(Democracy Watch: November 2025)
A. Key Changes Needed to Prevent, Prohibit and Penalize Unethical Activities by Senators and their Staff
The key changes needed to make the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Code for Senators (“Senator Code”) effective at preventing, prohibiting and penalizing conflicts of interest and unethical gift- and favour-trading are as follows:
1. Expand the Senator Code to cover Senators as soon as their appointment is decided, and to have key rules cover Senator staff who, because they are not covered by the Code, can do the things that Senators are prohibited from doing on behalf of the Senator who employs them, and can also accept all gifts and favours;
2. Add a new subsection to section 2 of the Senator Code to require Senators and their staff to tell the truth to stop the misleading spin that regularly and fatally undermines reasonable policy debates and discussions;
3. Close the huge loophole in the definition of “private interest” (in subsections 11(1) and (2)) to cover all conflicts of interest, not only specific financial conflicts, because the loophole means the Senator Code doesn’t apply to 99% of decisions Senators participate in, and that allows them to take part in decisions when they and their family or others can profit from the decision (and extend subsection 3(2) and sections 8, 9 and 10 of the Code to ensure Senators and their staff are also prohibited from acting in any way to further the private interests of their extended family and friends);
4. Change in subsection 2(2) of the Senator Code the word “expected” to “required” so that, as with sections 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3, Senators are required to comply with the provisions in subsection 2(2), and add a new rule to prohibit Senators and their staff from giving preferential treatment to anyone, especially anyone who has given them a gift or assisted them in any way;
5. Prohibit Senators and their staff from having investments in businesses or blind trusts (which are allowed under sections 21-26 and clause 28(1)(h), and from having blind trusts, (both of which the Parker Commission recommended prohibiting back in 1987);
6. Delete subsections 5(a) and (b) that allow Senators to have another job or business on the side, and require Senators to work full-time as Senators (other than professional requirements like doctors who have to practise a specific amount each year in order to retain their licence), as is essentially required by subsection 2(1) and the compliance requirements set out in the Guideline on Outside Activities (Section 5 of the Code) – Click here to see the PDF version of the Guideline (especially the example of prohibited and permissible outside activities on pages 8-12);
7. Change the gifts and benefits rule in section 17 of the Senator Code to ban Senators and their staff from accepting anything from anyone who is trying to influence their decisions because even small gifts influence decisions, and delete sections 18 and 19 of the Code so that a Senator or their staff accepting “sponsored travel” is clearly prohibited because it is an unethical gift and essentially a form of legalized bribery;
8. Change clause 28(1)(h) (and 31(1)(d)) of the Senator Code to require Senators and their staff to disclose in the Public Registry their assets and liabilities worth more than $1,000 (the current disclosure requirement is for everything worth more than $10,000, which is much too high), and change clause 28(1)(d) (and clause 31(1)(d)) to require disclosure of all income, and to disclose details about their past five year’s work before they became a Senator to make it easy to track which organizations and issues they have ties to, and to disclose in the Public Registry which members of their extended family they have close relationships with including being aware of their business, investments and other private interests;
9. Add a subsection to section 33 of the Senator Code to require the Senate Ethics Officer to determine for each departing Senator and Senate staff person the sliding-scale time period after they leave during which they will be prohibited from communicating with their former colleagues and government officials, with the scale based on what positions and committees they served in and how close their relationships are with Cabinet ministers, officials etc., and require Senators and Senate staff to disclose their post-activities online during this time period in a searchable database;
10. Delete clauses 44(2)(d) and (e) and subsections 49(1) to (3) and (5) and (6) and section 51 and delete references to the Senate Committee in section 52, and change subsection 49(4) to empower and require the Senate Ethics Officer and only the Officer to impose a sliding scale of penalties depending the seriousness of the violation (and add to subsection 49(4) for the most serious violations significant fines and a loss of Senate seat to the list of possible penalties – similar to the provision in subsection 502(3) of the Canada Elections Act (S.C. 2000, c. 9). Senators should not be participating in decisions concerning determining violations or penalizing a Senator because Senators are tainted by partisan bias and other biases. The Senate has empowered the Senate Ethics Officer to investigate and rule on violations, and so the Officer should also be empowered to impose the penalty (but penalties should be mandatory so that the Officer is required to impose a penalty for every violation).
