Government Ethics Campaign

Summary of Court Cases and Complaints About the Canadian Federal Government Ethics Rules and Enforcement System

Set out below are documents relating to court cases and ethics complaints filed as part of Democracy Watch's Government Ethics Campaign

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson took over in July 2007 from lapdog Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro as the enforcer under the Parliament of Canada Act of ethics rules for federal government Cabinet ministers, their senior staff, Cabinet appointees, and senior federal government officials (under the Conflict of Interest Act), and the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons (MPs).  Very unfortunately, Commissioner Dawson is following the weak, lapdog-like enforcement records of Commissioner Shapiro and his predecessor Ethics Counsellor Howard Wilson and, as a result, within 7 months of her appointment as Commissioner, Democracy Watch filed a court challenge of one of the Commissioner's first rulings.  Set out below are the documents about Democracy Watch's complaint, and court challenge, and about the Commissioner and related documents.
(in reverse chronological order)

The Registrar of Lobbyists Michael Nelson took over in May 2004 from lapdog Ethics Counsellor Howard Wilson as the administrator of the federal Lobbyist Registration Act and the enforcer of the federal Lobbyists' Code of Conduct.  Registrar Nelson soon proved to be just as much of a lapdog as former Ethics Counsellor Wilson, so Democracy Watch filed a court challenge against him in September 2005, and then a court challenge of his first ruling in November 2006 -- Democracy Watch won the court challenge in the Federal Court of Appeal in March 2009.  Set out below are the documents about all of these challenges.
(in reverse chronological order)

Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro took over in May 2004 from lapdog Ethics Counsellor Howard Wilson as the enforcer of the ethics code for Cabinet ministers, their staff, Cabinet appointees, and senior government officials.  In October 2004, the new ethics code for Members of the House of Commons (MPs) came into force, and Commissioner Shapiro became enforcer also of that code.  Commissioner Shapiro soon proved to be as much of a lapdog as Ethics Counsellor Wilson, so in July 2005 Democracy Watch launched the first-ever ethics complaint against an enforcer of ethics laws in Canada with its complaint against the Commissioner Shapiro.  In September 2005 Democracy Watch followed up on the complaint (which the Ethics Commissioner refused to address) with a court challenge.  Thankfully, under pressure because of his extremely weak and unethical track record, Commissioner Shapiro resigned in April 2007 and was replaced by Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson.  Set out below are documents concerning the court challenge, and ethics complaints filed with the Commissioner, between May 2004 and April 2007.
(in reverse chronological order)

In June 1994, the position of federal Ethics Counsellor was created by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to enforce the ethics code for federal Canadian Cabinet ministers, their staff, Cabinet appointees, and senior government officials, and to administer the federal Lobbyist Registration Act.  Unfortunately, Chrétien broke his election promise to create an independent and fully empowered ethics watchdog, and instead the Ethics Counsellor was completely under the control of Prime Minister Chrétien and had no powers to investigate or penalize violators of the code.  In March 2007, the new Lobbyists' Code of Conduct came into force, and the Ethics Counsellor also became the enforcer of this code.  After 9 years of exposing the flaws in the Ethics Counsellor position, in May 2003 Democracy Watch launched the first-ever court challenge of government ethics rules and enforcement in the history of Canada, and the following documents give all the details about the court challenge that Democracy Watch won in July 2004.
(in reverse chronological order)