Federal Ethics Failures Renew Calls for Accountability

Ethics commissioner Mario Dion waits to appear before a Commons committee on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Dec. 13, 2011. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

News Analysis

Recent ethical lapses by government MPs and ministers renew calls for accountability while raising questions of how to bring about change and curb the trend of declining standards of behaviour.

Ethical lapses or questionable behaviour by parliamentarians is nothing new.

In 1998, to highlight the long and repeated absences of Liberal Sen. Andrew Thompson, who was living in Mexico, the Reform Party hired a mariachi band to play in the Senate foyer.

Conservative Sen. Mike Duffy lived in Ottawa but wrote off expenses by claiming his home province was P.E.I. Although he was acquitted of wrongdoing in 2016 due to hazy ethics rules, the Senate expense scandal fed a desire for change in the electorate.

In 2012, Bev Oda resigned as MP and minister of international co-operation in the Harper government following public criticism for charging taxpayers $16 for an orange juice at an event abroad.

But considerably more questionable behaviour by the federal government or MPs has occurred in recent years. As Mario Dion announced his departure from his role as ethics commissioner on Feb. 14, he said the government needs to take ethics more seriously.

On Feb. 14, Dion found Liberal MP Greg Fergus, parliamentary secretary to the prime minister and the president of the Treasury Board, in breach of the Conflict of Interest Act. This followed on the heels of another ethics violation finding by Dion last December when he said the office of International Trade Minister Mary Ng awarded a contract to one of her friends.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was found to be in violation of the Conflict of Interest Act when he and his family vacationed on Bells Kay, a private island in the Bahamas owned by the Aga Khan, in 2016. He was also found to be in violation of the act for pressuring then-justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to grant a deferred prosecution agreement to SNC-Lavalin. And in 2018, Trudeau was fined $100 for failing to report his acceptance of two pairs of leather-covered sunglasses from P.E.I. Premier Wade MacLauchlan valued at around $700.

In 2021, Trudeau was not found to be in violation of ethics rules after WE Charity was hired to oversee the Canada Student Service Grant, though Dion determined that then-finance minister Bill Morneau should have recused himself from cabinet discussions on the matter.

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, is filing in Federal Court to argue that Trudeau did violate ethics rules regarding WE Charity. He says he believes the prime minister’s example is a significant barrier to ethical government.

“Anyone who has ever examined organizational culture ... has found that if the people at the top are not following the rules, then everyone below them will get that message very clearly that it’s OK to break the rules, and they will break them at a higher rate than if the [opposite is the case],” Conacher said in an interview.

“Trudeau has sent the message that it doesn’t matter, I won’t fire you, stay in cabinet, and I don’t really care about these violations.”

A maximum $500 fine for ethics violations is part of a system Conacher calls “a joke.”

“The penalty should be close to what it is for violating the Criminal Code, anti-bribery and influence peddling and other corrupt practices. And instead, the penalty is nothing except a report that’s made public that says you violated the rules. That’s ridiculous.”

Proposed New Lobbying Rules

Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger recently proposed reducing the amount of time that lobbyists campaigning or fundraising for a political candidate or party must wait after they end those activities before they can lobby that politician or party or both. This proposal was denounced by Conacher and a coalition of groups he rallied against it.

Ian Stedman, assistant professor of Canadian public law and governance at York University, says the proposal and its timing are wrong.

“We’re at a moment now where we need to make these laws more strict. It’s not lobbying’s fault, necessarily, but public competence in public officials seems to be taking a hit, and we really can’t afford to allow that to slide any further,” Stedman told The Epoch Times.

“It all just goes right to the prime minister. And that makes it even easier to sweep it under the rug and ignore it, because there’s no accountability for him to actually do anything with a violation.”

An election call could lead to accountability at the ballot box. In 2006, the Liberal sponsorship scandal contributed to a Conservative victory and tighter accountability laws. Stedman wonders why history has failed so far to repeat itself.

“The realist, the pragmatist, the cynic in me says that historically, these laws change when there’s a really good narrative around them, and a few promises by opposition parties during a general election,” he said.

“What happened, unfortunately, I think, during the last couple of general elections, was that even though Trudeau had already been in trouble with the ethics commissioner, the opposition didn’t hold him to account.”

‘Moral and Ethical Laxity’

Scott Bennett, associate professor of political science at Carleton University, says the fact that “very little can be done to punish unethical politicians … is a failing of many systems, and it is certainly a failing of our system.”

There are several reasons for that, he says, including modern-day politicians’ belief that “there are no serious limits to their entitlements,” as well as the “organizational and institutional incentives of the governing system.”

But an important factor overall is the general public’s changing attitudes and social mores, Bennett told The Epoch Times.

“Let us not forget that many societies have drifted into moral and ethical laxity,” he said.

“People are less judgmental in general about many things going on around them. In the case of a public figure, ethical lapses draw a certain amount of brief attention, amplified by those who are the political rivals of the person who has gone wrong. However, it is hard for people to maintain much interest and fervour in following and reacting to these matters.”

In times past, things were different.

“In another era, ministers in trouble resigned or elections were called when certain types of ethical issues or similar arose,” Bennett said. “It happened in the past because the public had different expectations, and the politicians had been raised in that context.”

He added that while there are many areas within government where changes in how things are done could bring improvements, the public’s standpoint is key.

“What can be done about this? Personally, I am not sure much will change until public expectations and focus change.”