Democracy Watch is calling on the House of Commons Ethics Committee to change its mind on accepting loosening the rules on ethical lobbying by Commissioner of Lobbying Nancy Bélanger..In a March 20th letter sent to Belanger, the committee approved of the commissioner’s proposed changes to the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct. Under the new rules, lobbyists could campaign and fundraise for politicians and parties and lobby them only one to two years after..Until now, rules and guidelines have prohibited lobbying for a full election cycle, usually four years, after anyone does any significant campaigning or event organizing, or any fundraising, for a politician or party as a paid campaign staff person or as a volunteer..“It’s shameful that the Liberal, Conservative and Bloc MPs on the ethics committee have decided, behind closed doors, to support changes that will gut key ethical lobbying rules in ways that essentially try to legalize bribery by allowing for favour-trading between lobbyists and politicians that will corrupt federal policy-making processes,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch. .“The NDP has said it opposes the changes, but is it going to do anything more to try to stop the changes, like introducing a resolution in the House opposing the changes that dares MPs from other parties to publicly approve them?”.In the ethics committee’s letter, MPs from all parties also said they wanted Bélanger to formalize the ability for lobbyists to offer “sponsored travel” junket trips to MPs and their family members and associates “where they serve a legitimate purpose.” They approved the increase on the annual limit on gifts from a lobbyist to $200, and on hospitality (wining and dining) also to $200. .“It’s shocking that MPs on the ethics committee would call for loopholes to allow lobbyists to buy them off, essentially bribe them, with fundraising, favours, trips, gifts and wining and dining worth thousands of dollars each year,” said Conacher. .“The changes that the ethics committee wants are deeply unethical and will allow for corrupt favour-trading between lobbyists and politicians.”.Democracy Watch and 25 other citizen groups with a total membership of 1.5 million Canadians in calling on the Committee to reject key changes to the federal Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct proposed by Bélanger because the changes will gut ethical lobbying rules in ways that will allow secret, corrupt favour-trading between lobbyists and federal politicians..More than 20,000 voters signed on to Democracy Watch’s petition on Change.org or its letter-writing campaign and sent emails to the Commissioner calling on her to stop gutting the code, and also calling on federal party leaders and the Committee to reject the Commissioner’s proposed code changes, and to make other key changes to stop all secret, unethical lobbying..In an open letter sent to the Ethics Committee, 11 lawyers and 21 law and political science professors from 14 universities called on the Committee to reject the Commissioner’s proposed changes, and also to reject the Commissioner’s claim that the current four-year lobbying prohibition violates the Charter..Conacher said court precedents allow for some charter rights to be restricted when they protect government integrity, leaving no good reason for the lobbying rules to be changed..“If the Commissioner of Lobbying goes ahead with her proposed changes gutting key federal ethical lobbying rules, Democracy Watch will file a lawsuit challenging the new rules as they will violate voters’ constitutional democracy rights to government integrity, equal participation in policy-making processes, and adequate information to make voting decisions,” promised Conacher.
