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Citizen Association Campaign
Advocating the creation of citizen watchdog groups for
all business sectors using an innovative pamphlet method that has given
millions of people in the U.S. an easy way to join strong watchdog
groups over big businesses
List of Materials / Links on this Page
Democracy Watch has
produced the following general information materials in its Citizen
Association Campaign
(in chronological order)
- Questions and Answers about
Citizen Utility Boards (CUBs)
- REPORT: Balancing the
Marketplace:
The Case for the Creation of Citizen Associations in Canada (May 1995)
- OP-ED: Canadians can learn
from U.S. consumer watchdogs (January 1996)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Citizen
Utility
Board a Solution to Electricity Utility Problems (CBC TV's
Marketplace, January 23, 2001)
- NEWS RELEASE Governments
Should
Act On Corporate Responsibility and Democracy Report
(January 31, 2002)
- NEWS RELEASE: Federal
Parties Promises Not Enough to Ensure Honest, Accountable Federal
Government and Responsible Corporations, Report Card on Platforms
Reveals (June 25, 2004)
- NEWS RELEASE: Many
Voters Won't Vote, Parties Won't Receive Majority, Until System is
Fully Democratized (June 29, 2004)
- NEWS RELEASE: New
Cabinet Won't Act in Public Interest Until Honesty, Ethics, Openness,
Spending and Donations Laws Strengthened (July 23, 2004)
- NEWS RELEASE: Coalition
Calls
on Ontario Government to Help Establish Broad-Based Investor
Rights Group
(August 19, 2004)
- NEWS RELEASE: Ontario
Government Takes First Steps Toward Democratic Reforms, But Much More
Needs to Be Done (November 18, 2004)
- RADIO INTERVIEW: Duff
Conacher on CBC Radio's "The Current" re: need for effective corporate
regulation
and creation of citizen watchdog groups in Canada (December 21,
2004
- To listen to the interview, scroll down page this link takes you to
and
click on "Part 3" link (you will need Real Audio software to listen to
the
piece) the piece starts 9 minutes 24 seconds into Part 3 of the show
and
runs almost to the end of the show)
- OP-ED: Many Changes
Needed Before Canada Will be a Democracy (Hill Times (January 10,
2005) and Toronto Star (December 29, 2004))
- NEWS RELEASE: Ontario
Government Takes a Few, Loophole-Filled Steps Toward Democratic
Reforms, But Much More Needs to be Done (December 14, 2005)
- REPORT CARD: Federal
Conservative Party Has Best Government Accountability Election Platform
-- NDP, Greens, Bloc Tied Not Far Behind, Liberal Grades Much Worse --
All Platforms Still Have Key Gaps. . . (January 18, 2006) -- See
also WEBSITE ARTICLE on
CTV.ca's website about Democracy Watch's Report Card and Democracy
Watch's
January 16, 2006 news release by clicking
here
- REPORT CARD: Federal
NDP Has
Best Corporate Responsibility Platform, Greens and Bloc Not Too Far
Behind,
Conservative and Liberal Grades Much Worse -- Many Key Gaps in All
Parties'
Platforms . . . (January 19, 2006)
- NEWS RELEASE: Conservatives'
"Federal
Accountability Act" Should Be Expanded to Close All Loopholes
--
Other Key Democratic Reforms Should Be Priority for All Parties in
Parliament
(March 27, 2006)
- NEWS RELEASE: Democracy
Watch
Details Changes in 15 Key Areas That Must Be Made to the Federal
Accountability Act to Ensure An Honest, Ethical, Open, Waste-Prevention
and Representative Federal Government (May 30, 2006)
- NEWS RELEASE: Key
Question for Parliament's Fall Session -- Will Government
Accountability Be Increaseed?
