Our Natural Democracy
How do we ensure proper ethics are respected?
The Solution: True Discipline
We need strong ethics laws with real teeth. To achieve this, we must embrace two core actions:
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Voters must write the Ethics Laws: Politicians should never be allowed to write their own rules or decide their own punishments. As citizens, we naturally understand ethics, and we have a legitimate right to dictate these laws for one simple reason: We are the employers. Canadian Democracy would not exist without our taxes, our sweat, and our toil. We pay the bills, so we must set the standards.
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The penalties must match the crime: We must establish severe, meaningful penalties that make unethical behavior completely unacceptable. When citizens know that corrupt actors will be swiftly removed and properly penalized, trust in our society is restored.
The Reality of Accountability
Weak discipline acts like a disease—it breeds corruption and invites further abuse. To ensure our laws have real teeth, a citizen-led ethics system must look at the facts of each violation and apply real consequences.
Here is how true violations must map to real options for penalties:
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Violations and Possible Penalty Options:
* Influencing or steering government contracts
Immediate removal from office
* Hiring family members for financial gain
Loss of all or portion of government pension
* Controlling or misusing voter taxpayer money
Permanently banned from any level of government
* Lying or misrepresenting facts to gain a position
Real jail time and forfeiture of the election
* Completely disregarding established ethics laws
Significant fines scaled to their personal income
Natural Law #1
Our Natural Ethics Law
Principle:
In our shared human consciousness, ethics are as natural as living in a household.
We do not accept anyone under our roof who lies, steals, or takes money that isn't theirs.
If someone in your home acts unethically, they face immediate consequences.
The exact same truth applies to our government.
We hire highly educated adults to run our society, and we expect them to know the rules. We cannot have unconscious individuals looking after our nation. Yet today, rules are being ignored, flimsy excuses are being accepted, and the current penalties are weak.
1: How do we ensure proper ethics are respected?
2: The Reality of Accountability
3: A Note on the "Ignorance" Excuse:
4: A Case Study of an Ethics Investigation
A Note on the "Ignorance" Excuse:
There have been politicians who walked away from scandals, claiming they simply "did not understand the rules." As voters and employers, we expect highly professional people to be fully capable of understanding the law. If they cannot comprehend basic ethics, they have no business running our society.
Our Shared Responsibility:
Ultimately, we are responsible for the integrity of our natural democracy for the sake of our children. If we allow unethical people to mismanage our country, we stand to lose everything we have built. It is up to us to protect and produce a beautiful, quality society. Our democracy simply cannot afford unethical leaders.
Case Study:
The WE Charity Scandal
A Real-World Failure of Accountability
To understand why Canada urgently needs a citizen-led ethics system with real teeth, we must examine how the current system handles blatant violations at the highest level of government.
The Scenario:
In 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet proposed outsourcing a massive, near-billion-dollar student volunteer grant program to a single private organization:
Ethics Commissioner Report:
Trudeau III Report May 13, 2021, full report.
You can read the Ethics commissioner's full report by following this link:
ATTENTION: The government has moved or deleted this link to the Ethics report.
https://ciecccie.parl.gc.ca/en/investigations-enquetes/Pages/trudeau3Report.aspx
Condensed Report:
Scenario:
PM Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party proposed giving a contract, worth close to a billion dollars, to a Charity called WE. To be approved, it has to be voted on by the members of parliament. With enough votes, the Charity gets the money.
Ethics Rule:
The Ethics rules state that a politician cannot vote on an issue if there is a conflict of interest.
Translation: A politician cannot vote if they or their family could in any way, be connected to the charity which is to receive the contract.
Facts connecting Justin Trudeau to WE charity.
1 ) Justin Trudeau has on numerous occasions, participated in WE events.
"Trudeau has appeared at WE Day more than half a dozen times since becoming a member of Parliament in 2008.
UPDATE - July 9, 2020: The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying “according to Speaker’s Spotlight records, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau received $1500 for participation in an event in 2012, before the prime minister was leader of the Liberal Party. The Prime Minister has never received payment for any events with WE.”
