{"id":12241,"date":"2020-10-14T06:13:42","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T10:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/?p=12241"},"modified":"2025-05-25T07:17:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T11:17:24","slug":"supreme-court-of-canada-to-rule-on-thursday-if-dwatch-can-appeal-federal-court-of-appeal-ruling-in-aga-khan-case-that-public-cant-file-complaints-with-lobbying-commissioner-or-challenge-commi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/fr\/supreme-court-of-canada-to-rule-on-thursday-if-dwatch-can-appeal-federal-court-of-appeal-ruling-in-aga-khan-case-that-public-cant-file-complaints-with-lobbying-commissioner-or-challenge-commi\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court of Canada to rule on Thursday if DWatch can appeal Federal Court of Appeal ruling in Aga Khan case that public can\u2019t file complaints with Lobbying Commissioner or challenge Commissioner\u2019s rulings in courtSupreme Court of Canada to rule on Thursday if DWatch can appeal Federal Court of Appeal ruling in Aga Khan case that public can\u2019t file complaints with Lobbying Commissioner or challenge Commissioner\u2019s rulings in court"},"content":{"rendered":"

FCA ruling nixed Federal Court ruling that ordered Commissioner to investigate Aga Khan and his foundation further for possible lobbying law violations \u2013 if SCC upholds FCA ruling it will also stop two other court cases<\/span><\/h3>\n

Federal Court ruling also extended lobbying disclosure and ethics rules to many more business, union and organization board members, and expanded Lobbying Commissioner\u2019s investigation mandate<\/span><\/h3>\n\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:<\/b>
Wednesday, October 14, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OTTAWA \u2013 Today, Democracy Watch announced that the Supreme Court of Canada will rule tomorrow, Thursday, October 15, 2020, on whether DWatch can appeal the Federal Court of Appeal\u2019s ruling<\/a> in the Aga Khan case issued last April Fool\u2019s Day. The FCA ruled that the public has no right to file complaints with the federal Commissioner of Lobbying, and so members of the public are prohibited from challenging the Commissioner\u2019s rulings in court, even if a ruling ignores all the evidence and is full of errors. Sebastian Spano is representing Democracy Watch in the application to appeal, which is SCC file no. 39202<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

The FCA\u2019s ruling made the Lobbying Commissioner into an unaccountable czar, which is dangerous given the Commissioner has let off 84% of lobbyists<\/a> caught violating the federal lobbying law and\/or code since 2007.<\/p>\n\n

DWatch is arguing that the FCA\u2019s ruling sets a bad precedent<\/a> that contradicts past SCC and FCA rulings<\/a> as it shuts out the public from the enforcement system for the lobbying law and code, which is one of several key federal government public accountability systems.<\/p>\n\n

Lawyers have expressed concern here<\/a> and here<\/a> about the negative implications of the FCA\u2019s ruling on the rights of the public to hold government officials and watchdogs accountable for bad decisions.<\/p>\n\n

If the Supreme Court does not allow DWatch to appeal, and upholds the FCA\u2019s ruling, it will also stop two other ongoing DWatch cases that are challenging rulings by the Lobbying Commissioner:<\/p>\n\n

  1. DWatch\u2019s case challenging<\/a> the Commissioner\u2019s ruling letting Apotex Inc. off for Barry Sherman\u2019s fundraising for, and lobbying of, the Trudeau Liberals;<\/li>\n
  2. DWatch\u2019s case challenging<\/a> the Commissioner\u2019s ruling letting Clearwater Seafoods off for Mickey McDonald\u2019s fundraising for, and Clearwater\u2019s lobbying of, the Trudeau Liberals;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    In March 2019, Democracy Watch won the landmark Federal Court ruling<\/a> that rejected former Commissioner of Lobbying Karen Shepherd\u2019s secret September 2017 ruling that, even though the Aga Khan was lobbying Prime Minister Trudeau, and is chair of the Aga Khan Foundation, which is registered to lobby the PM<\/a>, because someone at the Foundation claimed the Aga Khan wasn\u2019t paid to lobby for it, the Lobbying Act<\/em> and Lobbyists\u2019 Code of Conduct<\/em> were not violated when the Aga Khan gave Trudeau and his family and friends free vacations on his private island in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n\n

    \u201cThe Trudeau Liberals wasted taxpayers\u2019 money on protecting Trudeau\u2019s old family friend the Aga Khan from accountability for unethical lobbying by appealing the Federal Court\u2019s ruling, and very unfortunately the Federal Court of Appeal\u2019s ruled that the Lobbying Commissioner is a czar who can\u2019t be held accountable by the public or the courts no matter how bad the Commissioner\u2019s rulings are,\u201d<\/em> said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch. \u201cHopefully, the Supreme Court of Canada will allow Democracy Watch\u2019s appeal, and will issue a strong ruling that will finally stop, after more than a dozen years, the Lobbying Commissioner\u2019s negligently weak enforcement of the federal lobbying law and code.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

