During his appearance in front of the ethics committee as an executive member of the Canadian Bar Association, Guy Giorno urged MPs to give the ethics commissioner the power to punish contraventions of the Conflict of Interest Act, noting that, under the current regime, not one of the provisions related to prohibited behaviour -- which cover everything from furthering private interests to attempting to influence another public office holder -- carries a penalty.
As for the abrogation of listed duties, most of which involve failure to disclose information, the maximum fine that can be levied is $500.
According to Giorno, the end result is "unfairness and inequality."
Laws, he pointed out in his opening statement, "are drafted by civil servants and passed by politicians ... [and[ when civil servants draft and politicians place laws on ordinary citizens, those laws include penalties," which are conspicuously absent from this particular law.
He'd also like to see the ministerial guidelines on political fundraising laid out in the extensive, but ultimately unenforceable Accountable Government written directly in the Act.
Other CBA recommendations:
require the government 'to address and ... respond to each breach'
maintain the current threshold for automatic divestment of controlled assets held by all ministerial offices 'except students'
extend the law to cover the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada
authorize the speaker to refer statutory reviews -- such as the one currently underway at Ethics, and the now seemingly forgotten study of the Code at Procedure and House Affairs -- directly to the appropriate committee, rather than leave it up to the government with no penalties for tardiness
You can read the full submission here (PDF).
Original Article
Source: CBC
Author: Kady O'Malley
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