Open Government Campaign
2011
Democracy
Watch
released
the
following
documents
in
2011 in its Open
Government
Campaign
(newest to oldest)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservatives fail to
initiate Conflict of Interest Act review by legally required deadline --
Democracy Watch leads push for review and to close huge loopholes in Act
and strengthen enforcement because all parties have ignored problems for
decades (The Hill Times, July 31, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Elections Canada faces serious questions about its enforcement system -- must prove it has been enforcing law and holding fair elections by disclosing rulings in 3,000 complaints it has received since 1997 (The Hill Times, July 23, 2012)
- LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Elections bodies should acknowledge weakness in systems, not ignore it (The Hill Times, July 23, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Bennett’s Law: Meaningful consultation = saying + listening (iPolitics, July 17, 2012)
- CBC Inside Politics Blog re: NEWS RELEASE: Ruling by Commissioner of Canada Elections much too narrowly interprets key Canada Elections Act measures that prohibit influence of voters by foreigners, and uses invalid excuses for not investigating (July 12, 2012)
- TV PIECE: Openness and transparency required at Elections Canada - details on thousands of past investigations and complaints needed (CBC's The National, July 10, 2012)
- LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Federal Access to Information Act Review by Commissioner is Great News (National Post, July 9, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Access to Information Act turns 30 amid calls for reform (CBC News Canada, July 7, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Canada languishes in world info rankings (Metro News, June 22, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Newfoundland provincial Conservative bill to expand exemptions to Access to Information requests and increase what is considered cabinet confidentiality dangerously undemocratic (CBC News, June 12, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Newfoundland provincial Conservative bill to expand exemptions to Access to Information requests and increase what is considered cabinet confidentiality a regressive step back in open government (Global Regina and two other media outlets, June 12, 2012)
- NEWS RELEASE: Federal Conservatives fail to initiate review of whistleblower law by
legal deadline: groups fear government end-run on whistleblower law. (May 16, 2012)
- NEWS RELEASE: Federal
Conservatives' Open Government Action Plan fails to
fulfill Open Government Partnership (OGP) membership
requirements -- fails to commit to strengthening
access-to-information, ethics, lobbying, political
finance, financial administration, public consultation
and whistleblower protection laws and enforcement
(April 17, 2012) -- To
see related Canadian Press wire article, click
here
- NEWS RELEASE: Elections
Canada keeps rulings secret on 2,982 complaints since
1997 -- Federal politicians continue to fail
to require disclosure of key information to ensure
the Canada Elections Act is enforced fairly and
effectively (April 16, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal
Conservatives' Open Government Partnership Action Plan
is only an open data plan, not a plan for open,
ethical government (GlobalNews.ca and 18 other
media outlets (all publishing Canadian Press wire
article), April 12, 2012) -- To see related news
release, click
here
- OP-ED: Fighter
jet spending scandal yet another example of why good
government watchdogs must disclose identity of
wrongdoers and be given power to penalize them
(HuffingtonPost.ca and Rabble.ca, April 4, 2012, and in
Vancouver Sun
and Regina Leader
Post, April 9, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal
Conservatives trying to spin open data plan and old
initiatives as an actual open government plan
(Global News.ca and 18 other media outlets across Canada
(all publishing Canadian Press wire article), April 2-3,
2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Alberta
Conservatives break promise, so far, to pass
whistleblower protection law (Calgary Herald and
Edmonton Journal,
March 19, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal
Dept. of Aboriginal Affairs using PIN messages to
avoid disclosure of records to the public -- loophole
in Access to Information Act must be closed
(APTN.ca and TV news, March 14, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal
Integrity Commissioner finally finds a government
employee guilty based on whistleblower report, but
fails to identify the wrongdoer (CTV.ca,
GlobalNews.ca, HuffingtonPost.ca and 21 other media
outlets across Canada, March 8, 2012)
- NEWS RELEASE: Federal
whistleblower agency’s first report of wrongdoing is a
small step forward -- misconduct was exposed but those
responsible seem to have had a soft landing (March
8, 2012)
- NEWS RELEASE: Elections
Canada must disclose its rulings on 2,284 complaints
since 2004, and all its future rulings, to prove that
it enforces the federal election law properly and
effectively -- Canada Elections Act must be
changed to make anonymous phone calls to voters
illegal and impossible (March 6, 2012)
- LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Elections
Canada must disclose details about complaints and its
rulings on more than 2,280 complaints it received
since 2004 (Globe
and Mail, February 29, 2012, Vancouver Sun and Epoch Times, March
3, 2012, and Hill
Times, March 5, 2012)
- OP-ED: Spending
scandal, and many other recent scandals, show clear
need for Real
Federal Accountability Act to clean up
Canadian government (Hill Times, February 20, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Foreign
Affairs minister John Baird's refusal to comply shows
clear need to give federal Information Commissioner
more powers (Canada.com and 7 Postmedia News
newspapers across Canada, February 20-21, 2012)
- NEWS RELEASE: Survey
of public servants shows federal whistleblower
protection law must be strengthened -- 5-year review
must lead to key changes very soon (February 6,
2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: If
MPs were covered by Access
to Information Act, their unethical spending
on party activities would be revealed
(HuffingtonPost.ca, January 30, 2012)
- NEWS RELEASE: Groups
urge Senate to question whistleblower watchdog Mario
Dion, and to end 5-year muzzling of civil society
(January 30, 2012) -- To see related iPolitics.ca
article, click
here
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Ontario
Liberals being undemocratic and secretive in budgeting
process, unlike minority government should be
(CBC.ca and 18 other media outlets across Canada, all
publishing CanadianPress.com wire article, January 27,
2012 -- See article also on GlobalNews.ca)
- NEWS RELEASE: Five
years after requirements became law, has Treasury
Board ensured that all federal government institutions
provide legally-required whistleblower protection?
