Wednesday, October 24, 2001

OTTAWA - Today, at a hearing of the House of Commons Industry Committee, Democracy Watch called for changes to Bill C-23, which amends the Competition Act and related measures, to give Canadians the right to launch a complaint case directly with the Competition Tribunal, and to increase the funding and powers of the Bureau and Tribunal and the penalties that can be imposed on violators. Currently, only the Competition Bureau can file a case with the Competition Tribunal.

All of Democracy Watch's proposed measures already exist in the U.S., and according to recent media reports the OECD will soon release a report raising similar concerns about the Competition Bureau and Canada's competition enforcement system.

"Canadians should have a right to sue violators of competition laws to help ensure, along with increased powers and penalties, that companies comply with the rules" said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch.

Democracy Watch also called for increased funding for the Competition Bureau to end, finally, the practice by the the Attorney General of Canada and the Bureau Commissioner of repeatedly appointing lawyers from a few corporate law firms to assist or represent the Commissioner in competition law cases, instead of using government lawyers. The same lawyers or their law firms have also represented corporations in competition law cases being decided by the Bureau, sometimes at the same time the lawyers were representing the Commissioner.

In its May 2000 report, entitled Revolving Doors: The Undue Influence of Corporate Lawyers on the Competition Bureau, Democracy Watch detailed seven cases of outside corporate lawyers working both for the Competition Bureau and corporations with cases before the Bureau between 1986 and 1999, raising serious questions concerning conflicts of interest or bias that have resulted in these cases. The cases deal with competition issues concerning the following corporations, among others: Imperial Oil, Texaco Canada, Nutrasweet, Westinghouse Canada, Laidlaw Waste Systems, Loblaw and Provigo.

"Corporate lawyers working for the Competition Bureau is a classic tale of letting the fox into the henhouse" said Conacher. "Clear rules need to be enforced, and adequate funding provided to the Bureau, to prevent this ongoing abuse of the public interest."