Money In Politics Campaign 2009

Français

Money in Politics Campaign - 2009

Democracy Watch released the following documents in 2009 in its Money in Politics Campaign
(from newest to oldest)

WEBSITE ARTICLE: Democracy Watch's successful court challenge leads to stronger restrictions on federal lobbyists giving gifts and doing favours for politicians, parties and government officials (Maclean's magazine, December 23, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Federal Conservatives' Accountability and Democratic Reform Record Earns Only an "E" Grade For Breaking Many Promises and Practising Politics As Usual -- Three Years After Federal Accountability Act Became Law, Dishonesty, Conflicts of Interest, Excessive Secrecy, Unlimited Donations and Patronage All Still Legal -- Another, Stronger Accountability Act Needed (December 16, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: As International Anti-Corruption Day Passes By, Canadian Governments Continue to Fail to Fulfill UN Convention Against Corruption Requirements and Other International Standards (December 9, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Ontario Liberals Reject Good Government Amendments to Their "Bad Government Act" -- Dishonesty, Secret Unlimited Donations, Secret Lobbying, Excessive Secrecy and Conflicts of Interest Still Allowed, and Independence of Public Inquiries Undermined (December 3, 2009) -- To hear related interview on CIUT Toronto's "Take Five" morning show, click here (NOTE: The interview starts starts at the 3:30 min. mark of the show, and ends at the 15:30 min. mark of the show)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Democracy Watch's proposals being seriously considered to close loopholes in Quebec's political finance system (Montreal Gazette, November 15, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Forced By Federal Court of Appeal Ruling, Federal Commissioner of Lobbying Finally Bans Lobbyists From Giving Gifts and Doing Favours For Politicians, Their Staff and Government Officials -- Will the Commissioner Uphold the Ban When Ruling on Past, Current and Future Cases? (November 12, 2009)
TV INTERVIEW (Part 1): Duff Conacher interviewed by StraightGoods.com about lobbying, ethics and political donation rules and weak enforcement in Canada and unethical lobbying activities (November 7, 2009)
TV INTERVIEW (Part 2): Duff Conacher interviewed by StraightGoods.com about loopholes in Canada's political donations system and weak enforcement that allow wealthy interests to buy influence (November 7, 2009)
OP-ED: Secret donations and unethical actions will continue to corrupt Canadian politics regularly until key changes are made -- Politicians of all stripes continue to protect a corrupt system (Guelph Mercury, Kitchener-Waterloo Record, Montreal Gazette, November 3-4, 2009, Hill Times, November 9, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Group Files Additional Information Supporting Complaints To Lobbying Commissioner, Ethics Commissioner and Elections Canada About Fundraising Events That Raise Serious Questions Held by Federal Conservatives Rick Dykstra and Lisa Raitt (November 3, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE AND RADIO PIECE: Ontario's Liberals' Bill 212 leaves many loopholes open that will allow money to continue to have undue, undemocratic influence in municipal politics (Radio-Canada.ca (French), November 3, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Group Files Complaints With Lobbying Commissioner, Ethics Commissioner and Elections Canada About Lobbyist's Assistance With Federal Conservative Fundraising Event That Raises Serious Questions (October 22, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Group Files Complaints With Lobbying Commissioner, Ethics Commissioner and Elections Canada About Federal Conservative Fundraising Event At Rogers Centre That Raises Serious Questions (October 16, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Democracy Watch Marks Second International Day of Democracy -- Calls on Political Parties Across Canada to Make Much-Needed and Well-Known Democratizing Changes (September 15, 2009)
LETTERS-TO-THE-EDITOR: All federal political parties should approve democratic compromises on MP mailings, party ad-spending, and public political party subsidies (Globe and Mail, August 20, 2009 and Hill Times, August 17, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Given Ruling in Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien Case, Democracy Watch Calls on Federal Director of Public Prosecutions to Review Other Recent Questionable Cabinet Appointment and Favour-Trading Cases -- Ethics Commissioners Across Canada Must Also Issue Guidelines Clearing Up Ethics Rules on Favour-Trading, and Public Appointments Commissions Must Be Created to Prevent Patronage and Cronyism (August 6, 2009)
OP-ED: Ruling in O’Brien case only first step to stopping Canadian government’s patronage games (Ottawa Citizen, August 6, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Government patronage and cronyism will continue after O'Brien case ruling unless laws are clearly and publicly defined, enforcement is strong, and independent appointment commissions are created (Globe and Mail (Lawrence Martin's column), August 5-6, 2009)
TESTIMONY AND NEWS RELEASE: Group's Final Policy Submission to Oliphant Commission Details 20 Unethical, But Still Legal, Actions By Cabinet Ministers and Others in Federal Politics, and 10 Key Flaws in Enforcement Systems -- Loopholes in Ethics and Openness Laws Must Be Closed, and Enforcement Strengthened, To Prevent Ethics Violations and Excessive Secrecy (July 31, 2009)
TESTIMONY AND NEWS RELEASE: Oliphant Inquiry's Policy Review This Week Opens Door to Closing Loopholes, Strengthening Enforcement of Federal Ethics, Lobbying, Political Finance and Open Government Rules (June 15, 2009)
LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Federal government still needs key democratic reforms (in part because of past Conservative and Liberal broken promises), but is more democratic and accountable than 20 years ago (Hill Times, May 11, 2009)
LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Prime Minister Harper's Conservatives have broken as many government accountability promises as they have kept, have failed to clean up the federal government and have increased voter cynicism, just like Jean Chretien's Liberals did (Canada.com and Nanaimo Daily News, April 8, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Prime Minister Harper's Conservatives have broken as many government accountability promises as they have kept, failing to clean up the federal government and increasing voter cynicism (Canada.com and 3 CanWest News Service newspapers, April 4, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Actions of Conservative campaign workers for Cabinet minister Gary Lunn, and supporting third party groups, during 2008 federal election raise enough questions that Elections Canada should investigate (TheTyee.ca, March 18, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Global Integrity 2008 Report Drops Canada From "Strong" to "Moderate" Level in World's Most Detailed Assessment of Government Integrity and Democracy (February 18, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Free food and drink receptions by lobbyists for federal MPs create conflicts of interest -- Ethics Commissioner's new guideline bans such gifts to Cabinet ministers, their staff and senior government officials (Canoe.ca, CTV.ca and 20 other media outlet websites across Canada (all publishing Canadian Press wire article), February 15, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Democracy Watch granted standing as a full party for Oliphant Commission of Inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair's review of federal ethics, political financing, spending and access to information laws and enforcement systems (Canoe.ca and 26 other media outlets across Canada (all publishing Canadian Press wire article), February 11, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Auditor General and Elections Canada must be given power to review pre-election spending by parties to ensure parties, not public, pay for partisan events (CBC.ca and 18 other media outlets across Canada (all publishing Canadian Press wire article), January 26, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Democracy Watch seeks standing as party and/or intervenor in Oliphant Commission of Inquiry into Mulroney-Schreiber affair to recommend changes to federal ethics, political financing, spending and access to information laws and enforcement systems (CBC.ca and 29 other media outlets across Canada (all publishing Canadian Press wire article), January 22, 2009) -- To see Democracy Watch's submission, click here
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Public political funding changes, honesty-in-politics law, voting system reform, and democracy education, all proposed by Democracy Watch, are among the top solutions to problems with Canada's democracy (Canada.com and CanWest News Service newspapers across Canada, January 15, 2009)

Please become a Supporter of democratic reform, government accountability
and corporate responsibility in Canada

Democracy Watch homepage