(January 26, 2012)
- LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: If
Auditor General had audited MPs as she should have,
Duceppe situation would have been cleared up years ago
(Globe and Mail,
January 25, 2012; Hill
Times, January 30, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Governments
across Canada, such as the City of Hamilton, continue
to fail to operate openly by disclosing information
the public has a right to know (Hamilton Spectator,
January 19, 2012) -- To see related Spectator
editorial, click
here
- NEWS RELEASE: Federal
Conservatives must commit to strengthening
access-to-information, ethics, lobbying, political
finance, financial administration, public consultation
and whistleblower protection laws and enforcement to
fulfill their international Open Government
Partnership (OGP) membership requirements (January
17, 2012)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal
Conservatives have so far broken almost all their 2006
election open government promises, and their
international Open Government Partnership (OGP)
commitments -- will Conservatives' final April 2012
OGP Action Plan also break their commitments?
(Canada.com and 13 Postmedia News newspapers across
Canada, January 3, 2012) -- To see related news release,
click
here
- NEWS RELEASE: New
federal Integrity Commissioner misleads on CBC TV
about his past statement that applying for job while
in Interim Commissioner position created conflict for
him (December 22, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Alberta
Premier refuses to disclose details of Conservative
Party payments to her -- loopholes in laws that allow
for secrecy must be closed (Calgary Herald and
2 other PostMedia newspapers, December 22, 2011)
- TV INTERVIEW: New
Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Mario Dion
misleads about past statements about ethics of
applying for job, and tries to excuse his very
questionable record (CBC's Power and Politics
show, December 21, 2011) -- To see related CBC.ca
article, click
here
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal
Parliament watchdogs (except Ethics Commissioner) echo
Democracy Watch's call for more accountability for the
watchdogs (Ottawa
Citizen, December 20-21, 2011) -- To see
related article, click
here
- NEWS RELEASE: Groups
silenced, former integrity officer ignored as
whistleblower watchdog appointment is rammed through
committee -- Groups call on opposition MPs and
Conservative MPs with integrity to vote against
appointment in House vote (December 14,
2011) -- To see related CBC.ca article, click
here
- NEWS RELEASE: Groups
call for 10 questions to be answered about
Government’s plan to appoint toothless whistleblower
watchdog (December 13, 2011)
- NEWS RELEASE: Federal
Conservatives' Accountability and Democratic Reform
Record Gets An "F" For Breaking Many Promises and
Practising Politics As Usual (December 12, 2011)
- NEWS RELEASE: Whistleblower
watchdog nomination signals continued retreat by
government from transparency and accountability
promises -- Groups call on opposition parties
to ensure, through filibuster if needed, they
testify at committee before Conservatives ram
appointment through (December 8, 2011)
-- To see related CBC.ca article, click
here -- To see related Globe and Mail article, click
here
- NEWS RELEASE: Federal
Conservatives break all of their international Open
Government Partnership commitments by failing to
consult with Canadians about their draft action plan
before meeting in Brazil this week (December 5,
2011) -- To see related CBC.ca article, click
here
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal
Conservatives broke open government election promises
in 2006, now hypocrital to criticize CBC's secrecy
(Globe and Mail,
November 25, 2011)
- OP-ED: Elections
Canada makes one ruling public, but keeps more than
2,280 other rulings secret (Rabble.ca on November
11, 2011, Tyee.ca and StraightGoods.ca on November 16,
2011, TheMarkNews.com on November 18, 2011, and in the Hill Times on
November 21, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Changing
voting system, requiring honesty in politics and
accountability are best ways to increase voter
turnout, not electronic voting (CBC.ca and three
other media outlets (all publishing Canadian Press wire
article), November 9, 2011) -- To see related news
release, click
here
- NEWS RELEASE: Ontarians
should not be surprised at record low voter turnout in
provincial election (October 7, 2011) -- To see
related CBC.ca article, click
here
- RADIO INTERVIEW: Founding
Director Duff Conacher on why no one should be
surprised that voter turnout was lower in the Ontario
provincial election (CBC Radio Toronto's Here and
Now show, October 7, 2011)
- NEWS RELEASE: Green
Party receives D- best grade of bad overall grades in
Report Card on Ontario Parties' Good Government
Platforms -- Conservatives receive an E, NDP an F and
Liberals an Incomplete (September 30, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal
Conservatives
continue to fail to keep 2006 election promise to
strengthen Access
to Information Act (Hill Times, August
22, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: City
of
Ottawa
government hurts accountability by deleting city
emails after 90 days (Metro News (Ottawa), August 22, 2011)
- LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Inquiries laws must be
changed to ensure all questionable government actions
are investigated fully, fairly and impartially (Ottawa Citizen and
Canada.com, June 27, 2011)
- NEWS RELEASE: Five
years
after requirements became law, has Treasury Board
ensured that all federal government institutions
provide legally-required whistleblower protection?
