Tuesday, February 28, 2006

OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and the leaders of the other three federal political parties with elected MPs, to modify the Conservatives planned “Federal Accountability Act” to democratize the federal government’s appointment process for all positions involved in law enforcement, including judges and the boards and heads of all enforcement agencies, boards, tribunals and commissions.
 
Yesterday, in a public hearing Marshall Rothstein, Harper’s nominee for Supreme Court justice, was questioned in a very limited way by a committee of MPs.  While the hearing introduced transparency to the appointment process, the fact that the committee had no power to approve or reject the Prime Minister’s nominee means that the process did not, in any effective way, check the Prime Minister’s appointment power.
 
In the Conservatives’ election platform, they pledged to make the following changes:

“Ensure that all Officers of Parliament are appointed through consultation with all parties in the House of Commons and confirmed through a secret ballot of all Members of Parliament, not just named by the Prime Minister. This appointment process will cover: - The Ethics Commissioner - The Auditor General - The Chief Electoral Officer - The Information Commissioner - The Privacy Commissioner - The Registrar of Lobbyists; [and] Establish a Public Appointments Commission to set merit-based requirements for appointments to government boards, commissions, and agencies, to ensure that competitions for posts are widely publicized and fairly conducted.”