Finance Minister Jim Flaherty urged the federal broadcast regulator to grant a radio licence to a company in his Ontario riding even though government rules on cabinet responsibility forbid ministers from influencing the decisions of administrative tribunals.

Multiple loopholes in Alberta ethics law guarantee Premier Alison Redford can’t be punished by the province’s ethics commissioner for awarding a contract to her ex-husband while she was still justice minister, says a legal expert.

All Canadians can help get their politicians to sign the 7-point Pledge

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch called on politicians and government officials across Canada to sign the Democratic Good Government Pledge as their New Year’s Resolution, and called on Canadians to contact their politicians, and political staff, and government appointees and officials and ask them to sign the Pledge (and to let Democracy Watch know who they are approaching by sending an email to [email protected]).

Democracy Watch created the Democratic Good Government Pledge because current laws and enforcement systems across Canada do not go far enough to ensure that politicians, their staff, appointees, government employees, and election candidates act honestly, ethically, openly, representatively, efficiently and respectfully.

The 7-point Pledge reflects the best-practice international standards for democratic good governance, and the standards that surveys have shown Canadians want politicians and government officials to uphold.

By signing on to the Pledge, politicians, political staff, appointees and officials agree to all of the following 6 standards, and also to vote for changes to laws, codes, policies etc. to require these standards to be upheld (and they can choose to sign on only to parts of the Pledge):

1. To be honest;  2. To be ethical;  3. To be open;  4. To be representative;  5. To be waste-preventing;  6. To be respectful; and; 7. To support positive changes.

“We know that not all or even many people in politics are dishonest, unethical, secretive, unrepresentative and wasteful, but those who act in these undemocratic ways are usually let off the hook with no penalty because of loopholes in rules and weak enforcement, and this is not the system Canadians want or deserve,” said Tyler Sommers, Coordinator for Democracy Watch.  “So we’re simply asking people in politics to pledge to behave the ways Canadians want and expect and deserve, and Canadians to help by pushing politicians and others to take the pledge.”

The Pledge has already been sent to all federal politicians as well as provincial party leaders across Canada, and will be sent to all politicians in Canada.  Politicians can send in their signed copy of the Pledge by mail to Democracy Watch at P.O. Box 821, Stn. B, Ottawa K1P 5P9, by email to: [email protected] or by fax to: 613-241-4758.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch
Tel: (613) 241-5179
[email protected]

Democracy Watch’s Voter’s Rights Campaign

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Refusal to disclose past rulings raises question of whether rulings on robocall complaints will be disclosed – group calls on complainants to send in any letter they received from the Commissioner

More than 62,000 messages have been sent by Canadians through Democracy Watch’s letter-writing drive calling for disclosure of election complaint rulings, and other fair election enforcement measures

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch filed a complaint with the federal Information Commissioner and renewed its call for a full public inquiry into Elections Canada’s enforcement record because Elections Canada has refused to release the rulings by the Commissioner of Elections on more than 3,000 complaints since 1997.

Elections Canada’s main reason for refusing to disclose the rulings is that they could make the Commissioner of Elections look bad – which is a bizarre reason given that the Commissioner has sent a ruling letter to each of the complainants, and Democracy Watch has only requested copies of those already public letters.  Democracy Watch has appealed to Elections Canada to re-consider its decision to keep the rulings secret.

Almost all the other Officers of Parliament — the Auditor General of Canada, the Commissioner of Official Languages for Canada, the Information Commissioner, the Privacy Commissioner, and the Commissioner of Lobbying, are required to disclose final decisions/rulings (under 16.1 or 16.2 of the Access to Information Act).  Elections Canada has only had the discretionary right to refuse to disclose rulings since 2007 after the Conservatives weakened the Act by adding section 16.3 (the Ethics Commissioner is the other officer allowed, unfortunately, to make secret rulings).

To get around Elections Canada’s secrecy, Democracy Watch called on complainants from across Canada to send in any ruling letters they have received from the Commissioner of Elections since 1997 by mail to P.O. Box 821, Stn. B, Ottawa K1P 5P9, by email to: [email protected] or by fax to: 613-241-4758.

More than 62,000 messages have been sent by Canadians to key politicians through Democracy Watch’s national letter-writing drive calling for clear requirements to disclose election complaint rulings, and for passage of other key measures for fair elections and strong enforcement.

“The public must see all of Elections Canada’s rulings to know whether it is an effective democracy watchdog or an ineffective lapdog,” said Democracy Watch Coordinator Tyler Sommers. “It is completely contradictory and hypocritical for Elections Canada to commit to disclosing its rulings on every robocall complaint but refuse to disclose its rulings on other complaints.”

“Elections Canada raises serious questions about its commitment to transparency and accountability by refusing to disclose its rulings on more than 2,000 complaints filed during elections since 1997, on an unknown number of complaints filed in between elections since 1997, and on more than 1,000 complaints filed during the 2011 election, even though the Access to Information Act allows the rulings to be disclosed, and even though the rulings have been publicly  disclosed in letters to almost all the complainants over the past 15 years,”  said Sommers.  “This is more evidence that a full public inquiry is needed into how Elections Canada has been enforcing the law for the past several elections, because its secret rulings may be hiding a biased, unfair or ineffective enforcement record.”

Last March, Democracy Watch requested under the federal Access to Information Act the ruling letters send to complainants by the Commissioner of Elections for a total of 2,982 complaints people have filed during elections since 1997.  Democracy Watch also requested the ruling letters Elections Canada has sent to an unknown number of people who filed complaints in-between elections (the total is unknown because Elections Canada does not disclose any information about complaints it receives in-between elections).

Democracy Watch will continue to seek the information from Elections Canada as the public has a clear right to see the rulings that any law enforcement agency makes on any complaint.  If this information is kept secret, it is a recipe for abuse and corruption as it can allow any agency to hide a biased, unfair, discriminatory, ineffective or otherwise improper enforcement record.

Democracy Watch will also continue to push for section 16.3 of the Access to Information Act to be changed to require Elections Canada to disclose all its rulings, and for other key fair election changes to the Canada Elections Act.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Tyler Sommers, Coordinator of Democracy Watch
Tel: (613) 241-5179
[email protected]

Democracy Watch’s Voter’s Rights Campaign