Set out below is a letter-to-the-editor by Democracy Watch Founder Duff Conacher which was published in the iPolitics, The Tyee, and Rabble.ca, July 19, 2012

As has happened almost every time (archive website) she has issued a ruling, federal Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson has again ignored evidence and rules in her ruling that Cabinet minister Tony Clement did nothing wrong when he endorsed a company in his riding in a promotional video and in two letters.

The Ethics Commissioner ruled in March that Cabinet minister Christian Paradis was guilty (archive website) of giving “preferential treatment” in violation of section 7 the Conflict of Interest Act setting the standard that it is illegal for ministers “to use their positions as ministers to provide greater assistance to their constituents than to other Canadians in relation to their own department or larger portfolio.”

In clear contrast, the Ethics Commissioner only warns Minister Clement not to do this again, instead of finding him guilty.

And in making that ruling about Minister Clement’s appearance in the video, the Ethics Commissioner ignored the letter that Clement also wrote that “encouraged an individual in Dubai to explore working with” the same company. The Ethics Commissioner also failed to disclose the text of that letter, and another promotional letter, that Clement wrote for the company.

In contrast, the Ethics Commissioner found former Minister of State Helena Guergis guilty of violating federal ethics rules for writing a very similar letter.

Given that giving such “preferential treatment” is a violation of the Act, it is by definition “improper” which means that the Ethics Commissioner should have also found Minister Clement of violating section 9 of the Act which prohibits acting in ways that “improperly further another person’s private interests.”

This ruling provides even more evidence that federal government ethics rules will not be properly and effectively enforced as long as Mary Dawson is the Ethics Commissioner.

 

 

For more details, go to Democracy Watch’s Government Ethics Campaign

Set out below is a letter-to-the-editor by Democracy Watch Coordinator Tyler Sommers which was published in the National Post July 9, 2012

Federal Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault is taking the great step of being an active good government watchdog by undertaking a review of the federal Access to Information Act. This is not only proper as she is required to report to Parliament about how the law is working, it is also needed.

Under the Act (ss. 75(1)), a House or Senate Committee is supposed to consistently review the Act, but nothing has been done for the past three years, and no past reviews have resulted in any changes to strengthen the law and enforcement.

The federal Conservatives did not include any proposals for changes in their so-called action plan for next three years for the international Open Government Partnership, and broke almost all (archive website) of their 2006 election promises to strengthen the law and enforcement.

Similar past broken promises and ineffective actions by politicians from all parties have resulted in repeated failures to strengthen the law over the past 30 years to help end the excessive, and often illegal, secrecy that is rampant in the federal government.

P.S. Michel Drapeau, quoted in the CP article last Friday-Saturday about the review, is completely incorrect when he claims that the review is outside the legal mandate of the Information Commissioner — please see subsection 39(1) of the Act set out below which gives the Commissioner the clear power to do special reports, in addition to her annual report to Parliament, that contain recommendations to solve problems with the Act and its enforcement.

Access to Information Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. A-1)

Special reports
39. (1) The Information Commissioner may, at any time, make a special report to Parliament referring to and commenting on any matter within the scope of the powers, duties and functions of the Commissioner where, in the opinion of the Commissioner, the matter is of such urgency or importance that a report thereon should not be deferred until the time provided for transmission of the next annual report of the Commissioner under section 38.

For more details, go to Democracy Watch’s Open Government Campaign

Major reforms are required, but government is stalling.

Thursday June 28, 2012

OTTAWA – Today, following the release of the fifth annual report by the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, civil society groups are calling the federal Conservatives’ 5-year old whistleblower regime a failure and calling for major reforms to ensure protection of Canadian whistleblowers.

“After five years of bureaucratic charades, taxpayers have essentially nothing to show for more than 30 million dollars spent on the Integrity Commissioner’s office and the associated Tribunal” said David Hutton, executive director of FAIR, the whistleblower charity. “Not a single wrongdoer has been sanctioned and not a single whistleblower has been protected. It is time for a root and branch reform of this law.”

Integrity Commissioner Mario Dion has thus far uncovered only one case of wrongdoing out of more than 320 complaints submitted over the past 5 years.  Due to loopholes in the law, the manager found to have misspent taxpayer’s money could not be disciplined because she had left her job for another outside the public service.  Dion declined to use the only remaining sanction available – to name her.

The government has also failed to initiate the five-year review of the Whistleblower Act, as legally required. “More than two months after it was supposed to begin, Minister Clement has still not announced the review or provided information on the format or timing.  The earliest date for a review is now the fall, well after it was to begin according to the Act” said Tyler Sommers of Democracy Watch. “If this government wants to protect honest public servants it will launch a comprehensive, open, and transparent review process immediately – and invite experts from other jurisdictions such as the UK, USA, and Australia, that are decades ahead of Canada in protecting truth-tellers.”