(September 19, 2006)
- OP-ED: Conservatives
Half-Measures Not Enough to Clean Up the Federal Government (Calgary
Herald
and Straightgoods.com, December 13, 2006)
- NEWS RELEASE: Many
Ontario Politicians on Unethical Gravy Train -- Propose To Raise Their
Own Pay, But Not To Limit Donations, To Strengthen Ethics Rules, Or To
Strengthen Democracy (December 19, 2006)
- NEWS RELEASE: Half of
Federal Accountability Act Not In Force, Despite Conservatives' False
Claims -- Will
All Parties Work Together to Correct the Government's 85 Remaining
Undemocratic
Flaws? (February 2, 2007)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal government
should require telecommunications companies to facilitate creation of a
telecomm consumers watchdog group (Toronto Star, February
16, 2007)
- NEWS RELEASE: Democracy
Watch
Proud To Have Played Small Part in Charter of Rights History --
Canada Also Needs A Charter of Government and Corporate Accountability
and Democracy (April 16, 2007)
- NEWS RELEASE: Report
Card Reveals No Matter Which Party Wins, Ontario Government and Large
Corporations Will Remain Largely Unaccountable for Dishonest,
Unethical, Secretive, Unrepresentative and Wasteful Activities Because
of Key Gaps in Provincial Parties' "Good Government" Platforms
(October 5, 2007) -- To see the CTV.ca article about
the Report Card, and to watch a video of the news conference, click
here
To see a Model of
the Law that Democracy Watch and its coalitions are advocating
be passed by Canadian governments to create Citizen Associations,
please click on the
following link:
Consumer,
Shareholder
and Taxpayer Protection Association Act
To see the Law that created the Citizen Utility Board (CUB)
in Illinois, please click on the following link:
Illinois
Citizen
Utility Board (CUB) Law (PDF version)
To see a Report
on how citizen associations acting as watchdogs over utilities in U.S.
states have worked, please click on the following link:
Report
on
U.S. Citizen Utility Boards (html version)
Report on
U.S. Citizen Utility Boards (PDF version)
Democracy Watch advocates
the creation of an
Individual Investor Organization (IIO)
to watch over the investment industry in Canada as part of its
Corporate Responsibility Campaign. For more information, view the news
releases since April 2000 or follow the link to the Corporate
Responsibility Coalition on the Corporate
Responsibility
Campaign page.
- Questions
and Answers about the proposed Individual Investor Organization (IIO)
- NEWS RELEASE: Federal
Conservatives'
Proposed White-Collar Crime Measures Too Little, Too
Late to Protect Investors and Consumers -- U.S. Experience
Shows Two New Citizen Watchdog Groups Needed
For Effective Corporate Accountability (October 21, 2009)
- WEBSITE ARTICLE: Small
investors at risk, coalition calls on government to help create
investor rights association
(Halifax Chronicle-Herald, January 21, 2007)
- LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: Business
Media
Give Banks an Easy Ride on Corporate Responsibility (Report
on
Business magazine, April 29, 2005)
- OP-ED: A Recipe for
Cleaning
Up the Investment Industry (Corporate
Knights magazine, April 28, 2005)
- RADIO PIECE: Duff Conacher on CBC
Radio's "The House" Calling for More Comprehensive, Effective
Regulation of Investment Industry (December 11 , 2004 -- To listen
to the piece, click on the "Dec. 11" link under the heading "2004" on
the page this link takes you to (you will need Real Audio software to
listen to the piece) the piece starts 27 minutes 37 seconds into the
show, and ends 36
minutes 22 seconds into the show)
- NEWS RELEASE: Coalition
Calls
on Ontario Government to Help Establish Broad-Based Investor
Rights Group
(August 19, 2004)
Democracy Watch has produced
the following materials in its campaign to establish a Financial
Consumer
Organization (FCO) to watch over Canada's banks and
federally
regulated
insurance companies:
Please also view the Canadian
Community Reinvestment Coalition (CCRC) website, especially News Releases
and Position
Paper
#4 (Summary)
which
sets
out the CCRC's model for a Financial Consumer Organization for
Canada.
The CCRC was organized and is coordinated by Democracy
Watch and its
partner organization, the Democracy Education Network. The CCRC was
launched in
December 1996, and since then Democracy Watch has pushed for the
created
of a Financial Consumer Organization in Canada through the nation-wide
CCRC,
which is made up of more than 100 citizen groups representing over 3
million
Canadians.
Democracy Watch has produced
the following materials in its campaign to establish a
Telecommunications Consumer Organization
(TCO) to watch over cable TV, telephone and satellite companies in
Canada:
Democracy Watch has produced
the following materials in its campaign to establish an
Airline Passenger Organization (APO) to
watch
over airlines in Canada:
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