Canadian Loopholes and Secret Donations. Are Canadian Politicians In Conflict Of Interest.
Joseph Raglione
November 12, 2009
Gentle readers within this American Chronicle, the following is a good lesson on how Canadian and possibly American politicians are corrupted by special interest groups. Pay especially close attention to the concept of legal loopholes...>
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Loopholes let business make secret donations to politicians at every level
Democracy Watch launches challenges over Conservative MPs' fund-raisers.
Dateline: Monday, November 09, 2009
by Ish Theilheimer
with files from Lori Steuart and Anne Cummings, and YouTube video
Recent events in Montreal and Toronto have highlighted the huge legal loopholes that continue to allow powerful interests to influence Canada's politicians. Although Canadians have the impression they are protected from corruption and influence-peddling by campaign finance laws and lobbyist registration, secret and undocumented donations continue to be commonplace at all levels of government.
The recent Montreal civic election was rocked by corruption allegations, including alleged Hell's Angels' involvement with laundering drug money through construction subcontracts, and clandestine six-figure corporate political contributions to candidates.
"You are in a conflict of interest, when you have an opportunity to make a decision to help someone..."
In Toronto, Democracy Watch has been investigating fundraising events held by federal Conservative MP Rick Dykstra and natural resources minister Lisa Raitt. Dykstra's event was held in the exclusive "Owners Box" at the Rogers Centre, Allegedly at discount rates. Raitt's event was organized with the help of a registered lobbyist who working for the Cement Association of Canada, an industry group with a strong interest in natural resource issues.
Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch talks to Ish Theilheimer about corporate lobbying, November 5, 2009.
Part 1
The watchdog group Democracy Watch has protested these events to the federal commissioners who deal with lobbying, conflict-of-interest, ethics, and elections complaints, in order to test whether these officials will enforce the Federal Court of Appeal's March 2009 ruling On what lobbyists can and cannot do. At this point, Democracy Watch Coordinator Duff Conacher says the rules are "vague."
"Now you have all these situations, these two test cases that have come up, that will test what is it that a lobbyist does that crosses that line," he said in an interview with Straight Goods News. "And slowly, over the next couple of years, we'll have the Ethics Commissioner, the Lobbying Commissioner, and Elections Canada Commissioner drawing the lines and saying what is legal or illegal in terms of making a contribution to someone's campaign."
Conacher says that in March, a court ruling on a case brought forward by his organization after ten years of appeals, described the old standard for evaluating possible conflict of interest as "deeply flawed."
"Essentially, the standard that these old ethics lapdogs were trying to hold up is, as long as you didn't actually make a decision that helped the lobbyist, then you were not in a conflict of interest. But that's not right.
"You are in a conflict of interest, when you have an opportunity to make a decision to help someone, and you are required, under the conflict-of-interest standard that applies worldwide, to step aside... People would suspect that your decision is based on you trying to return a favour to a lobbyist."
Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch talks to Ish Theilheimer about corporate lobbying, November 5, 2009,
Part 2
Conacher hopes the commissioners will be more strict than in the past, "because the federal court of appeal has set out a new standard." The Raitt and Dykstra cases will be their first tests.
The Montreal civic corruption scandal was a result of loopholes that subvert tough laws against corporate contributions to election campaigns, says Conacher. These bans are "a good thing," he says, "but they've left open loopholes that allow for secret donations to made of unlimited amounts of money and property and services." Similar loopholes exist in other provinces and at the federal level.
"Right now, you can donate an unlimited amount of money or services or property to any candidate in any election across Canada, except for federal election candidates, and they don't have to disclose it as long as they don't use the donation for their campaign," he says. "This loophole is open across the country. It's a crazy loophole to leave open. And there's other loopholes as well."
For instance, candidates and parties are allowed to do their own audits on spending and donations, with auditors they supply rather than independent ones.
"Even if you changed the rules, as we're suggesting, you're never going to stop some people from corrupting politicians...it's really difficult to stop," he says, due to the large number of small countries in the world that accept secret bank accounts. "But at least we can make it illegal and say 'You can't make a secret donation,' whether it's used for a campaign or not.'"
Ish Theilheimer is founder and president of Straight Goods News and has been Publisher of the leading, and oldest, independent Canadian online newsmagazine, StraightGoods.ca, since September 1999. He is also Managing Editor of PublicValues.ca. He lives wth his wife Kathy in Golden Lake, ON, in the Ottawa Valley.
Email: ish@straightgoods.com.
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http://www.straightgoods.ca/2009/ViewFeature.cfm?Ref=556&Cookies=yes
Loopholes let business make secret donations to politicians at every level
Democracy Watch launches challenges over Conservative MPs' fund-raisers.
