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Next hour, we'll be talking to David Butts, criminal lawyer in Toronto, also writes op-eds for The Globe and Mail, and David wrote an op-ed about freedom of expression in Canada and hate speech. Hate speech legislation. In the column, the op-ed piece that he wrote, that we're going to be talking to him about, which Canada's law on hate speech is the embodiment of compromise. So, David Butts, top of the next hour.
Duff Conacher is the co-founder of Democracy Watch. In this country, it's been a long time since I've spoken with Duff. Great to have him on the show. And Democracy Watch wants the Federal Ethics Commissioner, Mary Dawson.
Do you want her investigated? Do you want an inquiry? Duff, great to have you back on the show. What is it exactly that you want done?
What Duff Conacher is calling for, and thanks, Roy. It's great to be back on the show with you and talking with you. What we're calling for is for the same kind of performance audit that the Auditor General did of the former Integrity Commissioner. That was done back in 2010, and it was an audit of a very negligently weak enforcement record that the Integrity Commissioner was showing.
And the Ethics Commissioner and also the Federal Lobby Commissioner both have similar negligently weak enforcement records, and we think the Auditor General should take a look. Yeah, I looked at your release on looking at the Ethics Commissioner, and you point out that since her appointment in 2007, Ms. Dawson has cleared 95% of individuals accused of unethical behavior or unethical acts, and the Trudeau government has also issued three consecutive six-month extensions of her contract, each worth $100,000, which makes you ask who you're responsible to, but at the same time, she also wants to speak to the Finance Minister about his stock trades in 2015. Yeah, so in terms of her record, she's also made 218 secret rulings where she's let people off the hook without really explaining in most cases.
She started to enter more recent annual reports, but before 2012, she didn't explain. She would just have lines in a report, like, I had three complaints last year, only two of them were valid. And that's it, that's all she would say without justifying why the other 28 had been dismissed. So 218 secret rulings, and total, overall, let 95% of people off the hook.
And she's essentially serving at the pleasure of the Trudeau cabinet right now while she's investigating Prime Minister Trudeau for the gift that the Aga Khan gave him of the trip to the Bahamas a year ago, and also Finance Minister Morneau over his shares in his family company in the conflicts of interest. She's in a biased position right now. She doesn't have a job beyond the end of December unless the Trudeau cabinet hands her another sole-source contract worth $100,000. That is disturbing.
That is disturbing enough. And the lobbying commissioner is on her way out, finally. They just named a new one this week. But she's been in the same position.
The lobbying commissioner hasn't made a ruling, a public ruling, since the Liberals were elected. We have five complaints into her of clear violations that lobbyists have made in terms of putting the Liberal cabinet ministers in conflicts of interest, including, and MPs in conflicts of interest, including a complaint filed in May of 2016. We're still waiting. She hasn't really done anything in the last two years in terms of ruling on complaints on high-profile situations of lobbyists helping with Liberal fundraising events.
And they've been giving her a $100,000 contract every six months and renewing it. Those are all renewable contracts. So finally, we've got her out of the way. She's going to be gone.
But there should still be an audit of the lobbying commissioner. If she had a negligently weak record, the Auditor General would be able to set some standards with that audit for the new commissioner to ensure that there is effective enforcement going forward. Yeah, the optics are all wrong. Very bad.
Right with conflicts of interest. Just conflicts of interest on top of conflicts of interest. So who would be the individual or what organization within Parliament or wherever would be the determinant as to whether or not there would be an inquiry for the work and the performance of the ethics commissioner? It's the Auditor General.
So it comes directly from the Auditor General? Yep. The Auditor General decides that directly, as the former Auditor General Sheila Fraser did back in 2010 when she decided to audit the integrity commissioner. It's called the performance audit.
So you're not looking for waste. What the Auditor General is looking for is what are reasonable expectations in terms of how long it takes you to rule on a complaint? And what kind of enforcement activities are you doing? Are you doing anything to enforce the law?
The lobbying commissioner, the ethics commissioner, they don't do any audits of anyone. Well, how are you going to catch people? Audits are basic to law enforcement. No one speeding down the highway would ever be caught unless there were police that did audits by sitting there and measuring people's speed.
There hasn't been an audit of any MP or any lobbyist in terms of trying to find lobbyists that are not registered. She does some audits of lobbyists who are registered, but they're not the ones who are the problem. The ones that are the problem are the ones doing secret illegal lobbying. And the ethics commissioner trusts every cabinet minister and government official to tell her the truth on their financial statements and to tell her the truth about any conflicts of interest they have.
She doesn't do any audits. So that's not proper enforcement. No, no. I mean, it's not even close, and it's good that you're alluring us to this.
And the fact that there was such a high percentage, a high number of cases that she decided without providing any information as to why she decided the way she did or how she decided. And that's why the liberals have kept them around, because they're confirmed lapdogs. So both of their terms were up in the end of June of 2016. And the liberals have been playing a game since, saying, oh, we can't find qualified people to fill these positions.
So they kept them around for another 18 months. And during that 18 months, the ethics commissioner has not found one liberal guilty of violating the ethics rules. He found two conservatives guilty. But no liberals.
Yeah, but no liberals. And the lobbying commissioner has had five complaints, three of them filed a year or more ago, and she hasn't made any rulings in the two years. We'll talk again soon, Duff. Thank you so much for the time today.
Thank you. Duff Conacher, and it's democracywatch.ca. Duff Conacher, and it's democracywatch.ca.