Friday, June 2, 2000

OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch strongly criticized the Liberal government's passage of Bill C-2, which amends the Canada Elections Act and contains the rules governing political fundraising. Bill C-2 was passed by the Senate and given royal assent Wednesday evening.

"Bill C-2 is more loophole than law," said Aaron Freeman, a Democracy Watch board member. "And the loopholes allow secret, corrupting donations to federal politicians and political parties."

In passing Bill C-2, the Liberals have chosen to leave the well-known and well-used loopholes in Canada's political finance system firmly in place. Bill C-2 contains no limit on how much donors can give to try to influence politicians, and allows donors to make secret donations to riding associations, to MPs between elections, or to candidates for party leadership campaigns. There is also no limit on government advertising during elections.

The government's own Royal Commission on Electoral Finance (the Lortie Commission), a series of annual reports from Canada's Chief Electoral Officer, and Democracy Watch's coalition of 47 citizen groups from across Canada have all recommended closing these disclosure loopholes. Yet without all-party support (as tradition demands of electoral legislation), the Liberals pushed Bill C-2 through, refusing to fix these serious problems.

The Liberal government rejected amendments proposed by opposition parties to close these loopholes, and also rejected amendments proposed by Senator Pierre Claude Nolin that would have closed the riding association loophole, which has been referred to by academics and Canada's Chief Electoral Officer as the "black hole" of political fundraising. Six provinces require riding associations to report their donors, as do many other countries.

Liberal House Leader Don Boudria, the minister responsible for Bill C-2, other members of Cabinet, Members of Parliament and several Senators are all in a conflict of interest concerning Bill C-2 because they participate in fundraising activities for themselves and/or their parties. Because these politicians or their parties benefit from the loopholes in the political finance system, they have clearly protected their private interests instead of ensuring the law follows the democratic principles of transparency; one-person, one vote; impartiality; integrity and fairness. These politicians, especially Liberals, have therefore neglected to represent the public interest, violated the public trust and failed to fulfill their proper role as public officials.

"Bill C-2's failure to clean-up Canada's political fundraising rules means the democratic principle of one-person, one-vote will continue to be corrupted by our secretive and undemocratic one-dollar, one-vote system," said Freeman.