'Carney has as many financial conflicts of interest as Trump': organization's co-founder
Democracy Watch urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to publicly re-enact the Prime Minister’s Code (PM Code), with the House Ethics Committee launching its review of the federal Conflict of Interest Act, 2006 (COIA) for the first time since 2012.
“If Prime Minister Carney doesn’t re-enact the code for ministers in his own name, or weakens or cancels it, it will gut Canada’s already weak, loophole-filled government ethics law, and add to his negligently weak record and attitude so far concerning ethics,” said Duff Conacher, Democracy Watch co-founder, in a news release.
The organization asked all federal parties to collaborate in closing the loopholes in the COIA and the ethics code for Members of Parliament to prevent self-interested and unethical decisions and actions and improve enforcement and penalties.
“Canada’s political ethics laws and codes for Cabinet ministers, their staff and top government officials are full of loopholes that allow them to profit financially from their decisions, and are weaker than the rules for senators and federal government employees, and as weak as the rules for backbench MPs, which makes no sense at all,” Conacher said.
In its news release, Democracy Watch said such loopholes enabled Carney to:
- hide his March to July financial investments, despite most voters seeking disclosure
- have investments in over 550 companies
- have “blind trust” that was not actually blind
- have an “ethics screen” that permitted him to privately participate in nearly all decisions impacting his investments in the Brookfield conglomerate and over 100 associated companies
The organization wanted Carney to address these financial conflicts of interest by selling his investments and letting Brookfield and other companies buy out his stock options.
“Prime Minister Carney has as many financial conflicts of interest as Trump, and his so-called blind trust isn’t blind at all, and his so-called ethics screen is an unethical smokescreen that allows him to secretly profit from his decisions, and so the only effective way to deal with these conflicts is for him to sell his investments in more than 655 businesses,” Conacher said.
Democracy Watch also sought the following federal law changes to promote democratic good government:
- addressing secret and unethical lobbying loopholes
- reducing the donation limit in the Canada Elections Act, 2000, to $75
- closing secrecy loopholes in the federal Access to Information Act, 1985
- improving the whistleblower protection law
- adjusting the manner of appointment of democratic good government watchdogs, such as the ethics commissioner
More on PM Code
In its news release, Democracy Watch noted that the PM Code contains high ethical standards governing accountability, ethics, fundraising, and relationships with lobbyists for ministers and their staff members.
According to Democracy Watch, the PM Code includes rules that:
- detail key COIA measures
- define the COIA’s prohibition against public office holders improperly furthering their own or others’ private interests in general and specific ways
- go beyond the COIA to cover ministerial staff
- prevent ministerial staff from acting improperly
