Procedure and House Affairs committee  A few people donate more than that. One person has made a large donation in the past few years of $25,000. That's it. Most of them are small donors. We wouldn't even have to disclose them under the third party rules. You could go lower than $200 for the reporting. I don't think y

Procedure and House Affairs committee  They would if they ever contacted me, but they don't.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm acknowledging that these gifts.... Yes, sure. I acknowledged this last time when I was here on Bill C-50. That's why they should be restricted. When you talk about restricting third party citizen groups with respect to how high a donation they could have as the Public Policy

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It was 0.5% in the last election in Ontario. None of the election agencies inform people that they have this right. We're about to take Elections Ontario to court for failing to do so.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's not on the ballot. You decline or refuse your ballot. You're handed your ballot, and then you hand it back. More people would likely do it if the election agencies actually advertised that you have the right to do this. Elections Ontario is once again, for the third election

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If we get to that point of getting “none of the above” on the ballot first, then we can deal with that issue. I think—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, well, I'm just saying, show me a process that's even moving close to that and we can talk more about what to do, but it's only happened once, and that was in the Nevada election for governor. Their rule is that the election still stands. Obviously it's a hit to the legitimac

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you, to all the members of the committee, for this opportunity to present to you on this important topic of government ethics and preventing conflicts of interest in government decisions with regard to spending.

Information & Ethics committee  That's no problem at all.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, that is fine.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, again, Madam Chair, and all the members of the committee, for this opportunity to talk [Technical difficulty—Editor] conflicts of interest in government decisions. Good afternoon. I'll be speaking mostly in English during the meeting. Although I do need to practice m

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much. Democracy Watch is calling on the members of the committee today not only to recommend many changes to prevent conflicts of interest in government decisions with regard to spending but also to work together and actually draft and propose a bill, and to intro

Information & Ethics committee  Well, to answer the second part first, there are two sets of rules, one for hired-gun consultant lobbyists and the other for organization lobbyists, which is anything that is incorporated in any way, including any charity. The loopholes have to be closed for everyone and every ty

Information & Ethics committee  My position is.... This is my position as a co-founder of Democracy Watch, but I'm also doing my Ph.D. in law on this specific topic of preventing conflicts of interest, so with my legal training, my position is that the Prime Minister and finance minister already admitted they v