Thursday, August 17, 2000

OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch released an open letter to the Attorney General of Canada concerning the petition Democracy Watch filed on May 18, 2000 detailing conflicts of interest in the enforcement of the Competition Act (Contact Democracy Watch for a copy of letter).

Even though three months have passed, Anne McClellan, Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada, has not even acknowledged that she has received the petition. The letter gives the Attorney General 30 days to respond before Democracy Watch will take further steps to ensure the proper enforcement of the law, including possibly launching a court case.

"The government's lack of response to conflicts of interest at the Competition Bureau is irresponsible," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch. "Immediate action is needed to ensure this problem is resolved and competition laws area enforced responsibly."

Democracy Watch's petition details how the Attorney General of Canada and the Bureau Commissioner have repeatedly appointed lawyers from a few corporate law firms to assist or represent the Commissioner in competition law cases, instead of using government lawyers. The same lawyers or their law firms have also represented corporations in competition law cases being decided by the Bureau, sometimes at the same time the lawyers were representing the Commissioner.

The systematic use of outside lawyers reveals the weakness and ineffectiveness of the Justice Department's conflict of interest rules for competition law cases. The petition calls on the Attorney General and the Commissioner: (1) to maintain a staff of government lawyers large enough to handle competition cases; (2) to strengthen conflict of interest rules for litigation in competition cases; (3) to only use outside lawyers in special circumstances, and; (4) to ensure that even the appearance of a conflict of interest or bias does not occur when outside lawyers are used.

"Corporate lawyers working for the Competition Bureau is a classic tale of letting the fox into the henhouse" said Duff Conacher. "Clear rules need to be enforced to prevent this ongoing abuse of the public interest."

In June, the House of Commons Industry Committee issued a report which supported Democracy Watch's call for more funding for the Bureau's enforcement cases. Democracy Watch is also participating in the consultation meetings on the operations of the Competition Bureau that the Public Policy Forum is conducting on behalf of the Bureau up to the end of September.