(June 21, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Three
federal
security
agencies
fail
after
five
years to establish required whistlleblower protection
systems (Globe
and Mail, June 15-16, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: The
proposed
budgets
of
Ontario's
city
police forces must be reviewed in public (Hamilton Spectator,
June 4, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Hamilton
school
board's
proposed
code
of
conduct
violates
free
speech rights of trustees (Hamilton Spectator,
June 1, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Alberta
Conservative
Party
leadership
candidate
Ted
Morton's
democratic
reform
proposals are too little to make provincial government
democratic and accountable (Canada.com, Calgary Herald, Ottawa Citizen, May
26-27, 2011)
- LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Canada only 14th out
of 34 countries in OECD Governance rankings
(TheTyee.ca, May 24, 2011, Toronto Star, May 26, 2011)
- NEWS RELEASE: Deloitte
did
not fully audit Integrity Commissioner’s past cases –
full audit still needed to ensure clean up of every
problem case (May 17, 2011) -- To see Canada.com
article, click
here
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Democracy
Watch
calls
on
Supreme
Court
of
Canada
to
rule
in
favour
of disclosure of Cabinet minister records (Winnipeg Free Press
(and 19 other media outlets across Canada, all
publishing CanadianPress.com wire article), May 12-13,
2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: City
of
Montreal's
system fails completely to guarantee whistleblower
protection (Montreal
Gazette, May 10, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Independent
audit
of
federal
Integrity
Commissioner's
whistleblower
investigations
finds
at
least
70
of
220
cases were not properly investigated
(Straight.com, May 5, 2011)
- NEWS RELEASE: Global Integrity Report
lowers Canadian federal government's score from 80 to
75 -- Weak enforcement of Accountability Act's
loophole-filled rules the main reason for drop in
democracy rating (May 4, 2011)
- NEWS RELEASE: Green
Party
receives B- best grade of bad overall grades in Report
Card on Federal Parties' Good Government Platforms,
Bloc second with C-, Conservatives, Liberals and NDP
all receive F (April 28, 2011)
- NEWS RELEASE: Alliance
of
more than 30 citizen groups calls for immediate
release of report on more than 220 past whistleblower
complaints -- None of the federal parties have
promised to strengthen whistleblower protection, nor
to get the $500,000 back from the former Integrity
Commissioner (April 18, 2011) -- To see related
CBC.ca article, click
here, and to see
related Canada.com article, click
here
- LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Government watchdog
agencies must be required to release their reports
whenever scheduled or completed (Ottawa Citizen,
April 15, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal
Conservatives
continue
to
abuse
the
"Cabinet
confidence"
loophole
in
the
Access to
Information Act (Hill Times, March 7, 2011)
- NEWS RELEASE: Alliance
of
more
than 30 citizen groups calls for urgent reforms to
federal whistleblower legislation (February 24,
2011) -- To see Canada.com article on the issue, click
here -- To see CBC.ca article on this issue, click
here and Join
the Facebook
group
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal
Conservatives
expanding secrecy using loopholes in Access to Information
Act, and ignoring calls for reforms (Hill Times,
February 28, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Public
Sector
Integrity
Commissioner's office starts process of recovering
from scandal involving former Commissioner Christiane
Ouimet (Hill
Times, February 14, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: At
Democracy
Watch's
suggestion, House committee gets disclosure of former
Integrity Commissioner's record of dealing with
complaints (CBC.ca Inside Politics Blog, February
8, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Strong
open
government
laws can help stop corruption, even if some secrecy
will always remain (Montreal Gazette, February 5, 2011)
- NEWS RELEASE: Tens
of
thousands of hits on CoffeeParty.ca movement site in
first week (February 4, 2011)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Democracy
Watch's
CoffeeParty.ca
movement points out flaws in Canada's democracy, and
need for changes (Lawrence Martin's column, Globe and Mail,
February 1, 2011)
- NEWS RELEASE: Thousands
visit
CoffeeParty.ca
in first day of movement (January 28, 2011)
- LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Prime Minister Harper
misleads Canadians again -- Conservatives broke most
of their democratic reform and government
accountability promises (Ottawa Citizen, January 25, 2011)
- LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Problems with federal
access-to-government-information system would be
solved if Conservatives had kept their 2006 election
promises (Hill
Times, January 24, 2011)
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