Thursday, August 31, 2000

OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch released an open letter to the Attorney General of Canada concerning the petition Democracy Watch filed on June 28, 2000 challenging the legality of the federal ethics enforcement system (Contact Democracy Watch for a copy of letter).

Even though two 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 a few more weeks 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 the conflicts of interest that seriously undermine the current ethics enforcement system is irresponsible," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch. "Immediate action is needed to ensure this problem is resolved and federal ethics rules are effectively enforced."

Democracy Watch believes that the current ethics enforcement system violates the law because the Ethics Counsellor lacks independence (he reports directly in private to the Prime Minister); is always in a conflict of interest (especially if there is an allegation that the Prime Minister has violated conflict of interest rules); and lacks effective investigatory powers. According to Supreme Court of Canada and other court rulings, Democracy Watch believes that Canadian law requires the federal government to establish an independent and impartial entity that has the purpose of investigating all alleged violations of the ethics rules for both the public officials and lobbyists; that has full investigative powers to do so; and that reports directly and only to Parliament .

"In every way, the Ethics Counsellor is a lapdog," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch. "We hope the Liberals will finally act with integrity and replace the Ethics Counsellor with an independent and effective ethics watchdog."

Democracy Watch's petition includes three complaints the group has filed concerning alleged violations of ethics rules. The petition calls for the immediate appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate these complaints, while the government takes steps to set up an independent ethics enforcement body. If the Attorney General of Canada does not take these steps, Democracy Watch will apply to court for a hearing of the case.