Information & Ethics committee  Well, it does, according to tests worldwide by clinical psychologists of tens of thousands of people from every culture. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”—it's the golden rule. Small gifts have influence. They've tested tens of thousands of people. What do you

Information & Ethics committee  If it's more than that, you're allowing wealthy people to give more than an average person can give.

Information & Ethics committee  We're in favour of ethical lobbying. The 27 citizen groups that have called for the changes have proposed a reasonable alternative, which is that significant political activity or any fundraising should face a long cooling-off period. However, a bit of the canvassing and voluntee

Information & Ethics committee  No. I mean, it would help make our political finance system more democratic, but our lobbying system would still be unethical if these rules go forward as they are now. I'm not sure about the Canadian congress's comments today, because they—

Information & Ethics committee  The commissioner said, when she testified before you, that she listened to everybody and has carefully crafted these rules and balanced what she heard. She didn't listen to us or the 15 or so other groups that sent her letters last June saying to extend the cooling-off period for

Information & Ethics committee  Well, the commissioner has referred 11 cases to the RCMP. The RCMP charged one recently, she said, on February 3. There are five others the RCMP has referred back to her. There are five others, I guess, that the RCMP is still investigating. I'm not sure what Mr. Thurlow is talk

Information & Ethics committee  Canada is behind on both the—

Information & Ethics committee  No. There isn't one jurisdiction that puts it all together on both ethics and transparency.

Information & Ethics committee  Toronto. Toronto is better.

Information & Ethics committee  We haven't fallen behind all the countries. The U.S. has a stronger disclosure law, and the OECD has stronger ethics standards set out as goals for both lobbying and conflicts of interest. Canada is not meeting either of those. Toronto and Quebec require volunteer lobbying to be

Information & Ethics committee  The gifts rule clarifies the dollar amount, but, again, the Ethics Commissioner and Commissioner of Lobbying already set that out, so it doesn't have to be set out in the code. It was already set out in guidelines and statements by both commissioners. Otherwise, it's a gutting

Information & Ethics committee  —and it doesn't prohibit them from representing their members. Go and lobby people. Just don't wine and dine them, and don't do favours for them, because that's unethical.

Information & Ethics committee  The precision is there in the gifts and hospitality rule, and that's fine. In terms of rule 6 and the definition of “other political work”, yes, the terms need to be defined. They shouldn't be left the way they are, because they're going to allow for unlimited fundraising while l

Information & Ethics committee  —for any significant campaigning and any fundraising.

Information & Ethics committee  Are you talking about the cooling-off period in the act?