    \u201cThis case is a real test of whether the Supreme Court of Canada cares about protecting the public\u2019s right to complain about wrongdoing by lobbyists and politicians and government officials, and the public\u2019s right to go to court to hold democratic good government watchdogs accountable when they ignore the facts and law and let wrongdoers off the hook,\u201d<\/em> said Conacher. \u201cThe Federal Court of Appeal\u2019s ruling showed it doesn\u2019t care about protecting the public\u2019s rights to ethical government \u2013 hopefully the Supreme Court will show it cares by allowing Democracy Watch\u2019s appeal.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

    The Federal Court ruling<\/a> rejected Commissioner Shepherd\u2019s ruling as \u201cunreasonable\u201d because it was \u201ca narrow, technical, and targeted analysis that is lacking in transparency, justification, and intelligibility when considered in the context the Commissioner\u2019s duties and functions\u201d<\/em> (para. 146). As a result, the court ordered new Commissioner of Lobbying Nancy B\u00e9langer) to re-examine the actions of everyone at the Aga Khan Foundation with \u201ca broad view of the circumstances<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

    The Lobbyists\u2019 Code<\/em>, which the Commissioner enforces, prohibits<\/a> lobbyists registered under the Lobbying Act<\/em> from doing anything for, or giving anything to, anyone they are lobbying, and requires compliance with several strongly worded principles.<\/p>\n\n

    The Federal Court ruling also greatly broadened the scope of the Lobbying Act<\/em> to cover board members of businesses and other organizations who are compensated in any way or receive \u201canything of value\u201d \u2013 including even the value of being given a position as a member of board (paras. 134-143). In the past, the Lobbying Commissioner has interpreted the Act<\/em> as requiring board members to disclose their lobbying in the Registry of Lobbyists<\/a> only if they were paid more than their expenses<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

    In addition, the Federal Court\u2019s ruling required the Commissioner to investigate and issue a public ruling whenever there are \u201cpotential compliance questions<\/em>\u201d (para. 133) concerning the actions of anyone, or any business or organization that relate to the requirements of the Lobbying Act<\/em> or Lobbyists\u2019 Code<\/em> (paras. 127-134).<\/p>\n\n

    The Trudeau government, represented by the Attorney General of Canada, appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA). The FCA didn\u2019t rule on any part of the Federal Court\u2019s ruling other than deciding that the public has no right to file complaints with the Lobbying Commissioner, and so is prohibited from challenging the Commissioner\u2019s rulings in court, no matter how much the rulings ignore the facts and the law.<\/p>\n\n

    – 30 \u2013<\/p>\n

    FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:<\/strong>
    Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch
    Tel: (613) 241-5179
    Cell: 416-546-3443
    Email:     info@democracywatch.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

    Democracy Watch\u2019s Government Ethics Campaign<\/a> and Stop Bad Government Appointments Campaign<\/a>\n<\/p>
     \n\n

    FCA ruling nixed Federal Court ruling that ordered Commissioner to investigate Aga Khan and his foundation further for possible lobbying law violations \u2013 if SCC upholds FCA ruling it will also stop two other court cases<\/span><\/h3>\n

    Federal Court ruling also extended lobbying disclosure and ethics rules to many more business, union and organization board members, and expanded Lobbying Commissioner\u2019s investigation mandate<\/span><\/h3>\n\n

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:<\/b>
    Wednesday, October 14, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    OTTAWA \u2013 Today, Democracy Watch announced that the Supreme Court of Canada will rule tomorrow, Thursday, October 15, 2020, on whether DWatch can appeal the Federal Court of Appeal\u2019s ruling<\/a> in the Aga Khan case issued last April Fool\u2019s Day. The FCA ruled that the public has no right to file complaints with the federal Commissioner of Lobbying, and so members of the public are prohibited from challenging the Commissioner\u2019s rulings in court, even if a ruling ignores all the evidence and is full of errors. Sebastian Spano is representing Democracy Watch in the application to appeal, which is SCC file no. 39202<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

    The FCA\u2019s ruling made the Lobbying Commissioner into an unaccountable czar, which is dangerous given the Commissioner has let off 84% of lobbyists<\/a> caught violating the federal lobbying law and\/or code since 2007.<\/p>\n\n

    DWatch is arguing that the FCA\u2019s ruling sets a bad precedent<\/a> that contradicts past SCC and FCA rulings<\/a> as it shuts out the public from the enforcement system for the lobbying law and code, which is one of several key federal government public accountability systems.<\/p>\n\n

    Lawyers have expressed concern here<\/a> and here<\/a> about the negative implications of the FCA\u2019s ruling on the rights of the public to hold government officials and watchdogs accountable for bad decisions.<\/p>\n\n

    If the Supreme Court does not allow DWatch to appeal, and upholds the FCA\u2019s ruling, it will also stop two other ongoing DWatch cases that are challenging rulings by the Lobbying Commissioner:<\/p>\n\n

