In a policy paper submitted to the Hogue Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Canadian politics, the watchdog group urged the creation of a fully independent police force to address foreign interference and corruption.The Hogue Inquiry is currently holding policy roundtables on national security and enforcement systems. Democracy Watch argues that agencies like the RCMP and FINTRAC are too closely controlled by the federal cabinet, making them ineffective, secretive, and slow to act in critical investigations such as the SNC-Lavalin and Aga Khan scandals.“Laws don’t enforce themselves, and unfortunately the inquiry is so far largely ignoring that the ruling party cabinet and opposition politicians choose their own anti-foreign interference watchdogs, and many are cabinet-controlled as well as underfunded, ineffective, secretive, slow to act and unaccountable,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch. “Canadians can only hope the inquiry will, in the end, make strong recommendations for key changes to make enforcement of all the key laws fully independent, well-resourced, effective, transparent, timely and accountable, and to establish a new, fully independent anti-corruption and anti-foreign interference police force.”
In a policy paper submitted to the Hogue Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Canadian politics, the watchdog group urged the creation of a fully independent police force to address foreign interference and corruption.The Hogue Inquiry is currently holding policy roundtables on national security and enforcement systems. Democracy Watch argues that agencies like the RCMP and FINTRAC are too closely controlled by the federal cabinet, making them ineffective, secretive, and slow to act in critical investigations such as the SNC-Lavalin and Aga Khan scandals.“Laws don’t enforce themselves, and unfortunately the inquiry is so far largely ignoring that the ruling party cabinet and opposition politicians choose their own anti-foreign interference watchdogs, and many are cabinet-controlled as well as underfunded, ineffective, secretive, slow to act and unaccountable,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch. “Canadians can only hope the inquiry will, in the end, make strong recommendations for key changes to make enforcement of all the key laws fully independent, well-resourced, effective, transparent, timely and accountable, and to establish a new, fully independent anti-corruption and anti-foreign interference police force.”
