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Prime Minister Harper Fails to Respond to Complaint About Minister Van Loan’s Dishonesty On Group’s Position On Conservatives’ Election Spending Scheme Thursday, July 17, 2008 OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch called on Prime Minister Stephen
Harper to uphold his own guidelines for Cabinet ministers and, finally,
penalize Conservative House Leader and Minister for Democratic Reform Peter
Van Loan for lying on April 16th in the House of Commons about Democracy
Watch’s position concerning the Conservatives’ TV advertising spending scheme
during the 2006 election. Prime Minister Harper has not responded to a complaint letter Democracy Watch sent to him on April 25th that quoted from the Prime Minister’s "Accountable Government: A Guide for Ministers and Secretaries of State-2007" rules that, among other things, require ministers to be honest. (To see the news release about, and text of, Democracy Watch's April 25th letter to Prime Minister Harper, and separate April 25th letter to Minister Van Loan, click here) In response to a question in the House of Commons on April 16th, Mr. Van Loan stated: “Mr. Speaker, let us remember that this was a dispute initiated in the courts by the Conservative Party of Canada because of the unequal treatment of the Conservative Party compared with other parties, including the NDP, which engages in the transfer of funds between riding associations from its central party to assist in local targeted ridings. It has been going on for years. Duff Conacher said that on television. He said it is legal.”In fact, this is half of what Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch, said on CTV’s Canada AM show on April 16th. He went on to say very clearly that he believes the Conservatives' scheme violated the Canada Elections Act because the TV ads only contained a small-print message at the end mentioning the local Conservative candidate. Duff Conacher also stated during the same Canada AM interview that he believes the court will rule that the Conservatives’ local candidates can only claim 10-20 percent of the TV ad cost as local campaign spending, and that therefore the Conservative Party will be found to have spent about $900,000 more on its national campaign than the legal election spending limit allowed under the Act. (To listen to what Duff Conacher actually said, click here (NOTE: link takes you to YouTube.com page)) “If Prime Minister Harper does nothing to penalize Minister Van Loan for being dishonest, it will be yet another example showing clearly that he believes lying toadvance the Conservative Party’s interests is fine with him, and that Cabinet ministers still can’t be held accountable for wrongdoing,” said Conacher. Democracy Watch would have filed its complaint with the federal Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, but the Conservatives removed the rule requiring Ministers and other public office holders to be honest when they changed their ethics code last July into the new Conflict of Interest Act, and as a result complaints about such blatant dishonesty can no longer be filed with the Commissioner. (NOTE: Even though the past ethics code contained the "honesty rule" former federal Ethics Commissioner Bernard Shapiro refused to enforce it -- To see details about Shapiro's reign of error, click here )- 30 - FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: To see Prime Minister Harper's lies about the federal Conservatives'
Democracy Watch's Honesty in Politics Campaign Democracy Watch's Government Ethics Campaign Democracy Watch's Money in Politics Campaign |