Information & Ethics committee  Again, Parliament has the right to ask for information from government and from private citizens. There's an old saying, “follow the money”. So there's a money trail in this situation and it has to be followed because it tells part of the tale. The whole communication record has to be out there and the whole money record has to be out there before we can really get close to the truth of what happened in this situation.

Information & Ethics committee  Democracy Watch's final report card on the Conservatives, issued in 2014, rated them an F for their government accountability and democratization record, essentially failing to keep more than half of their promises made in 2006 in the Federal Accountability Act, and also taking some huge steps backwards by gutting the ethics rules in a few key ways.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, no, first of all, because they've only apologized for not recusing themselves at the final cabinet meeting. Neither of them has apologized for having their staff involved right through the entire process, participating in it, and—once we see the full communication record—maybe trying to influence it and rig it in favour of WE Charity.

Information & Ethics committee  A lot of people misunderstand the act. They say, "Wait a second, they didn't do anything to help anybody." No, the act is there to prevent you from doing that. If you do something to help someone, then you're in breach of trust. If they gave you any favour or benefit in order for you to do something, then that's the anti-bribery provision in the Criminal Code.

Information & Ethics committee  The Access to Information Act enforcement has been strengthened by making the Information Commissioner able to order the release of documents, but the Liberals in 2015 did not promise any changes to strengthen ethics rules, lobbying rules or whistle-blower protection and have ignored recommendations from committees since then on this.

Information & Ethics committee  Commissioner Dion has been hit-and-miss. His ruling on SNC-Lavalin, as I mentioned, was good in that he reversed a very bad decision made by Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson, very early in her mandate, that private interests in the Conflict of Interest Act did not include political, social or any interests other than financial interests.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, it should go where the Conflict of Interest Act goes now, which is not just to immediate family members, but also relatives. It was entirely appropriate for the Ethics Commissioner to find, for example, Minister LeBlanc guilty when one of the bids for a contract he approved came from a cousin.

Information & Ethics committee  One thing they didn't mention was this notion of conflict of interest screens, which has been in the news with regard to the Prime Minister's chief of staff, again, over the weekend. These conflict of interest screens were created by ethics commissioner Mary Dawson. They're not authorized by the act.

Information & Ethics committee  —has won more seats or won the election. So swing voters care and it's a good thing that they continue to care.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, first of all, the head of the largest public sector union testified that, no, the public service could have done it, and I would presume he would have connections and contacts with top-level people and be able to check on something like that before saying it. Second, though, thousands of applications were already being processed by the Canada Service Corps and Canada summer jobs.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, I can't answer such a general question. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people, and I've seen lots of scandals. We don't have a whistle-blower protection system that protects others, the many people who want to report wrongdoing, so it's an assessment I can't do.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, very unfortunately, it's not getting better. As I mentioned, I've been before this committee 15 times, and other committees, as well, on related issues, such as whistle-blower protection. The Harper Conservatives made some changes, but specifically, the Conflict of Interest Act eliminated the rule that required honesty and continued to allow this sham of so-called “blind trust”, which is not blind at all, because a person knows what they put in the trust, chooses the trustee and can even give instructions.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, we can. We can certainly change the rules first and increase the penalties and enforcement, and together those three things will hopefully change the culture and drum out those people through transparency, whether they be politicians, government officials, appointees, lobbyists or staffers, who are there in federal politics for the wrong reasons.

Information & Ethics committee  Again, I think if your staff are acting on your behalf...of the top government officials, which cabinet appoints and which, unfortunately, makes the top level of the public service partisan, because they're all serving at the pleasure of the cabinet. If those people are acting on your behalf, then I don't think the plausible deniability defence should be allowed unless you can truly prove that they went rogue.

Information & Ethics committee  First of all, I would point to how, as I mentioned, the lowest-level government employee can be fired from their job if they're involved in a decision where they have even the appearance of a conflict of interest, even if the decision applies generally. Again, 99% of cabinet ministers' decisions apply generally because they're usually decisions to change laws.