Wednesday, July 31, 2002

On May 23, 2002, Democracy Watch issued a Media Release entitled "Democracy Watch calls for investigations of senators in possible conflicts of interest, and for stronger, fully enforced ethics rules for all parliamentarians".

In the Media Release, it was alleged that five senators, including Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette, may possibly be in violation of conflict of interest rules of the Senate and of the professional societies of which they are members as lawyers.

In a chart attached to the Media Release, Democracy Watch set out the situations in question involving Senator Hervieux-Payette and the other senators. The chart stated that Senator Hervieux-Payette had, while she was a director of Clinichem Development Inc., attended hearings and voted on certain bills before the Senate.

In fact, the situations described in the chart involving Senator Hervieux-Payette could not have possibly been conflict of interest situations because Senator Hervieux-Payette was not a director of Clinichem at the time she participated in the hearings and votes on the bills.

Democracy Watch acknowledges that it made an error in verifying the accuracy of the allegation contained in the chart that Senator Hervieux-Payette was a director of Clinichem at the time she participated in the hearings and votes on these two bills, and that it did not attempt to contact Senator Hervieux-Payette to give her an opportunity to correct the falsehoods contained in the chart.

Democracy Watch sincerely apologizes to Senator Hervieux-Payette for the falsehoods contained in the chart and regrets any embarrassment and inconvenience the publication of the falsehoods may have caused.

Democracy Watch has removed the information concerning Senator Hervieux-Payette from chart attached to the May 23, 2002 Media Release on its website, and placed a link to this Media Release on the main page of its website, on the "What's New" page of its website, on the "Government Ethics Campaign" page of its website, and on the webpage containing the May 23, 2002 Media Release. Democracy Watch has also sent a letter with the corrected information to the Barreau du Québec and has withdrawn its request for an investigation regarding Senator Hervieux-Payette.