Voter Rights Campaign 2006

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Voter Rights Campaign - 2006

Democracy Watch released the following documents in 2006 in its Voter Rights Campaign
(in reverse chronological order):

LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Media Helps Prime Minister Mislead Canadians on so-called "Federal Accountability Act" (December 21, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Many Ontario Politicians on Unethical Gravy Train -- Propose To Raise Their Own Pay, But Not To Limit Donations, To Strengthen Ethics Rules, Or To Strengthen Democracy (December 19, 2006)
OP-ED: Conservatives Half-Measures Not Enough to Clean Up the Federal Government (Calgary Herald and Straightgoods.com, December 13, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Accountability Act's Half-Measures a Half-Step Forward in Federal Government Accountability, Not the Giant Step Forward Promised by the Conservatives -- Democracy Re-Files Its Ethics Complaint . . . (December 12, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Liberal senators unjustifiably delay passage of Bill C-2 (the so-called "Federal Accountability Act") after House of Commons reject many Senate amendments (Hill Times, November 27, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Liberal-Controlled Senate Strengthens Bill C-2 (The So-Called "Federal Accountability Act") in 22 Key Ways That the House of Commons Should Approve, and Weakens It In 4 Key Ways, 3 of Which Should Be Rejected (November 15, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Liberal Senators Propose to Strengthen Bill C-2 (the So-Called "Federal Accountability Act") in Many Key Ways, and to Weaken it in Three Key Ways -- Will Conservative and Liberal Senators and MPs Support the Changes? (October 30, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Defence Department increases secrecy as it begins to buy $17 billion of military machines -- a recipe for corruption and waste (Ottawa Citizen, Saturday, October 14, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservatives break many open government and accountability promises in Bill C-2 (the so-called "Federal Accountability Act") (Maclean's magazine, October 12, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE/VIDEO: Canadian government's High Commission in England funds event with $100,000 contract going to boyfriend of High Commission staffperson (CTV National News, October 5, 2006 and CTV Canada AM, October 6, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal government does not screen companies before awarding contracts to ensure the companies have a clean business record (Part 2) (Hamilton Spectator, October 5, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Bill C-2 (the so-called "Federal Accountability Act") is much weaker than the Conservatives promised (Ottawa Sun editorial, September 24, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Key Question for Parliament's Fall Session -- Will Government Accountability Be Increaseed? (September 19, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Senate Should Uphold Voter Rights and Amend Bill C-2 to Force Conservatives to Keep 21 Broken Election Promises, But Has No Right to Weaken Bill C-2 in Any Way (September 15, 2006)
OP-ED: Federal Conservatives' Bill C-2 (the so-called "Federal Accountability Act") is Flawed, But Not in the Ways Some Critics Claim (July 31, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Questions raised about federal Conservative Veteran Affairs Minister Greg Thompson spending $18,000 on 5 charter jet flights since February 2006 (CBC.ca website, July 14, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: House of Commons Plays Self-Interested Games in Passing Loophole-Filled "Federal Accountability Act" -- Senate Should Uphold Voter Rights and Amend Bill C-2 to Force Conservatives to Keep 21 Broken Election Promises (June 26, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Federal Conservatives Protect Cabinet Ministers by Breaking Promise to Close Loophole That Allows Ministers to Address Issues That Affect Their Business Interests -- Opposition Parties Not Focused on Correcting Many Major Flaws in Bill C-2, the "Federal Accountability Act" (June 13, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Internet consultations by government not valid, "study circle" consultations much better (Calgary Sun (and Canoe.ca website and other Sun Media newspapers), June 12, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Media must be required to report all polling results with equal weighting, to end misleading reports (Canada.com (Calgary Herald), June 1, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Democracy Watch Details Changes in 15 Key Areas That Must Be Made to the Federal Accountability Act to Ensure An Honest, Ethical, Open, Waste-Prevention and Representative Federal Government (May 30, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Democracy Watch Files Ethics Complaint Against Prime Minister, . . . For Being Dishonest About Broken Election Promises -- Conservatives Propose to Cut Federal Ethics Rule That Requires Top Politicians and Officials to be Honest (May 25, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Prime Minister and Opposition Parties Play Games -- Undermine Possibility of Long-term, Systemic Check on Cabinet's Appointment Powers (May 17, 2006)
