Following a brief court appearance in Gatineau, Quebec on Friday, Senator Patrick Brazeau was released on $1,000 bail.

Brazeau, who’s charged with assault and sexual assault, is expected to return to court next month.

Under bail conditions, Brazeau cannot have a firearm or be within 150 metres of the alleged victim, who cannot be named.

After his arrest yesterday, Brazeau was dropped from the Conservative caucus.

Calls for his removal from the Senate began almost from the day he was appointed by Prime Minister Harper in 2008.

Brazeau joined the Senate while he was still national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.

He eventually resigned from that body in 2009 after news broke that an employee filed a sexual harassment complaint against him with Ontario’s human rights tribunal.

Over the years, reports have surfaced repeatedly of Brazeau being in arrears on child support payments.

(Courtesy of The Canadian Press)