Who you know: Democracy Watch Calls for accountability in judicial appointments

 It’s often said, when seeking a job or a step forward in a career, that it is not what you know, but who you know. Nowhere is that more true, apparently, than Canadian politics. But such connections can be questionable—even illegal—when they result in important appointments that dramatically affect the lives

Democracy Watch calls for update on SNC-Lavalin prosecution

 In February, 2019, the SNC-Lavalin scandal erupted and upended Canadian politics—for a moment. After a six-month-long investigation, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion concluded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alone had exerted undue pressure on Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to defer criminal prosecution of the construction company SNC-Lavalin. Though Dion’s report concluded that

Justin Trudeau — It’s time to go.

 If Justin Trudeau has any integrity, he must resign. I’m ashamed for my country, as a citizen and frankly as a person in the media, over the shocking photos that were revealed yesterday showing Canada’s Prime Minister happily wearing brownface at an event in 2001 when he was 29 years

LeBreton Flats part deux, the Château Laurier and a ‘let them eat cake’ attitude by public servants

 Photo: RendezVous proposal for LeBreton (supplied by RendezVous LeBreton Group) After managing and overseeing the LeBreton Flats debacle, The National Capital Commission (NCC) sent out a notice in June in what appears to be LeBreton Part Deux. Apparently, it will “be open to a flexible real estate strategy to increase

Meet Mario Dion – Canada’s Overpaid Political Eunuch

 From left: Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion and Ottawa West Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld Mario Dion is a career Civil Servant with an undistinguished record whose previous work was scorned by Canada’s former auditor general in 2014. He found that Dion was responsible for the “gross mismanagement” in two separate case files

Ethics Commissioner must conduct investigation into alleged political direction in SNC-Lavalin prosecution

 Photo credit: Sean Kilpatrick (The Canadian Press) Today, Democracy Watch released the letter it has sent to federal Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion calling on him to delegate an inquiry into whether Prime Minister Trudeau or anyone in the PMO violated the federal government ethics law by trying to