Natural Democracy Standards 

Ethics is a set of moral standards that includes honesty and a clear prohibition on deception, fraud, and slander.

 

The same prohibitions that bind ordinary citizens must bind government officials in their official acts. The standard is broken when officials engage in those acts and face no penalty, or only a token one, compared with what an ordinary citizen would face for the same conduct.

 

Frustration is widespread because breaking these rules has become commonplace across parties. It is so common that the news often pays little attention when the rules are broken. The penalties are another source of frustration: they are frequently so low they are laughable.

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You already know what these standards require. They show up in your household, in daily dealings, and in ordinary interactions. When you read that a politician started a government program and hired family or friends to do the work without competition, you know at once that this is wrong. The frustration deepens when the penalty for that conduct is only $500, even if the amounts involved reach millions.

 

For instance: (1) Ng Report: Ng awards contracts. https://www.ethicscanada.ca/en/report/0893cb18fbdcae502f95f23e45efdcf6

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 It matches the pattern: the conduct is the kind ordinary citizens are barred from, yet the consequence remains token or absent.

 

Rules without substantial penalties do not restrain anyone. That is plain to people across the country. Yet under the Ethics Commissioner’s guidelines the same officials who set the penalty rules are the ones to whom those rules apply, and the penalties they have written remain inadequate. (2)

 

That pattern of low consequences and self-written rules is why many Canadian citizens want the power to set the ethics standards and the penalties that apply to every government department.

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(2) The Parliament of Canada writes the primary federal ethics laws, while the Prime Minister and individual legislative chambers establish specific rules and codes. https://www.ourcommons.ca/procedure/procedure-and-practice-3/ch_04_9-e.html