That's the way I interpret it. We weren't expecting Commissioner Dawson to jail the finance minister over this. She was clarifying the act. I think it was fairly clear. She said section 9 did take precedence.
I'm not sure if my colleagues on the other side are trying to water down the act, but they seem to be very uncomfortable by this. I had asked if it was okay for me as an ordinary member of Parliament under section 64 to write the letter, and she said it was absolutely correct. My colleague Mr. Warkentin then suggested that if Charlie Angus received financial interest from Aboriginal Voices Radio, would that be wrong? She said, well, then, she would consider it. But as I received absolutely no donations from Aboriginal Voices Radio, I remain, like my colleagues around the table, an ordinary member of Parliament.
She clarifies the rules. It would seem to me that we should be able to move on, but my colleagues on the other side seem to want to perhaps reopen this and water down the act.
I'd like to just ask you something else about my colleagues' concerns. They seem to be very much against any administrative monetary penalties for ministers who break the law, but they are suggesting that perhaps an MP who writes to the Ethics Commissioner with an investigation, and lets anyone know, should be liable for punishment because this should be kept secret.
The example I'd use is from last Friday. Is it Mr. O'Toole, the new guy from Durham? He did a press release saying he was going to launch an investigation against one of our colleagues. It's a fairly spurious accusation, but he didn't tell the Conflict of Interest Commissioner until Monday, so to me that's politics. It's not great, but it's politics.
Is there anything to be gained by deciding that we're going to keep investigations secret? It seems certainly there would be something to be gained by a minister being able to keep an investigation secret. But is it really something that's going to add anything by our going after Mr. O'Toole and subjecting him to monetary penalties for the fact that he went to the media before he went to the Ethics Commissioner? Wouldn't we just say, “Hey, this is politics”?