Government Corruption
A new federal code curbs lobbying by Canadians involved in “political work” including unpaid campaign volunteers. Revisions to the Lobbyists’ Code Of Conduct, the first in eight years, are to take effect July 1.
“The objective of this Code is to foster transparent and ethical lobbying of federal officials,” Lobbying Commissioner Nancy Bélanger wrote in a legal notice Saturday. “This Code works in concert with the ethical regimes that apply to federal officials.”
The new Code includes a new “sense of obligation” clause to restrict lobbying of any public office holder “where the official could reasonably be seen to have a sense of obligation to you because of political work, paid or unpaid.” The clause defines “political work” as organizing or managing any campaign, raising funds, volunteering, “soliciting or gathering donations,” “disseminating campaign materials” or acting as a spokesperson, researcher, analyst or campaign advertiser.
The restriction would not apply to lobbyists who are party members, donors, visitors at campaign rallies or lobbyists who express “personal political opinions” or “display election signs” on their property
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Read MoreThe Liberal government has yet to retrieve the nearly $133,000 paid to “anti-racist” consultant Laith Marouf and nobody at the Ministry of Canadian Heritage has been disciplined or fired for approving the contract despite Marouf’s history of antisemitism.
Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman grilled Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez and others on Monday during a House of Commons heritage committee meeting – inquiring what had been done since the scandal surfaced last year.
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Read MoreNDP leader Jagmeet Singh put forward a motion on Monday asking David Johnston to step down from his role as special rapporteur, who is investigating foreign interference in Canada.
“We’ve tabled a motion … that will be debated tomorrow in the House,” Singh told reporters.
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Read MoreCabinet’s refusal to hold a public inquiry into claims of illegal activities by Chinese agents was predictable, a Bloc Québécois MP yesterday told the House affairs committee. “The walls are closing in,” said MP Marie-Hélène Gaudreau (Laurentides-Labelle, Que.). “That’s enough.”
“Partisanship is winning out over the integrity of our democracy,” said Gaudreau. “I have said it before and I’ll say it again, we in the Bloc are not out to get power, we are out to get information. And to get information you need experts and there needs to be a public inquiry.”
The Commons on March 23 voted 172 to 149 to “launch a national public inquiry into allegations of foreign interference in Canada’s democratic system.” The motion asked that the investigation be led by a judge selected by all House leaders with powers to compel testimony and subpoena documents. It followed a similar vote by Conservative, Bloc and New Democrat MPs in the House affairs committee on March 2.
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Read MoreThe Department of Finance has asked the Parliamentary Budget Office to withhold public release of in-house data on a federal dentacare program. The Budget Office sought figures on the cost and scope of the plan promised by 2025.
“We respectfully request that you do not disclose the data publicly or share it outside of your organization,” the department wrote in a May 19 letter to the Budget Office. No reason was given.
Budget Officer Yves Giroux sought complete details of the dentacare plan. “I am requesting the eligibility criteria, details on the types of procedures covered and co-payment rates that were used to cost the new Canadian dental care plan measure in Budget 2023 and a description of any relevant assumptions such as inflation indexation of income levels, plan administration costs, etcetera,” wrote Giroux.
The Budget Office in a March 22, 2022 report put costs of the program at $4.6 billion annually by 2025. “We estimate that close to 6.5 million Canadians will benefit from the proposed program during the first year,” wrote analysts.
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Read MorePrime Minister Justin Trudeau in a 2010 radio interview described David Johnston as a frequent dinner companion with whom he had “great conversations.” Johnston on Tuesday dismissed his “so-called friendship” with Trudeau as insignificant.
“We had great conversations around dinner tables around all sorts of things,” Trudeau told CBC Radio in an interview marking Johnston’s 2010 appointment as governor general. “I always respected him as a man who was very personable, very real and very, very smart,” Trudeau said at the time.
James Fitz-Morris, the CBC reporter who interviewed both Johnston and Justin Trudeau, said in his original broadcast: “Pierre Trudeau and Johnston were friends. The families often vacationed together, the three Trudeau boys and five Johnston girls.”
Fitz-Morris, now a political aide, yesterday said he could not recall the source of his report that the families vacationed together. “I remember the interview and the story,” said Fitz-Morris. “I don’t remember where that piece came from.”
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Read MorePrime Minister Justin Trudeau attempted to have a low-key visit to Woodstock Ontario to help a local candidate in a byelection — and got mouthed off by local residents who spotted him.
One protester called him a pedophile and accused the Prime Minister of killing people — presumably by his intense coercion of the COVID vaccine that ultimately killed some Canadians.
In a video released on social media of the incident, a crowd can be heard hurling insults at the Prime Minister while he was outside a local shop.
The regular “F&$# Trudeau” chant can be heard, while Trudeau just smiled and walked on by.
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Read MoreLos Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has a staggering 10,000 backlog of cases as the Democrat-run city reinstates no-cash bail.
The “authoritarian” and “toxic” DA’s woke policies reportedly have led to multiple prosecutors quitting as thousands of cases pile up on his desk.
Currently, there are over 130 positions available at Gascon’s office.
Whistleblowers told the New York Post that Gascon’s generous plea deals allow criminals to be released without serving little to no time. As a result, sometimes, crimes are not being prosecuted at all.
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Read MoreDid our “special rapporteur” ask her about this meet, or was he preoccupied with whitewashing the wrongdoings of the Liberal government?
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Read MoreChinese centre that personally meets with Liberal parliamentarians and gets face time with Justin Trudeau. And not a word about this in our special rapporteur’s report.
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