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

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

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  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  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

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much, Chair and committee members, for this opportunity to appear before you today. Like Ken Rubin, I've been here several times before on this and other issues, and on this issue it was dating back 20 years. What I'm going to do today in my statement is summariz

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you. The number 12 recommendation is that the penalties should include, for government officials attempting to escape penalties by resigning or retiring, loss or partial clawback of any severance or pension payments. Number 13, the commissioner should be required to issue

Information & Ethics committee  In answering questions, I'll also go into other key changes to ensure adequate resources and strong enforcement that's timely and effective to protect and uphold the public's right to know.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, very much so.

Information & Ethics committee  No, I think we rank now about 54th in the world, so we're way behind.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. In terms of submissions, I have made a submission to the committee regarding the 18 recommendations. You will be receiving it once it's translated. To pick up on one that Michel Drapeau spoke about on Monday, his suggestion was to have a right to go to court after one year

Information & Ethics committee  It's simply better to refer to the Information Commissioner's report. Every year the list of which institutions are the worst changes. The overall record for meeting the 30-day deadline, which is the legal requirement, is very bad, so the violations are rampant across the board a

Information & Ethics committee  Bill C-58 was a step backwards in some ways. It certainly didn't keep the 2015 promises of the Liberals to make government information “open by default”, which is a direct quote from the Liberals' 2015 platform. The commissioner now has power to make orders, but it's not strong e

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, we're even further behind. We're ranked about 60th in whistle-blower protection, so compared to the rest of the world, we're even worse than we are in access to information.