Recently retired ethics commissioner Mario Dion identified many violations by the Liberal government, and experts say there have been too few repercussions..On February 14, Dion found MP Greg Fergus breached the Conflict of Interest Act for writing a letter of endorsement for a network in a CRTC application. International Trade Minister Mary Ng was found guilty of her own violation last December for hiring a friend in a sole-sourced contract..Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was found in a Conflict of Interest for a 2016 stay at Bells Kay sponsored by the Aga Khan. He was also found guilty 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 $700..Trudeau was not found guilty of wrongdoing after WE Charity was hired to oversee the Canada Student Service Grant, though Dion determined 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 Trudeau violated ethics violations regarding WE Charity. .Conacher previously made unsuccessful court challenges against the legality of the appointments of Mario Dion as ethics commissioner and Nancy Belanger as Lobbying Commissioner, alleging they failed to consult opposition parties prior to their appointments as required by law. .Democracy Watch also documented eight cases of wrongdoing during Dion’s time as Integrity Commissioner under the Conservative government..“This is just a fundamental rule. If you want to have a fair hearing, then one of the parties cannot be choosing their own judge and Trudeau chose his own judge. And so that's just taints the whole process,” Conacher said..“To just say inquiries into government wrongdoing only happen when the cabinet allows them to happen, it's just ridiculous.”.Commissioner Belanger recently proposed reducing the amount of time that a fundraiser or full-time staff person must wait between those activities and lobbying the government. 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, believes there should be stronger, not weaker laws..“They've allowed those laws to have so little clout for so long that they've all come to realize how easily they can flout those laws. There's just no repercussions for violating them, particularly when you have a majority of Parliament,” Stedman said..“Under the Act, 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.”.Malcolm Bird, a political science professor at the University of Winnipeg, wonders how Trudeau survives, especially through the supply-and-confidence agreement made with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh..“It really is amazing, the resiliency of the Liberal government. It is astonishing, Teflon Trudeau. How do these guys do it?” Bird said in an interview..“This is not a majority government. It's being propped up by the NDP. And that's, again, very perplexing to me. I am struggling to understand Mr. Singh's role in all this.”.Bird said the previous Manitoba premier showed it’s better to avoid the “hubris” of staying in power indefinitely after the public loses confidence..“You’ve got to give credit to Brian Pallister here. He knew when to go. Did it six years, and then he was gone, and handed the reins over. Trudeau’s got to be considering some of these things because you want to leave your party in good shape and positive and go,” Bird said..“It’s is a big question of succession within the Liberal Party, who's going to be the next king or queen? So when does he go? My own view is you should go sooner.”.If Trudeau doesn’t step down willingly, his cabinet could oust him. MP Michael Chong’s Reform Act, a private member’s bill in 2015, allowed the Conservatives to remove Erin O’ Toole from leadership. Stedman believes the Liberal caucus should do the same..“If Trudeau is consistently not holding himself and others around him accountable for their transgressions, then the caucus has to step in,” Stedman said..“Without new laws, the solution has to be that we need our public officials to have a better and greater and deeper sense of integrity. They need to want to be in public office, to serve the public and to be there to represent the people who put them there. That needs to come first. And they need to step up when they make a mistake and hold themselves accountable….“The rules are failing…Parliamentarians and elected officials are failing. It's not good. It's not good for democracy.”
