In an open letter published by Democracy Watch, 32 lawyers and law and political science professors called on the House of Commons Ethics Committee to reject some of Commissioner of Lobbying Nancy Bélanger’s proposed changes to the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct. .The signatories were concerned that proposed changes will gut key ethical lobbying rules and allow lobbyists to do significant campaigning for, and fundraise unlimited amounts of money for, politicians and their parties and lobby them at the same time or soon afterwards..In the current code, Rule 6, Rule 9 and a guideline Bélanger issued for Rule 9 prohibit lobbying for an election cycle of four years after a person does any significant campaigning or event organizing, or any fundraising, for a politician or party..However, under proposed changes to Rule 6, lobbyists would be allowed.To secretly campaign up to near-full-time, and fundraise unlimited amounts of money for politicians and parties while lobbying them;To secretly be a second-level, full-time campaign staff person or fundraiser for a politician or party and then only be prohibited from lobbying them for one year (not four as currently)To secretly be a top-level, full-time campaign staff person or fundraiser for a politician or party and then only be prohibited from lobbying them for 2 years (not four as currently)..Bélanger claimed the current four-year cooling-off period violates the Charter rights to freedom of expression and assembly, based on one secret opinion that the commissioner paid law firm Goldblatt Partners for in a sole-source contract that was extended twice, increasing from $11,300 to $45,200 and then up to $90,400. Democracy Watch is asking the Ethics Committee to force the commissioner to make the Goldblatt opinion public..“The House Ethics Committee should join in loudly and clearly rejecting the commissioner’s unethical proposals,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch. .“The commissioner’s proposed unethical changes are based on one secret opinion that she commissioned from one law firm through a sole-source contract, an opinion she refuses to make public, which makes her proposed changes even more questionable.”.A total of 26 citizen groups with a total membership of 1.5 million Canadians also called on the committee to reject the proposed changes. On March 7, the Ethics Committee made the ironic move of discussing the proposed changes in secret..Bélanger claimed on her website that she received only 206 letters opposing her proposed Code changes..Conacher said this was “misleading” because more than 20,000 voters signed on to Democracy Watch’s petition on Change.org or its letter-writing campaign and sent emails to the commissioner calling on her to stop gutting the Code..The campaign also called on federal party leaders and the House Ethics Committee to reject the Commissioner’s proposed Code changes, and to make other key changes to stop all secret, unethical lobbying..The open letter was signed by 11 lawyers from 4 law firms, and 21 law and political science professors from 14 universities in 8 provinces.