Dateline: Monday, November 09, 2009
by Ish Theilheimer
with files from Lori Steuart and Anne Cummings, and YouTube video
Recent events in Montreal and Toronto have highlighted the huge legal loopholes that continue to allow powerful interests to influence Canada's politicians. Although Canadians have the impression they are protected from corruption and influence-peddling by campaign finance laws and lobbyist registration, secret and undocumented donations continue to be commonplace at all levels of government.
The recent Montreal civic election was rocked by corruption allegations, including alleged Hell's Angels' involvement with laundering drug money through construction subcontracts, and clandestine six-figure corporate political contributions to candidates.
"You are in a conflict of interest, when you have an opportunity to make a decision to help someone..."
In Toronto, Democracy Watch has been investigating fundraising events held by federal Conservative MP Rick Dykstra and natural resources minister Lisa Raitt. Dykstra's event was held in the exclusive "Owners Box" at the Rogers Centre, Allegedly at discount rates. Raitt's event was organized with the help of a registered lobbyist who working for the Cement Association of Canada, an industry group with a strong interest in natural resource issues.
Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch talks to Ish Theilheimer about corporate lobbying, November 5, 2009.
Part 1
The watchdog group Democracy Watch has protested these events to the federal commissioners who deal with lobbying, conflict-of-interest, ethics, and elections complaints, in order to test whether these officials will enforce the Federal Court of Appeal's March 2009 ruling On what lobbyists can and cannot do. At this point, Democracy Watch Coordinator Duff Conacher says the rules are "vague."
"Now you have all these situations, these two test cases that have come up, that will test what is it that a lobbyist does that crosses that line," he said in an interview with Straight Goods News. "And slowly, over the next couple of years, we'll have the Ethics Commissioner, the Lobbying Commissioner, and Elections Canada Commissioner drawing the lines and saying what is legal or illegal in terms of making a contribution to someone's campaign."
Conacher says that in March, a court ruling on a case brought forward by his organization after ten years of appeals, described the old standard for evaluating possible conflict of interest as "deeply flawed."
"Essentially, the standard that these old ethics lapdogs were trying to hold up is, as long as you didn't actually make a decision that helped the lobbyist, then you were not in a conflict of interest. But that's not right.
"You are in a conflict of interest, when you have an opportunity to make a decision to help someone, and you are required, under the conflict-of-interest standard that applies worldwide, to step aside... People would suspect that your decision is based on you trying to return a favour to a lobbyist."
Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch talks to Ish Theilheimer about corporate lobbying, November 5, 2009,
Part 2
Conacher hopes the commissioners will be more strict than in the past, "because the federal court of appeal has set out a new standard." The Raitt and Dykstra cases will be their first tests.
The Montreal civic corruption scandal was a result of loopholes that subvert tough laws against corporate contributions to election campaigns, says Conacher. These bans are "a good thing," he says, "but they've left open loopholes that allow for secret donations to made of unlimited amounts of money and property and services." Similar loopholes exist in other provinces and at the federal level.
"Right now, you can donate an unlimited amount of money or services or property to any candidate in any election across Canada, except for federal election candidates, and they don't have to disclose it as long as they don't use the donation for their campaign," he says. "This loophole is open across the country. It's a crazy loophole to leave open. And there's other loopholes as well."
For instance, candidates and parties are allowed to do their own audits on spending and donations, with auditors they supply rather than independent ones.
"Even if you changed the rules, as we're suggesting, you're never going to stop some people from corrupting politicians...it's really difficult to stop," he says, due to the large number of small countries in the world that accept secret bank accounts. "But at least we can make it illegal and say 'You can't make a secret donation,' whether it's used for a campaign or not.'"
Ish Theilheimer is founder and president of Straight Goods News and has been Publisher of the leading, and oldest, independent Canadian online newsmagazine, StraightGoods.ca, since September 1999. He is also Managing Editor of PublicValues.ca. He lives wth his wife Kathy in Golden Lake, ON, in the Ottawa Valley.
Email: ish@straightgoods.com.
2009 Features List ]
As a paid subscriber you have access to nearly 8500 extra articles!
To buy a paid subscription: go to Online Subscriptions or phone 877-766-1223
StraightGoods.ca is part of the Straight Goods family of news websites and is published by Straight Goods News Inc.
HarperIndex.ca ] [ PublicValues.ca ] [ YourDailyClick.ca ]
Partner Links
PEJ News ] [ the Tyee ] [ DeSmogBlog ] [ Bourque Newswatch ]
Straight Goods News, 2000-09. All Rights Reserved.
All text that appears here is protected by copyright and may not be reproduced for any purpose, including education,
without the explicit permission of the author. To inquire about permission to reproduce or republish an article, click here.
For problems, comments or suggestions, please contact webmaster@straightgoods.com
Site built and maintained by Perfect Vision (Productions) Inc.
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