Government Ethics Campaign 2008

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Government Ethics Campaign - 2008

Democracy Watch released the following documents in 2008 in its Government Ethics Campaign
(in reverse chronological order):

REPORT CARD: Federal Conservatives' So-Called "Federal Accountability Act" and Related Decisions Earn a "D" Grade For Only Partially Increasing Government Democracy and Accountability (December 12, 2008) -- To see Canadian Press wire article about the Report Card published by 23 media outlets across Canada, click here)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Conservative Prime Minister Harper's former Chief of Staff Ian Brodie joins Hill & Knowlton lobbying firm to give strategic advice to clients, raising questions about enforcement of federal Conflict of Interest Act (HarperIndex.ca, December 12, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: As International Anti-Corruption Day Passes By, Canadian Governments Continue to Fail to Fulfill UN Convention Against Corruption Requirements (December 9, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Frank McKenna turns down role as economic adviser to federal Liberal-NDP-Bloc coalition, a position that likely would have been full of conflicts of interest given his roles with TD Bank and Bay Street finance firms (Ottawa Citizen, December 3, 2008)
LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Senate Ethics Officer lacks key investigation powers compared to federal Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner (Hill Times, December 1, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Natural Resources Deputy Minister meets behind closed doors on task force with oil and gas industry lobbyists, then advises Cabinet minister on decisions affecting the industry (Canoe.ca and 23 other media outlets across Canada (all publishing a Canadian Press wire article, October 28, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Illegal Federal Election Shows Clear Need For Changes to Increase Turnout, and Ensure Honesty, Fairness, Ethics and Representation (October 15, 2008)
REPORT CARD: NDP Receives Best Grade in Report Card on Parties' Good Government Platforms, Greens Close Behind, Conservatives and Liberals Receive Worst Grades (October 10, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservatives broke half of their 2006 election promises, especially in area of increasing government openness and accountability (CTV.ca and other media outlets across Canada (publishing Canadian Press wire article), September 28, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Democracy Watch Marks First International Day of Democracy -- Calls on Political Parties Across Canada to Make Democratizing Changes (September 15, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Canada Holds 40th Undemocratic Federal Election -- Canadians Will Elect Yet Another Undemocratic, Unaccountable Federal Government (September 12, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Conservatives’ False Claims About Fixed-Election-Date Law Bite Back -- Federal Election Should Not Be Held Until House of Commons Votes Against Significant Government Measure, and Until Other Key Issues are Resolved (September 5, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Registrar of Lobbyists increases size of secret lobbying loophole in federal lobbying law that Democracy Watch revealed eight years ago -- MPs falsely claim they did not know about loophole (Canoe.ca and 21 other media outlets (publishing Canadian Press wire article), August 18, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Federal Court Justice Orders Democracy Watch To Pay In Advance $10,000 in Costs or Face Dismissal of Its Appeal of a Federal Court Ruling That Legalizes Lobbyists Raising Money and Doing Favours for Cabinet Ministers They Lobby (August 15, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservatives practise politics as usual by releasing negative reports late on Fridays, continuing their pattern of breaking their promise to end politics as usual (CTV.ca and 23 other media outlets (all publishing Canadian Press wire article), August 6, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal government officials sit on committee of cellphone industry association that lobbies federal government, raising serious questions about conflicts of interest and protection of the public interest (Toronto Star, August 2, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: If Conservatives Had Kept Their Accountability Act Promises, Parliament Would Be Working Better, and Scandals Like the Couillard Affair Would Be Prevented -- Will All Parties Finally Work Together Now to Close Accountability Loopholes? (July 31, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: In contrast to U.S. federal government and more than 30 states, Canadian governments do not require disclosure of amount spent on lobbying, violating the public's right to know how much corporations and lobby groups spend trying to influence government decisions (VUE Weekly (Edmonton, Alberta), July 31, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Democracy Watch's court case challenging federal Ethics Commissioner's ruling that Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet are not in a conflict of interest over Mulroney-Schreiber situation proceeds in Federal Court of Appeal after Commissioner's motion is rejected (Canada.com and GlobalTV websites, and National Post and 11 other CanWest News Service newspapers across Canada, July 28, 2008)
OP-ED: New federal government inquiry system needed to ensure alleged wrongdoing is fairly investigated (Kitchener-Waterloo Record, July 28, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Democracy Watch's court case challenging federal Ethics Commissioner's ruling that Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet are not in a conflict of interest concerning the Mulroney-Schreiber situation proceeds in Federal Court of Appeal after Commissioner's motion is rejected (Globe and Mail, July 28, 2008)
LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Federal Conservatives broke almost half of their government accountability and democratic reform promises -- will any federal political party take the lead on these key issues? (Globe and Mail, July 22, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Prime Minister Harper Fails to Respond to Complaint About Minister Van Loan’s Dishonesty On Group’s Position On Conservatives’ Election Spending Scheme (July 17, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservatives break election promise to prohibit Cabinet ministers, their staff, and senior government officials from dealing with matters in which they have a financial interest (Georgia Straight, July 3, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservatives break election promise to require Cabinet ministers, their staff and senior government officials to disclose their contacts with lobbyists, leave open loopholes that allow for secret lobbying (Canoe.ca (and 15 other media outlets across Canada) all publishing Canadian Press wire article, June 30, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservatives break election promise on five-year lobbying ban, leave open loopholes that allow Cabinet ministers, their staff and senior government officials to become a corporate lobbyist the same day they leave office (Canoe.ca (and 22 other media outlets) all publishing Canadian Press wire article, June 29, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Loopholes in Ontario's lobbying disclosure law hide amount of corporate lobbying, same as loopholes in federal and other provinces' laws (Globe and Mail, June 26, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Federal Ethics Commissioner Files Motion to Try to Stop Court Review of Her Ruling That Prime Minister and His Cabinet Are Not in a Conflict of Interest Over Mulroney-Schreiber Situation, But Rules Liberal MP is in a Conflict of Interest (May 21, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Group Issues Correction and Clarification of Statement in April 11, 2008 News Release About Appeal of Federal Court Ruling on the Ethics of Relationships Between Lobbyists and Cabinet Ministers They Are Lobbying (May 9, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Ethics Commissioner finds Liberal MP in conflict of interest over Mulroney-Schreiber affair, even though she ruled in January that Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet ministers were not in conflict of interest (Halifax Chronicle-Herald, May 8, 2008) -- NOTE: To see details of Democracy Watch's court challenge of the Commissioner's ruling that PM Harper and his Cabinet ministers are not in a conflict of interest over the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, click here
NEWS RELEASE: Group Calls on Federal Minister Peter Van Loan To Apologize for Lying About Democracy Watch’s Position on Conservatives’ Election Spending Scheme -- Files Complaint Calling on Prime Minister Harper To Penalize Van Loan’s Blatant Dishonesty (April 25, 2008)
NEW RELEASE: Democracy Watch Appeals Federal Court Ruling That Legalizes Lobbyists Raising Money and Doing Favours for Cabinet Ministers They Lobby (April 11, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Department of Finance still has no effective internal ethics enforcement system for senior public servants, 140 years after Canada became a country (Globe and Mail, April 5, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Loopholes and lack of enforcement of ethics rules for Ottawa city government one of worst examples of city government problems across Canada (Ottawa Citizen, March 15, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: B.C. Special Prosecutor had clear evidence that lobbyist Ken Dobell broke Criminal Code prohibition on influence-peddling, but let him off the hook based on Dobell's highly questionable claim that he didn't think he was doing anything wrong (Vancouver Sun, March 12, 2008)
RADIO INTERVIEW: Interview about Alberta's 2008 provincial election and lack of effective good government and government accountability system in Alberta (Aired on CJSW Radio (Calgary), March 10, 2008 -- NOTE: Link takes you to journalist Niall McKenna's website)
OP-ED: Donations of money, property and services continue to corrupt Canadian politics because of loopholes in laws and lack of effective enforcement and penalties (Straightgoods.com website on February 19, 2008, Hill Times and Kitchener-Waterloo Record on February 25, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Democracy Watch Files Court Challenge of Federal Ethics Commissioner’s Decision Allowing Prime Minister Harper and His Cabinet To Set Terms of Reference of Inquiry and To Choose Who Will Judge Themselves, Mulroney and Schreiber (February 19, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Federal Liberals’ Fundraising Auction of Cash for Access to MPs Violates Canada Elections Act and MPs’ Ethics Rules -- Party and MPs Must Be Penalized (February 15, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservatives' broken promises, especially in area of government accountability, are ever-increasing (Toronto Star, February 5, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Global Integrity Report Ranks Canada 8th Out Of 55 Countries in World’s Most Comprehensive Assessment of Government Accountability and Integrity -- Gifts and Donations Loopholes, Secrecy, Lack of Merit-Based Appointments Process Main Weaknesses in Canada (January 30, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Challenge of Federal Registrar of Lobbyists’ Ruling that Lobbyists Can Fundraise for Ministers They Lobby, and of Federal Lobbying Ethics Enforcement System, in Federal Court in Toronto on Monday (January 25, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Lobbyists still moving in and out of federal government and political parties, and still lobbying in secret, because federal Conservatives broke their election promise to end secret, unethical lobbying (Canada.com website and 7 CanWest News newspapers, January 22, 2008)
OP-EDs: Despite Federal Accountability Act, many of the alleged questionable actions in the Mulroney-Schreiber affair are still legal, and Preston Manning's proposals for cleaning things up have been tried and would weaken political ethics enforcement (Kitchener-Waterloo Record, CanadaEast.com website, Hill Times, Calgary Herald, December 20, 2007 to January 18, 2008)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Northwest Territories politician pushes for regulation of lobbyists, especially lobbying by former politicians and government officials (Northern News Services, January 12, 2008)
NEWS RELEASE: Ethics Commissioner Ignores Law and Conflicts of Interest, Allows Prime Minister and His Cabinet To Choose Who Will Judge Themselves, Mulroney and Schreiber -- Democracy Watch Seeks Pro Bono Lawyer to Help Challenge Commissioner’s Decision and Calls on Parliamentarians to Restore “Apparent Conflict of Interest” Rule (January 9, 2008) -- To see the Canadian Press (CP) wire article on this issue (published by 9 media outlets across Canada), click here
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservatives break their election promise to end secret, unethical lobbying of the federal government, and are dishonest about their actions (Canoe.ca website and 12 other media outlets (publishing Canadian Press (CP) wire article), January 4, 2008) -- To see CanWest News Service article on this same subject, click here -- To see Globe and Mail article on this same subject, click here
WEBSITE ARTICLE: More than one year after Federal Accountability Act became law, federal Conservatives fail to implement appointments and lobbying law accountability changes, and are dishonest about their failures (Toronto Star, January 1, 2008)

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