OP-ED: Praise and criticism of proposed "Federal Accountability Act" are both exaggerated (April 24, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Courts rule that cities can't intimidate critical citizens by suing them (Globe and Mail, April 18, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Conservatives' "Federal Accountability Act" Includes Many Key Measures But Also Breaks Promises . . . (April 11, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Conservatives' "Federal Accountability Act" Should Be Expanded to Close All Loopholes -- Other Key Democratic Reforms Should Be Priority for All Parties in Parliament (March 27, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Federal Ethics Commissioner Again Improperly Rules on Ethics Complaints -- Wrongly Claims He Cannot Rule on Honesty and Increasing Public Trust Rules -- Democracy Watch Awaits Rulings on its Complaints (March 20, 2006) -- To see Canadian Press wire story about this issue, click here
NEWS RELEASE: Appointments to Law Enforcement Positions Should Have Approval of All Party Leaders -- . . . (February 28, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: Stephen Harper Breaks Pledge to Close Five Loopholes in Ethics Rules for Ministers, Their Staff, and Top Bureaucrats -- One Loophole Left Open Especially for David Emerson? -- . . . (February 22, 2006) -- To see the PoliticsWatch.com website article about this issue, click here
OP-ED: Conservatives' pledge to close most loopholes in federal government's accountability system -- but leave some key loopholes (Winnipeg Free Press, January 28, 2006, and Law Times (weekly newspaper), February 13, 2006) -- To see also the article in the Hill Times (January 30, 2006), which quotes part of the opinion piece, click here -- To see related article in the Globe and Mail (March 10, 2006), click here
NEWS RELEASE: Democracy Watch Will File Ethics Complaints on Dingwall Payment Fiasco and David Emerson's Party-Switching Cabinet Post, Other Cabinet Postings Highly Questionable (February 6, 2006) -- To see the PoliticsWatch.com website article about this issue click here -- To see the Globeandmail.com article about this issue, click here -- To see also the February 11, 2006 Toronto Star article about this issue, click here
NEWS RELEASE: Gomery Commission's Second Report Contains Six Recommendations that the Conservatives Should Add to Their Planned "Federal Accountability Act" (February 1, 2006) -- To see also the column in the Calgary Sun (February 2, 2006) which quotes Democracy Watch Coordinator Duff Conacher, click here
RADIO INTERVIEW: Duff Conacher on CBC Radio's "The Current" re: the federal Conservative Party's plan to enact a "Federal Accountability Act" with 52 measures and likely recommendations in the second Gomery Commission Report (February 1, 2006 -- To listen to the interview, scroll down on the page this link takes you to and click on the "Part 1" link -- the interview starts 2 minutes 40 seconds into Part 1 of the show and runs to the 17-minute point of the show)
OP-ED: Conservatives' pledge to close most loopholes in federal government's accountability system -- but leave some key loopholes (Winnipeg Free Press, January 28, 2006) -- To see also the article in the Hill Times (January 30, 2006), which quotes part of the opinion piece, click here
NEWS RELEASE: Election Makes Clear Need for Election Reforms to Encourage Voter Turnout, Ensure Honesty, Fairness (January 27, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservatives' proposal to elect senators will provoke constitutional change to Senate, if Conservatives are elected (Hill Times, January 23, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Election polls mostly misleading, media hype of polls irresponsible -- full disclosure should be required (Toronto Star, January 21, 2006)
NEWS RELEASE: 1,147 Promises from the Five Main Parties -- No Guarantee Offered By Any Party Leader, and No Pledges to Pass "Honesty-in-Politics" Law (January 20, 2006) -- See also January 21, 2006 Canoe.ca article about this news release by clicking here
REPORT CARD: Federal Conservative Party Has Best Government Accountability Election Platform -- NDP, Greens, Bloc Tied Not Far Behind, Liberal Grades Much Worse -- All Platforms Still Have Key Gaps. . . (January 18, 2006) -- See also WEBSITE ARTICLE on CTV.ca's website about Democracy Watch's Report Card and and WEBSITE ARTICLE on Canoe.ca website about this news release by clicking here
NEWS RELEASE: Voters Have Right to Know Donors and Loans to Candidates and Parties Before Election Day-- Do Liberals Still Owe Banks $34.8 Million? (January 16, 2006) -- See also WEBSITE ARTICLE on CTV.ca's website about this news release by clicking here
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper bans B.C. Conservative election candidate who hid legal violation charges from Conservative Party (Globe and Mail.com, January 12, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: B.C. Conservative federal election candidate hid that he is charged with violating customs law, going to trial in February (CTV National News, January 11, 2006 -- On webpage this link takes you to, click on link on lower right-hand side to see the video)
NEWS RELEASE: Federal Debate on Ethics and Accountability Issues Raises Key Questions About Trusting Party Leaders (January 10, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal government's Cabinet appointment system dangerous to law enforcement in Canada (Saskatoon StarPhoenix, January 7, 2006)
OP-ED: Election ad spending law helps democracy by limiting influence of wealthy interests -- Honesty and accountability measures the real solution to voters' concerns (National Post, January 5, 2006)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Requirement that election candidates live in their riding would not make government more honest, ethical, open, waste preventing or representative (CTV website (CP wire article, January 1, 2006)

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