At least five public office holders, including Industry Minister Christian Paradis and Bruce Carson, a former aide to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, are currently under investigation for possibly breaching the government’s ethics rules, says Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson.Defence Minister Peter MacKay could soon join that number should her office receive a complaint about his visit to a fishing camp owned by a Newfoundland businessman, Dawson suggested.
However, Dawson was tight lipped about the three mystery investigations she has self-initiated. The investigations are relate to possible infractions of the Conflict of Interest Act which applies to 2,800 public office holders which includes ministers, parliamentary secretaries, minister staff and full time employees named through governor in council appointments such as deputy ministers, heads of crown corporations and members of federal boards.
While the individuals under investigation have been notified, Dawson and her officials refused to say who is under a cloud of suspicion or to even say how many individuals are involved in each of the self-initiated investigations.
Nor would she say what sections of the act they are suspected of violating.
Dawson told MPs she hopes to have at least two of the five investigations completed by Christmas. If, however, she chooses to discontinue any of the self-initiated investigations, the public may never know who was investigated or what they were suspected of doing.
Two of the five investigations are already in the public domain.
Currently, Dawson is investigating Christian Paradis in connection with a business proposal touted by former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer when Paradis was minister for public works.
Carson is being investigated in connection with allegations he lobbied the government on behalf of a water-filter company that employed his 22-year-old girlfriend.
The revelation that there are five open investigations into ethics or conflict of interest violations came as Dawson appeared before the House of Common’s Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics committee.
Dawson was summoned to give MPs an overview of her office but also to discuss allegations by Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro that NDP MPs violated ethics rules when the NDP allowed several unions to sponsor its convention in June. Dawson said she was still reviewing Del Mastro’s complaint but also suggested to MPs that the sponsorships might be more of an issue for Elections Canada than for her office.
But while Del Mastro tried to shine a spotlight on the NDP’s actions, NDP MP Charlie Angus and Liberal Scott Andrews took advantage of Dawson’s appearance to highlight the actions of Conservative MPs, ongoing investigations and recent reports in which Dawson found Conservatives had violated ethics guidelines.
Andrews focused on news reports that MacKay accepted a stay at a Gander River fishing camp owned by Rob Crosbie.
“Do you see any potential of a minister of the crown going to a luxury fishing lodge of a member of a crown corporation board?” asked Andrews.
“Yes, there could be contraventions in those areas,” said Dawson, who pointed out she would have to receive a request for an investigation that gives grounds for an inquiry.
Later in the day, MacKay’s office issued a statement saying he paid for his stay at the fishing camp.
“Minister MacKay has been consistently forthcoming with respect to his personal time, and despite not having been contacted by the Ethics Commissioner, he has nonetheless proactively provided her office with a copy of a cancelled cheque which he tendered in the summer of August 2010 in full payment for his stay at a camp in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. He received no gift or advantage from anyone, and there was thus no contravention of any rule.”
In her presentation, Dawson said she may need to ask for an increase in her office’s budget of $7.1 million because the number of investigations she is being asked to undertake continues to grow.
Dawson said she has been getting lots of inquiries from former members of Parliament and former deputy ministers about what they can or can’t do during their cooling off periods, including former Conservative cabinet minister Stockwell Day who consulted her before he set up his new firm Stockwell Day Connex.
While Day and others are free to release letters from her with advice, Dawson said she is not free to release advice she gives MPs, public office holders or former public office holders.
Meanwhile, Dawson used the hearings to suggest changes to the ethics rules that MPs might want to consider when they come up for review next year.
For example, currently, public office holders are required to divest themselves of publicly traded securities when they are appointed.
“No conflict of interest test applies to the divestment requirement, which is unnecessarily onerous for some of the reporting public office holders and costs taxpayers money.”
Nor are there any reporting requirement for former public office holders, she pointed out.
Dawson said she would also like to see MPs prohibited from speaking publicly about their complaints to her office or requests for investigations until she actually receives their request.
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Source: iPolitics
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