Conservative senator Patrick Brazeau, who is perhaps best known for losing to Justin Trudeau in a charity boxing match earlier this year, has the poorest attendance record of all senators.

And not long after the story broke on Tuesday, he called Jennifer Ditchburn, the Canadian Press reporter who broke it, a 'bitch' on Twitter.

After a continued exchange with Ditchburn, and a unanimous negative reaction to the comments in the Twitterverse, he issued an apology to Ditchburn, again on Twitter.

The 37-year-old Brazeau was absent for 25 percent of the sittings from June 2011, through to this past April.

During that time, he also missed 65 per cent of meetings at the aboriginal peoples committee on which he sits, and was away for 31 percent of the meetings of the human rights committee, where he's the deputy chair.

Not long after the story became public, Brazeau took to Twitter and suggested the reporter, Jennifer Ditchburn, change the D in her name to B.

Ditchburn also pressed Brazeau for an explanation for his absences. He would only say they had to do with 'personal matters'.

Photo: Senate of Canada