Under the Lobbyists' Code of Conduct—it used to be rule 8 and now it's rules 6 to 10—someone who should be registered but is illegally avoiding registration is not allowed to organize a fundraising event. This would hold even in cases of an unregistered lobbyist being on the board of a business or an organization, and we hope this standard will continue to be upheld by the lobbying commission.
We have received complaints about the Apotex chairman regarding the Morneau event that occurred in November 2016, and also about the event he held at his house in August 2015 for a Liberal candidate and Justin Trudeau, before Mr. Trudeau became Prime Minister. We've also received a complaint about another board member associated with a company called Clearwater Seafoods who held an event in August 2014 for the Liberals. We don't know exactly where the lobbying commissioner is going to draw the line. We hope, however, she's going to say that if you're on a board or in any way affiliated with an organization lobbying the government, even if you're not the registered lobbyist, you cannot help with an event or do anything significant for anyone who is being lobbied by the company. We'll see. Hopefully, that line is drawn.
If you're not a registered lobbyist or affiliated with anyone but you want to have influence within the party, if the lobbying commissioner doesn't uphold a strict standard, even lobbyists who are not registered in the lobbyist registry could become board members of companies that lobby the government and be allowed to participate in these events. I'm sure this is going on. As a lobbyist, if you can get 20 people in the room who are each going to give $3,100 to the party at that event, you are going to get your calls answered. You're a bundler, you're valuable to the party, and from that cash you will get access.
I will have more news on this topic very soon. It will be related to something that I think occurred last year, when bundlers were given a huge favour and access based on the fact that they were bundlers.