Tuesday, October 18, 2005

OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch called on federal Crown prosecutors to proceed to charge any lobbyist who has been found to have not properly registered under the Lobbyists Registration Act through the audit of the Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) fund.  Democracy Watch believes that the two-year time limit on filing charges under the Act begins when the illegally secret lobbying is discovered, not when the lobbying took place as federal Industry Minister David Emerson's recently claimed.

The relevant section of the Act reads that charges may be filed "not later than two years after the time when the subject-matter of the proceedings arose" (Act subsection 14(3)).  Black's Law Dictionary defines the verb "arise" as, in part, "to come into notice" or "to become visible."  Given that the audit of the TPC fund began only last year, the illegal lobbying has only become visible and noticed in the past year, which leaves a full year and more before the time limit on laying charges under the Act expires.

It simply does not make any legal sense that all a lobbyist has to do to escape being prosecuted under the Act is hide their illegal activity for two years, and in any case Crown prosecutors should proceed with charges so that the courts can issue a legal ruling on the definition of the Act's time limit.

Many people who have commented publicly on the TPC lobbying situation are, like the Industry Minister, also incorrect when they claim that the federal lobbying regulation system does not in any way address "success" or contingency fee arrangements between lobbyists and their clients.  In fact, the Lobbyists' Code requires lobbyists to act "with integrity" and to "observe the highest professional and ethical standards" and to "conform fully with not only the letter but the spirit of . . . all the relevant laws."  Clearly, any lobbyist who fails to properly register or is involved in a contingency fee arrangement that violates federal government policies is also in violation of the Lobbyists' Code.

Democracy Watch called on the federal Registrar of Lobbyists to confirm the findings of the TPC audit immediately and quickly issue the required public reports to Parliament finding all lobbyists who were not registered or were involved in illegal contingency arrangements guilty of violating the Lobbyists' Code.

"Of course the federal lobbying law must be strengthened to ban success fee arrangements with lobbyists, to add the current Lobbyists' Code to the law, and to extend the time period for charging lobbyists who violate the law to seven years," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch. "However, the current law clearly allows Crown prosecutors and the Registrar of Lobbyists to proceed with charges against lobbyists who violated the rules when lobbying TPC or other government agencies."
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