Monday, March 24, 2005

OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch criticized Prime Minister Paul Martin's appointment of nine senators as a "too little, too late" action that violates Martin's past pledges to democratize his appointment process and Martin's stated position that the Senate needs to be reformed.

"Paul Martin is violating his own pledge not to practise politics as usual by appointing Liberals loyal to him to the Senate, by saying nothing about the much-delayed passage of an ethics code for senators,  and by failing to propose concrete measures to democratize the Senate," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch.  "As a result, the Senate remains an undemocratic and unethical haven for people who can, legally, act as inside-government lobbyists for corporations and other private interest groups."

Despite Bill C-4 passing 10 months ago, the Senate has yet to approve ethics rules for senators.  Democracy Watch is very concerned that senators will create very weak ethics rules for themselves, especially given that a total of 31 senators voted in favour of an amendment to Bill C-4 that, if it had passed, would have gutted the independence and effectiveness of the Senate Ethics Officer, changing the position into a lapdog Ethics Counsellor similar to the Cabinet's past Ethics Counsellor.

"Senators are in a conflict of interest when they are drafting ethics rules for themselves, and if they don't show integrity by creating loophole-free rules they will demonstrate, yet again, that they are deeply unethical and more interested in protecting themselves from accountability than they are in upholding the public interest," said Conacher.

In a classic passing-the-buck move, Martin continues to blame his failure to take the lead on Senate reform on the provinces failure to agree on one Senate reform proposal.

"If past democratic reform measures were not proposed by a prime minister until all the provinces agreed, women and aboriginals would still not have the vote and Canada would not have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, among many other positive changes made in the past," said Conacher.

Democracy Watch's 30-member group Government Ethics Coalition will continue to push for a comprehensive, loophole-free, independently and effectively enforced federal government ethics system, and Democracy Watch will continue to push for significant changes to the Senate's structure and operations.