The
System is the Scandal!
and no one should be surprised that Canadian governments, politicians,
government employees, corporations and big business executives act
dishonestly, unethically, secretively, non-representatively or
wastefully --- the system encourages them to do so through weak rules,
weak enforcement, and weak penalties.
This is not at all to say that all, most or even many
politicians, government employees or corporate executives are
dishonest, unethical, secretive, non-representative or wasteful -- but
if any of these people act in these ways they will often not be caught,
let alone penalized, because of loopholes in laws and rules and weak
enforcement systems.
Incredibly, the laws and enforcement of parking a car
illegally are stronger than most government accountability and
corporate responsibility laws and enforcement systems in Canada, and in
some cases the penalties
for parking illegally are higher than for government officials or
corporate
executives who act dishonestly, unethically, unrepresentatively,
secretively
or wastefully!
For the past more than 140 years, since Canada became a
nation (and section 91 of the Constitution
of
Canada empowered politicians to "make Laws for the Peace,
Order, and good Government of Canada"),
politicians and government officials have not been passing strong good
government laws, but instead have been playing a
game by sometimes strengthening laws, but then weakening enforcement,
or strengthening enforcement at the same time as creating loopholes in
laws, and in almost every case
penalties have remained too weak to discourage violations.
While governments and corporations do bad things for
many reasons,
often it is because they are operating in bad ways. Especially
when
governments operate in bad ways, they usually do not require
corporations to act in good ways (because they make secret deals behind
closed doors with corporate lobbyists).
And unfortunately, the public always pays one way or
another when governments or corporations act in bad ways.
See set out on this page are Action Alerts
about Democracy Watch's campaigns to increase government accountability and corporate responsibility in
Canada -- to ensure governments, politicians and their staff and
appointees, and government employees, and corporations and corporate
executives, all pay a
price for acting irresponsibly.
Politicians, government officials, and big business
executives are resisting changes to the system that would increase
their accountability for wrongdoing. They just don't get it, so
we have to give it to them until they do!
Democracy Watch needs your support to clean up
Canada's government accountability and corporate responsibility systems
--- to strengthen the rules, the enforcement and the penalties for
irresponsible activities by governments and corporations.
You can help clean up the system to prevent future
scandals!
For general background on how the system is the scandal,
read the following Democracy Watch article about the
Many Changes Needed
Before Canada Will Be a Democracy
Finally, if you think Democracy Watch is exaggerating
how much
Canada's government accountability and corporate responsibility systems
are
the scandal, consider the following survey results and reports:
- The Fall 2007
Ipsos Reid poll found that more than 70% of Canadians believe large
companies have too much influence on the decisions of their government
and they want a more aggressive crack down on the activities and
influence of national and
multinational corporations;
- The 2008 Global
Integrity Report
ranked Canada 10th overall out of more than 90 countries assessed since
2006, but 13th
overall
in the Government Accountability category (worse than countries such as
Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania, Malawi, Philippines, Peru, Pakistan and
Colombia), and 15th overall in the Anti-Corruption and Rule of Law
category (worse than countries
such as Jordan, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Romania, Latvia, Argentina,
India,
Vanuatu, Kenya and Ukraine);
- Democracy Watch's Summary of the 90 Undemocratic
and Accountability Loopholes in Canada's Federal Government;
- Democracy Watch's Report
Card
on
Corporate
Responsibility Platforms Reveals Many Key Gaps in All
Parties' Platforms . . . (January 19, 2006);
- The 2007
Transparency
International
poll found that almost two-thirds of
Canadians believe that Canadian governments have not been effective at
stopping government corruption, and almost one-half believe corruption
is increasing.
|
You can help clean up the Canadian federal Government Accountability System so that 420 federal
politicians, 2,000 political staff, 3,000 political appointees, and
350,000 government employees will all be effectively required to act
honestly, ethically, openly, representatively and to prevent waste of
the $220 billion of public money they spend each year
(NOTE: For details about how to help clean up
the Ontario provincial and municipal government's accountability
system, click here and click here):
Report Card on
Federal
Canadian
Political
Parties' 2008 Good Government Election Platforms
NDP
|
C+
|
Green Party
|
C
|
Bloc Quebecois
|
D-
|
Conservative Party
|
E-
|
Liberal Party
|
F
|
You can help clean up the Canadian federal Corporate Responsibility System so that 155,000
corporations (including half of the largest 500 corporations in Canada)
will all be effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly,
representatively and to prevent waste
(NOTE: For details about how to help clean up
the Ontario provincial corporate responsibility system, click here):
Report Card on the 2006 Federal Canadian
Political Parties' Corporate Responsibility Election Platforms
Please
donate online now
to government accountability and
corporate responsibility in Canada
|