Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. With regard to recommendation 4 by the Ethics Commissioner on restricting sponsored travel, the Ethics Commissioner, at the end of his section, says that this would still allow an MP to be sponsored to travel to speak at a conference. That's a huge loophole. All of th

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Through you, Madam Chair, Democracy Watch's position is that we agree with Mr. Dion's six general recommendations and nine technical recommendations generally. However, with regard to the recommendations on gifts, he has proposed that each lobbyist be allowed to give a $30 gift

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Because of the number of technical terms and also because I need to practice my French, I will answer in English. I hope that's okay with you. The definition of “private interests” is the huge loophole in subsections 3(2) and 3(3) of the code. Subsection 3(2) says that it's only

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Democracy Watch and the Government Ethics Coalition, which it coordinates and which is made up of 30 citizen organizations from across Canada, welcomes the opportunity to present to the committee during this long-overdue review of the code, with

Information & Ethics committee  That's where the investigation has to go.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much. You can see, of course, as I mentioned, much more detail in the backgrounder I've prepared and submitted to the committee and in the news release that summarizes the key changes to end this system that really is a scandal. I hope the committee will work tog

Information & Ethics committee  No, I think it is relevant, but I prefer to wait until the investigation is over. The failure to recuse at the final cabinet meeting is not as serious a violation, if it is true that the public service actually recommended on its own that WE Charity be given the funding. However,

Information & Ethics committee  Sure. First of all, it does have to be shown whether Minister Morneau knew, or thought for sure, that he had paid for all of the costs. So that investigation needs to be done. To prove breach of trust, four of the five elements are already proven; he's an official, and so is the

Information & Ethics committee  Just briefly, on the Ethics Commissioner selection process, and the Commissioner of Lobbying as well, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the Trudeau cabinet was biased when it chose those two commissioners, but the bias is allowed under the Supreme Court of Canada ruling, unf

Information & Ethics committee  It's entirely practical, but if they'd helped you in a significant way, they would not be allowed to lobby you. The other way to go is, if they had those ties and they were lobbying you, you would have to recuse yourself because of the favours they did before. That threshold is

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

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 s

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—ma

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

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 ign