Advocating stronger, more effectively enforced ethics rules for politicians, political staff and government officials.
Canada’s political ethics laws are weaker than the laws in a dozen other countries, including the U.S.
Please send your letter now using the form on this page, and please help spread the word by Sharing and Tweeting this page.
Key Links
- Government Ethics Fund (please support ethics complaints and lawsuits across Canada)
- Federal Anti-Corruption Fund (please donate to support private prosecutions in corruption cases)
- Ontario Anti-Corruption Fund (please donate to support private prosecutions in Ontario corruption cases)
- List of loopholes and key changes to make enforcement effective in Canada’s federal ethics law for Cabinet ministers and top government officials
- List of loopholes and key changes to make enforcement effective in the federal ethics code for MPs
- List of loopholes and key changes to make enforcement effective in the Canadian Senate ethics code
- Summary of studies showing even small gifts influence decisions
- Summary of Ethics Court Cases and Ethics Complaints from 2016 on
- Please download and post on social media or print and post everywhere the I’m Voting for Good Government sign
- Call on the politicians that represent you to Make the Democratic Good Government Pledge
- Summary of Ethics Court Cases and Ethics Complaints (archive website)
Campaign News
Read all campaign newsGovernment Ethics Campaign 1993-2011 archive (archive website)
Background
There are many political ethics and government ethics scandals across Canada every year, often involving politicians and their relationships with lobbyists. Weak rules, weak enforcement systems and weak penalties encourage these unethical activities.
The rules and enforcement were even weaker when Democracy Watch started up in 1993, but several changes were made by 2012 to strengthen rules (MPs and Senators didn’t have ethics codes before 2005), and to strengthen enforcement (the federal Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner was established in 2006, and similar commissioners were created up to 2010 in provinces and territories). Click here to see details on Democracy Watch’s archive website.
But the ethics laws still have loopholes that allow politicians to mislead voters, have unethical relationships with lobbyists, and to have secret investments in businesses and participate in decisions and policy-making processes that they can profit from because they help the businesses they are invested in make more money.
In addition, the enforcement commissioners across Canada still lack independence from the politicians they watch over, and are not required to enforce ethics and lobbying laws in transparent, timely and effective ways, and they often lack powers to impose penalties, and can’t be held accountable for failing to enforce the law properly. Penalties also remain too low to encourage compliance and discourage violations.