He has buried 8 ethics complaints, including about PM Trudeau, and gutted 3 key rules – is he the lapdog Trudeau has been trying to get as Ethics Commissioner?

Ethics standards and enforcement will be dangerously weakened if he is appointed to another term – opposition parties must stop his re-appointment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, January 26, 2024

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch released its analysis that concludes, after being on the job only a few months, Interim Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein already has one of the worst government ethics enforcement records it has seen from commissioners across Canada in the past 20 years.

In just five months, Mr. Von Finckenstein has buried at least 8 ethics complaints and gutted 3 key ethics rules in ways that will allow Cabinet staff and top government officials to secretly profit from their decisions and be in serious financial conflicts of interest.

Because of his negligently bad enforcement record, and because the Trudeau Cabinet handpicked von Finckenstein through a secret, partisan, Cabinet-controlled process, Democracy Watch also called on opposition parties to do everything they can to stop the Cabinet from renewing him for another 6-month term at the end of February or, even worse, appointing him to a 7-year term as Ethics Commissioner (the Cabinet is required to consult with opposition party leaders before making a 7-year term appointment).

The Federal Court of Appeal ruled unanimously in 2020 that the Cabinet is biased when it chooses democracy watchdogs like the Ethics Commissioner.  The Trudeau Cabinet in 2016-2017 used a similar secret, partisan, Cabinet-controlled process to appoint several key democratic good government watchdogs, and the opposition parties pushed back a bit but then rolled over and let the Liberals get away with it.

Mr. von Finckenstein testifies on Tuesday, January 30th before the House Ethics Committee on Tuesday, January 30 and MPs should grill him both about how he was chosen (the Trudeau Cabinet is hiding communication records that show how they chose him), and his negligently bad enforcement record.

“Given Mr. von Finckenstein has one of the worst enforcement records of any ethics commissioner across Canada in the past 20 years after being in the job only five months, appointing him to another six-month term or even worse a seven-year term as ethics commissioner would dangerously undermine federal political ethics standards and allow Cabinet ministers, Cabinet staff, top government officials and MPs to make many more unethical decisions and be let off every time,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch. “Canadians can only hope that opposition parties do the right thing and stop Prime Minister Trudeau from once again, as he did in 2017, appointing his own ethics lapdog after handpicking him through a secret, partisan, Cabinet-controlled process.”

Mr. von Finckenstein has buried at least 8 ethics complaints with secret rulings that let off everyone who was alleged to have violated conflict of interest or other ethics rules, based on what is known so far since September when he started his 6-month term in the position of Interim Ethics Commissioner.

In September he testified before the House Ethics Committee that he had “Eight open cases, which involve 11 people” (p. 3 of testimony).  Then in October he testified again and said that the cases were “gone” (p. 18 of testimony).  He has not issued any rulings finding anyone guilty, which means he let off all 11 of the alleged wrongdoers.

While Mr. von Finckenstein refused DWatch’s request that he disclose all 8 rulings (even though nothing in the Conflict of Interest Act nor in ss. 27(5.1) of the MP Code prohibits such disclosure), 2 of the 8 rulings address complaints that DWatch filed.

The first ruling is about DWatch’s complaint alleging Prime Minister Trudeau violated the Act by appointing his long-time friend David Johnston to investigate the PM’s actions on foreign interference.  Mr. von Finckenstein refused to even investigate the complaint based on the bizarre claim that the PM has a “constitutional prerogative” to appoint whomever he wants to any public office.  This ruling sets a dangerous precedent that allows the PM to appoint family, relatives and close friends to any federal government position.

The second ruling is about DWatch’s complaint requesting an investigation into Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, who is Trudeau’s senior B.C. minister, participating in meetings concerning B.C.-based Teck Resources Ltd. (which lobbied Wilkinson six times while his spouse has significant investments in financial institutions that are among the top investors in Teck).  Mr. von Finckenstein also refused to even investigate the situation based on the equally bizarre claim that the private interests “are too remote and speculative to cause them to conflict” with Wilkinson’s public duties.  This ruling also sets a dangerous precedent that allows Cabinet ministers and top government officials to participate in decisions when they have a financial conflict of interest.

Mr. von Finckenstein has also gutted 3 key rules in the Conflict of Interest Act by issuing in October bizarre, dangerously weak interpretations of the rules that will allow many government officials to participate in decisions and actions when they have a significant conflict of interest:

1. He is doubling from $30,000 to $60,000 the value of shares that Cabinet staff and top government officials can own in businesses they regulate or make decisions about, and specifically allowing members of the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) to invest in exchange-traded funds and mutual funds that own shares in energy companies. (Click here to see his bizarre interpretation – #3 re: Doubling the minimum value exemption and #4 re: CER appointees).  This will allow Cabinet staff, top government officials and CER appointees to be in a direct, significant financial conflict of interest and to secretly profit from the decisions they make.

2. He is now allowing Cabinet staff and top government officials to leave their position and move to another position in the government, or take a contract with the government, without any cooling-off period because, he told the House Ethics Committee in October, he believes “there cannot be any conflict of interest between different government departments or agencies” and no one in government ever has “confidential information that would be harmful to the government” (Click here to see his bizarre interpretation – #1 re: Definition of the term “entity”). Among many other conflicts of interest between government departments, his interpretation ignores the obvious reality that the interests and information held by ministers and their staff directly conflict with the interests of any agency, board, commission or tribunal that enforces laws that apply to the minister and his/her department.  It also ignores the reason for the cooling-off period, which is to prevent ministerial staff from developing relationships with top department officials and then receiving preferential treatment in hiring processes.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch
Tel: (613) 241-5179
Cell: 416-546-3443
Email: [email protected]

Democracy Watch’s Stop Bad Government Appointments Campaign and Government Ethics Campaign