“This government rode into town on a white horse of transparency and accountability, with whistleblower protection the centerpiece of its election campaign” said Mr. Hutton. “It’s time to deliver on the ‘ironclad’ protection promised in 2006.”

– 30 –

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

David Hutton, Executive Director, FAIR (Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform)
Tel: +44-798-104-6958 OR 01144-798-104-6958

Democracy Watch’s Open Government Campaign

Set out below is a op-ed by Democracy Watch Coordinator Tyler Sommers which was published in the The Epoch Times (English Edition) June 21, 2012

The ongoing refusal by federal government institutions to provide the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) with information he clearly has a legal right to examine, and needs, to do his analysis of spending makes it clear that the PBO must be given the power to penalize anyone who refuses his legal requests, and to subpoena information through a quick application in court.

As well, the PBO must be made independent of Cabinet (as the Conservatives promised in the 2006 election), with a fixed term of office and protection from being fired for arbitrary reasons.

Until these changes are made, the federal Conservatives will continue to produce dishonest spending and financial statements that hide what they are doing with the public’s money.

For more details about the changes needed to the PBO go to May 28 News release (archive website)

Set out below is a letter-to-the-editor by Democracy Watch Founder Duff Conacher which was published in the Toronto Star and the Hill Times June 16-18, 2012

While it is dangerously undemocratic, if not clearly unconstitutional, for the Conservatives to have introduced a huge budget bill that includes dozens of amendments that have nothing to do with spending the public’s money, opposition parties are also to blame for this current fiasco.

There was a minority federal government from June 2004 until May 2011, and all the opposition parties had to do, some time in those seven years, was cooperate and pass a bill that clearly restricted budget bills to changes to spending.

Instead, as they almost always do, the opposition parties (including the Conservatives between 2004 and 2006, and yes even Jack Layton’s NDP) competed over who would get attention for complaining about government actions, attacked each other trying to better position themselves for the next election and, in some cases, tried to stop democratic reforms because they feared the ruling party or another party would be applauded.

If any of them would, instead of opposing and competing, propose working together to make government more honest, ethical, open, representative and waste-preventing, let alone to solve many other societal problems, they would not only make the other parties look very bad if they refused to work together, and be widely applauded by voters, they would also give the 40 per cent of Canadians who don’t vote a reason to vote.

One would think that political parties trying to get into power would want to do things to attract votes from 40 per cent of Canadians. One can only hope that at least one of them will soon break their addiction to corrupt, destructive politics as usual and start proposing solutions, and cooperative processes for implementing those solutions.

For more details, go to Democracy Watch’s Clean Up the System page

Sorry, this entry is only available in Français.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Français.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Français.

Set out below is a letter-to-the-editor by Democracy Watch Board Member Duff Conacher which was published in the iPolitics May 24, 2012 and the Toronto Star May 27, 2012

 

The situation of Conservative MP David Wilks expressing concerns about the federal omnibus budget bill is a perfect example of the dangerously undemocratic problems of excessive party leader control, the lack of a requirement to set out a clear, specific election platform, and the lack of a clear definition of what are votes of confidence in Parliament.

The Conservatives’ 2011 election campaign did not mention, let alone propose, changes to environmental assessment laws (although the Speech from the Throne did).

And while votes to approve or reject spending bills are clearly votes of confidence, shouldn’t it be made clear that votes on whether to split off parts of a budget bill that have nothing to do with spending are not confidence votes.

And, therefore, shouldn’t it also be made clear that Prime Minister Harper has no right to require Conservative MPs to vote for a budget bill that changes non-spending laws? And that the PM has no right to kick an MP out of the Conservative Party if s/he votes against such an omnibus budget bill?

In a democracy, MPs are supposed to hold the executive (Cabinet ministers) accountable and represent voter interests, not be completely controlled by ministers and party leaders.

If MPs from all parties would simply work together, they could throw off their undemocratic chains by passing a bill that clearly restricts their leaders’ powers in many ways, and contains clear rules requiring honest, specific election platforms, and democratic legislative processes and votes.

No party leader would dare speak out against such a bill. So what are you waiting for MPs? The country is 145 years old — get it together already and pass a bill to finally free yourselves, and all of us, from the tyranny of political party leaders and the abuses of our undemocratically vague election and parliamentary processes.

 

 

To see a related op-ed, click here (archive website)

 

For more details, go to Democracy Watch’s Voter Rights Campaign