B. Key Changes Needed to Make Enforcement of the Senator Code Independent, Transparent, Timely, Effective and Accountable
The following changes are needed to ensure the enforcement of the Senator Code is independent, transparent, timely, effective and accountable. Click here to see a policy paper (in English only) that sets out details concerning these much-needed changes to the current federal enforcement system (similar changes are needed to every provincial, territorial and municipal ethics law enforcement system across Canada):
1. Establish, by adding new provisions to the Parliament of Canada Act (by completely changing section 20.1), a fully independent, fully non-partisan committee to conduct a public, merit-based search for short list (1-3) qualified candidates for Senate Ethics Officer, and then have that committee make the final choice and submit the choice to a Senate committee for appointment (with no possibility of re-appointment as that gives the enforcer an incentive to please office holders by letting them off when they violate the rules). This should also be the system for the appointment of all Officers of Parliament, the Commissioner and all other top officers of the RCMP, the head of FINTRAC, the new Foreign Interference Transparency Commissioner, and all judges, all of whom need to be fully independent in order to be perceived as being capable of impartially and effectively enforcing the key democratic good government and anti-corruption laws they enforce.
2. Add a new subsection to section 44 of the Senator Code that requires the Senate Ethics Officer to conduct regular, unannounced audits of a randomly selected sample of Senators’ (and their staffs’) financial statements, participation in discussions, decisions and votes, outside activities, gifts and benefits and other matters and activities covered by the Code.
3. Change subsection 42(6) and section 43 of the Senator Code to require the Senate Ethics Officer to publish online binding interpretations of every measure in the COIA with examples of real situations, and to publish online a summary of the Commissioner’s advice each time advice about a new situation is given to any person covered by the Code, so everyone knows exactly what the Code
4. Change subsection 27(8) of the Senator Code to require all Senators and their staff to take a formal training course when they first start their position, and annually.
5. Change section 47 of the Senator Code to give members of the public, who employ and pay all Senators and their staff, the right to file a complaint with the Senate Ethics Officer.
6. Change sections 47 and 48 of the Senator Code to require the Senate Ethics Officer to investigate and issue a public ruling on every complaint the Commissioner receives and every situation the Commissioner becomes aware of that raises any questions about whether a Senator or their staff have complied with the Code, and (as set out above) to impose a sliding scale of penalties depending the seriousness of the violation.
7. Add a new subsection to section 20.6 of the Parliament of Canada Act giving any member of the public a clear right to apply in Federal Court for a judicial review of any decision made by the Senate Ethics Officer under the Senator Code.
C. Many Other Changes Needed to Prevent, Prohibit and Penalize Conflicts of Interest and to Ensure Democratic Good Government
The following changes are needed to other federal laws to prevent, prohibit and penalize conflicts of interest and to ensure democratic good government:
• Closing all the loopholes in the Conflict of Interest Act that allow for secret, unethical activities by Cabinet ministers, their staff, Cabinet appointees and top government officials (Click here to see details);
• Closing all the loopholes in the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons that allow for secret, unethical activities by MPs, and extend key rules in that code to apply to the staff of MPs (Click here to see details);
• Closing all the loopholes that allow for secret, unethical lobbying (Click here to see details);
• Decreasing the donation limit in the Canada Elections Act to $75 (as the current annual individual donation limit of $3,500 (which increases by $50 each year) is essentially legalized bribery for those who can afford to make a top donation) (Click here to see details);
• Closing huge excessive secrecy loopholes in the federal Access to Information Act and strengthening enforcement (Click here to see details);
• Preventing, prohibiting and penalizing foreign interference (Click here to see a policy paper on key needed measures);
• Strengthening the whistleblower protection law (Click here to see details).
Join the call for these and other key government ethics changes across Canada at Democracy Watch’s Government Ethics Campaign
