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  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  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  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  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  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  All donations imply accountability.... I'm sorry, but I'm listening to the translation, and that didn't really make sense to me. Is it that donations imply accountability or donations imply unethical influence?

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  Well, you couldn't go much lower. Several surveys in the past several years have shown that only 10% to 20% of Canadians trust politicians. They believe that you are trying to protect elites and yourselves and don't address their concerns. This move is essentially saying that we

Information & Ethics committee  I will make one last statement. If you do not reject the commissioner's unethical proposed new rules or remain silent, you will essentially be supporting corrupt political decision-making. As I'm testifying this afternoon on Valentine's Day, I will end by appealing to you to s

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you to the committee for the opportunity to address you today on this very important topic with regard to some of the key rules amongst other key rules that protect our democracy and government integrity at the federal level. I'm representing today a coalition of 27 citize