The Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that the Trudeau Cabinet was biased when it appointed the Ethics Commissioner and Commissioner of Lobbying in December 2017. However, the FCA excused the Cabinet’s bias based on a 2001 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that Cabinet is allowed to be biased when appointing people like the commissioners if the commissioners implement government … Read more
As Canada’s new Ambassador to China, Dominic Barton, testifies before the special House Committee on Canada-China relations, Democracy Watch called on the Trudeau Cabinet to replace him with an experienced foreign service officer who doesn’t have the financial conflicts of interest that Barton has. “Dominic Barton’s extensive, mainly foreign financial interests conflict with Canada’s best interests, and … Read more
Democracy Watch sent another letter to federal Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger, following up on its Aug. 1, 2019 letter, calling on her to ensure an independent ruling on the complaint letter it filed in late April 2018 about unregistered lobbying and doing favours for Cabinet and federal politicians by Facebook employees, and employees of its subsidiary … Read more
Democracy Watch was in the Federal Court of Appeal in Ottawa on Jan. 28, for the hearing of its combined cases challenging the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s (Papineau, Que.) Cabinet’s appointment in December 2017 of their own watchdogs – the Ethics Commissioner and Commissioner of Lobbying. Both cases ask the court to overturn the appointments because the Cabinet … Read more
Democracy Watch released emails the Trudeau Cabinet has kept secret for almost two years that show the Liberals had six fully qualified candidates who reached the final interview stage for the Ethics Commissioner position in Nov. 2017. The Trudeau Cabinet hid this fact from opposition party leaders, and only proposed Mario Dion for the position. “The Trudeau Cabinet broke … Read more
Democracy Watch sent another letter to federal Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger, following up on its July 17, 2019 letter, again calling on her to ensure an independent ruling on the complaint Democracy Watch filed in July 2017 about the relationship and meetings between representatives of the Council of Canadian Innovators and Liberal Cabinet officials. Since March 2016, the CCI’s Executive Director has … Read more
Democracy Watch and the Money in Politics Coalition called on the media to ask federal party leaders three key questions: 1) Which financial institution gave them a loan to pay their election expenses? 2) How much was the loan? 3) What will their estimated deficit/surplus be in four months after they receive the subsidies the public pays for … Read more
Democracy Watch released the application it has filed in Ontario Divisional Court challenging Ontario Integrity Commissioner David Wake’s refusal to issue a public ruling on Premier Doug Ford’s Chief of Staff Dean French (and possibly other Ford staff) providing preferential treatment to Ford’s friend Ron Taverner, Mario Di Tommaso and Chris Froggatt, which Democracy Watch believes constitutes a … Read more
Democracy Watch highlighted key problems with the changes made by the Liberal government’s Bill C-76, and the federal government’s initiatives announced in January and last May, that ignored the call by all experts, for more effective changes to the Canada Elections Act to actually stop fake online election posts and ads, false claims about candidates, and big money … Read more
Democracy Watch called on federal political party leaders to agree on eight public, written rules for a minority government: when the legislature will open; when it can be closed; what a vote of non-confidence is; when and how the opposition parties may get a chance to govern; when and how the next election can be … Read more
