Democracy Watch called for democratic changes to Quebec’s political system in response to the clear crisis of low voter turnout in the last provincial election. The 2008 general election in Quebec saw a turnout of only 57 per cent, the lowest in the province in 70 years. The group said voters in Quebec do not … Read more
Democracy Watch released the letter it sent asking Elections Canada to clarify a ruling by the Commissioner of Canada Elections on a recent complaint. Democracy Watch received the ruling from the person who filed the complaint and in it the commissioner refused to investigate based upon a much too narrow and restrictive interpretation of a … Read more
Democracy Watch said in the Supreme Court of Canada case about voting in a Toronto, ON, area riding during the May 2011 federal election, Elections Canada and some provincial elections agencies seem to be arguing that problems are inevitable instead of acknowledging that their current systems have significant weaknesses in ensuring that voters are voting … Read more
Democracy Watch said Federal Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault is taking the great step of being an active good government watchdog by undertaking a review of the federal Access to Information Act. The group said this is not only proper as she is required to report to Parliament about how the law is working, it is … Read more
Following the release of the fifth annual report by the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, civil society groups are calling the federal Conservatives’ 5-year old whistleblower regime a failure and calling for major reforms to ensure protection of Canadian whistleblowers, Democracy Watch announced. Executive director of the chairity FAIR David Hutton said after five years of … Read more
Democracy Watch and the national Government Ethics Coalition called on the Conservative cabinet to go further than the recommendations of the House of Commons Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee by changing the federal Lobbying Act and enforcement system in 10 key ways to finally end secret, unethical lobbying of the federal government. Coordinator … Read more
Democracy Watch called on the federal government to finally keep their 2006 and 2008 election promises to establish a public appointments commission to set merit-based requirements for appointments to government boards, commissions, and agencies, to ensure that competitions for posts are widely publicized and fairly conducted. The full release is available online. Call 613-241-5179.
Democracy Watch released its analysis of Elections Canada’s enforcement of the Canada Elections Act since 1997, revealing that the main problem is no one can tell whether Elections Canada has been enforcing the law fairly and properly because it has failed to disclose details of how it has investigated and ruled on 2,982 of the … Read more
Civil society organizations responded to the first case of wrongdoing reported to Parliament by integrity commissioner Mario Dion. Since it was created in 2007 the Office of the Public Service Integrity Commissioner has received more than 300 disclosures and is currently investigating 18 of these, but has not reported any wrongdoing until now. The groups, … Read more
Democracy Watch called on the Commissioner of Elections Canada and the Director of Public Prosecutions to release the results of investigations and the rulings on 2,284 complaints received by Elections Canada since 2004. Democracy Watch first issued this request in November 2011. Democracy Watch also called on federal MPs to cooperate and strengthen the Canada … Read more