    1. DWatch\u2019s case challenging<\/a> the Commissioner\u2019s ruling letting Apotex Inc. off for Barry Sherman\u2019s fundraising for, and lobbying of, the Trudeau Liberals;<\/li>\n
    2. DWatch\u2019s case challenging<\/a> the Commissioner\u2019s ruling letting Clearwater Seafoods off for Mickey McDonald\u2019s fundraising for, and Clearwater\u2019s lobbying of, the Trudeau Liberals;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

      In March 2019, Democracy Watch won the landmark Federal Court ruling<\/a> that rejected former Commissioner of Lobbying Karen Shepherd\u2019s secret September 2017 ruling that, even though the Aga Khan was lobbying Prime Minister Trudeau, and is chair of the Aga Khan Foundation, which is registered to lobby the PM<\/a>, because someone at the Foundation claimed the Aga Khan wasn\u2019t paid to lobby for it, the Lobbying Act<\/em> and Lobbyists\u2019 Code of Conduct<\/em> were not violated when the Aga Khan gave Trudeau and his family and friends free vacations on his private island in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n\n

      \u201cThe Trudeau Liberals wasted taxpayers\u2019 money on protecting Trudeau\u2019s old family friend the Aga Khan from accountability for unethical lobbying by appealing the Federal Court\u2019s ruling, and very unfortunately the Federal Court of Appeal\u2019s ruled that the Lobbying Commissioner is a czar who can\u2019t be held accountable by the public or the courts no matter how bad the Commissioner\u2019s rulings are,\u201d<\/em> said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch. \u201cHopefully, the Supreme Court of Canada will allow Democracy Watch\u2019s appeal, and will issue a strong ruling that will finally stop, after more than a dozen years, the Lobbying Commissioner\u2019s negligently weak enforcement of the federal lobbying law and code.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

      \u201cThis case is a real test of whether the Supreme Court of Canada cares about protecting the public\u2019s right to complain about wrongdoing by lobbyists and politicians and government officials, and the public\u2019s right to go to court to hold democratic good government watchdogs accountable when they ignore the facts and law and let wrongdoers off the hook,\u201d<\/em> said Conacher. \u201cThe Federal Court of Appeal\u2019s ruling showed it doesn\u2019t care about protecting the public\u2019s rights to ethical government \u2013 hopefully the Supreme Court will show it cares by allowing Democracy Watch\u2019s appeal.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

      The Federal Court ruling<\/a> rejected Commissioner Shepherd\u2019s ruling as \u201cunreasonable\u201d because it was \u201ca narrow, technical, and targeted analysis that is lacking in transparency, justification, and intelligibility when considered in the context the Commissioner\u2019s duties and functions\u201d<\/em> (para. 146). As a result, the court ordered new Commissioner of Lobbying Nancy B\u00e9langer) to re-examine the actions of everyone at the Aga Khan Foundation with \u201ca broad view of the circumstances<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

      The Lobbyists\u2019 Code<\/em>, which the Commissioner enforces, prohibits<\/a> lobbyists registered under the Lobbying Act<\/em> from doing anything for, or giving anything to, anyone they are lobbying, and requires compliance with several strongly worded principles.<\/p>\n\n

      The Federal Court ruling also greatly broadened the scope of the Lobbying Act<\/em> to cover board members of businesses and other organizations who are compensated in any way or receive \u201canything of value\u201d \u2013 including even the value of being given a position as a member of board (paras. 134-143). In the past, the Lobbying Commissioner has interpreted the Act<\/em> as requiring board members to disclose their lobbying in the Registry of Lobbyists<\/a> only if they were paid more than their expenses<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

      In addition, the Federal Court\u2019s ruling required the Commissioner to investigate and issue a public ruling whenever there are \u201cpotential compliance questions<\/em>\u201d (para. 133) concerning the actions of anyone, or any business or organization that relate to the requirements of the Lobbying Act<\/em> or Lobbyists\u2019 Code<\/em> (paras. 127-134).<\/p>\n\n

      The Trudeau government, represented by the Attorney General of Canada, appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA). The FCA didn\u2019t rule on any part of the Federal Court\u2019s ruling other than deciding that the public has no right to file complaints with the Lobbying Commissioner, and so is prohibited from challenging the Commissioner\u2019s rulings in court, no matter how much the rulings ignore the facts and the law.<\/p>\n\n

      – 30 \u2013<\/p>\n

      FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:<\/strong>
      Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch
      Tel: (613) 241-5179
      Cell: 416-546-3443
      Email:       info@democracywatch.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

      Democracy Watch\u2019s Government Ethics Campaign<\/a> and Stop Bad Government Appointments Campaign<\/a>\n<\/p>
       ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      FCA ruling nixed Federal Court ruling that ordered Commissioner to investigate Aga Khan and his foundation further for possible lobbying law violations \u2013 if SCC upholds FCA ruling it will also stop two other court cases Federal Court ruling also extended lobbying disclosure and ethics rules to many more business, union and organization board members, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12241"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18456,"href":"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12241\/revisions\/18456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democracywatch.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}