New Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau — who is facing a sexual harassment complaint before a human rights tribunal — has stepped down as head of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.

Brazeau was willing to serve both the Senate and as national chief of the group representing native people who live off reserve. But taxpayer watchdogs pointed out this week that he would then collect two six-figure salaries paid in public funds.

Brazeau’s cosy relationship with the Harper government and his blunt calls for tighter control over native funding have rankled chiefs on reserves across Canada.

His initial move to serve both as senator and congress leader raised eyebrows — something he acknowledged Friday.

“There are some situations I’m aware of whereby it may have created some perceived conflict of interest,” Brazeau told the Canadian Press just before announcing his resignation from the congress.

The 34-year-old Algonquin, a member of the Kitigan Zibi band in northwestern Quebec, was named by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last month as one of the youngest senators ever.

But he has made more recent headlines as the subject of a sexual harassment complaint by a young woman who once worked at the congress. The case is before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.

Brazeau confirmed that the complaint filed last March includes allegations of inappropriate text messages and phone calls. Any claims against him are unproven.

He dismissed them as “100 per cent false.”

Brazeau and his lawyer Michael Chambers stress that Brazeau was cleared of any wrongdoing in an investigative report by independent mediation firm ADR Chambers.

“It is a fact that the investigation found that there was no breach of (the congress) anti-harassment policy in the context of a sexual harassment complaint that was made,” Chambers said.

The policy, provided to the Canadian Press, says: “Harassment constitutes a disciplinary infraction and will not be tolerated by the (congress). This ‘zero tolerance’ policy on harassment shall apply to (congress) employees, members of the executive and members of the board.”

The investigation report has not been publicly released or even shared with the congress board members.

“There’s a complaint before the human rights tribunal,” Brazeau said. “And so in terms of protecting the best interests of individuals who are mentioned and cited and have been interviewed in the report, this is done for protective measures and privacy issues.”

Strict confidentiality in such highly sensitive cases is common, Chambers said.

Brazeau denies condoning heavy drinking at office

A second young woman who worked for the congress has alleged Brazeau condoned heavy drinking during business hours — a charge he also denies.

Jade Harper, now 25, was 23 when she started a six-month contract at the congress.

She said she filed a grievance with Brazeau last year complaining of sexual harassment by an older male contract worker with whom she had a brief affair.

“I take responsibility for being in a relationship with an older man from the office,” she said Friday in an interview. “I know that probably wasn’t the best decision.

“However, he was an authority figure there and I believe that he abused that … to pursue a relationship with me, a very brief relationship.”

When it ended, the man “just bullied, ignored me at the office,” she said.

While Brazeau was not the subject of that complaint, Harper accuses him of condoning an environment in which congress employees drank alcohol during office hours, sometimes heavily.

“I was asking him to be accountable to those things. I originally wanted to deal with it in-house … and try to use some cultural ways of dealing with it.

“I don’t believe it’s just the people out in our communities that need help. But I believe it’s our leaders that need help too sometimes.”

Brazeau said Harper’s claims have shifted from her original complaint, for which she was offered mediation but left the congress before the process was finished.

“It does not mention that I condone any action whatsoever,” he said. “And so that was never an issue, or at least was not an issue raised in the original grievance by this particular individual.”