bachelor's degree in educational psychology from the Universite de Montreal and a master's degree in administration from L'Ecole nationale d'administration publique in Quebec City.
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu served on the following committees: Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs; Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications and the Standing Committee on National Security and Defence.
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu retracted the statement after it sparked controversy and later issued an apology "if his comment offended people whose close ones committed suicide".
The complaints relate to Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu using his position of senator to influence the clerk of the Senate and another Senator to arrange a job and time off for his assistant, with whom he had a romantic relationship.
In June 2014, Senate ethics officer Lyse Ricard found that Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu had acted inappropriately by renewing his assistant's contract while the two were involved in a relationship, and that he violated the code by promising her a two-week period of sick leave between jobs.
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu then contacted Senate clerk Gary O'Brien and Senate leader David Tkachuk in a bid to have the time off counted as sick leave and not vacation time.
However, Ricard concluded that Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu was responsible for "an error of judgment made in good faith" and did not recommend he be sanctioned.
In 2012, there were media reports that, after his divorce, Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu continued to charge the Senate for $20,000 in out-of-town living expenses, even though he had left his home in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and was living in Gatineau, Quebec.
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu resigned from the Conservative caucus in June 2015 after learning that he is the subject of an RCMP investigation into his expense claims.
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu was readmitted to the Conservative caucus on November 22,2016, after the RCMP decided not to lay charges against the Senator.
In 2017, it was reported that Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu was a member of Facebook group for "PEGIDA Quebec" and the group for La Meute.
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu initially insisted he would remain a member, but later left the two groups.
In 2019, Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu was found to be actively participating in the far-right Facebook groups "Canadian Coalition of Concerned Citizens " and Yellow Vests Canada.
Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu then began advocating for the rights of victims of crime, especially for the families of murdered or missing persons.