""Trudeau had said WE Charity was only organization capable of running COVID-19 volunteer program"
Huff Post July 3, 2020. https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/justin-trudeau-we-charity-ethics-investigation_ca_5effb266c5b612083c5c5b85
NOTE: "The union of public servants, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, cast doubt on the government’s assertions that WE Charity was the only group that could administer the new grant program, saying that was not only “factually wrong” but also “insulting” to its members."
Huff Post, July 3, 2020.
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2) Justin's wife has been involved with the WE charity.
"Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, co-hosts the WE Well-Being podcast with Craig Kielburger’s wife, Leysa Cerswell Kielburger."
"She has interviewed her mother-in-law, Margaret Trudeau, on the podcast, and the two, along with the prime minister, are regular guests on the WE Day stage in Canada, as well as in Britain and in the United States where they motivate young people to help others."
Huff Post July 3, 2020. https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/justin-trudeau-we-charity-ethics-investigation_ca_5effb266c5b612083c5c5b85
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3 ) Justin's mother and brother have collectively, been paid close to half a million dollars to speak at WE charity events.
"WE says it paid $312,000 for 28 speaking events by Margaret Trudeau, the mother of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and $40,000 for eight events with Alexandre “Sacha” Trudeau, the PM’s brother. These totals include a 20% commission paid to Margaret and Alexandre Trudeau’s speaking agency, WE says.
These admissions contradict an earlier statement that their charity never paid the Trudeau family for speeches, and follow the discovery by Canadaland of invoices from the agency addressed to the charity."
Canada Land July 9 2020, https://www.canadaland.com/trudeau-family-paid-by-we-organization
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4 ) Justin's chief of staff had previous ties to the WE charity.
"His chief of staff, Katie Telford, is a co-founder of Artbound, a Toronto charity that puts on glamorous parties to raise money in support of arts education abroad. Their first project involved funding an arts program in a school run by WE Charity (then known as Free The Children). According to the latest Canada Revenue Agency filings, Artbound’s largest donation was a $30,000 gift to WE Charity in 2018 for a project in Haiti. It also gave WE Charity more than $50,000 the previous year.
Telford is not involved in the running of the organization, and her ties ceased before she became Trudeau’s chief of staff, Ahmad said. According to WE Charity’s annual reports, she was last listed as an “outstanding partner and supporter” in 2017. (Gerald Butts, Trudeau’s former principal secretary is also listed that year, as is AOL Canada, which is a sister brand to HuffPost. Both are now owned by Verizon Media)."
Huff Post July 3, 2020. https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/justin-trudeau-we-charity-ethics-investigation_ca_5effb266c5b612083c5c5b85
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5 ) Justin's Finance Minister, was involved with the WE charity.
"It was noted that not only had the charity employed a daughter of former Finance minister Bill Morneau but a close relationship existed between the Finance Minister and members of its staff. "
" Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion ruled that Morneau had contravened sections 6(1), 7, and 21 of the Federal Conflict of Interest Act. [17][18] In the ruling, Dion stated: "The examination found the relationship between Mr. Morneau and WE included an unusually high degree of involvement between their representatives and afforded WE unfettered access to the Office of the Minister of Finance, which amounted to preferential treatment."[19][20] Dion also ruled that this preferential treatment was a result of the close friendship between Bill Morneau and members of WE Charity. [19] Dion added that "this unfettered access to the Office of the Minister of Finance was based on the identity of WE’s representative, Mr. Craig Kielburger", who was both a constituent and close friend of Bill Morneau.[14] "
We Charity scandal Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WE_Charity_scandal
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6 ) Justin ignores the Ethics Rule and votes to give the WE charity close to a billion dollars.
Reaction to Justin Trudeau's behaviour.
The Conservative party makes a formal request to the Ethics Office, that Justin Trudeau be investigated by the Ethics Commissioner for his behaviour.
Investigation:
When a request for an investigation is submitted, the Ethics Office under the Ethics commissioner investigates the alleged offence.
The Ethics commissioner's ruling:
The Ethics commissioner rules that Justin Trudeau was not in Conflict of Interest.
NOTE: The Ethics Commissioner was appointed by the Liberals.
"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 managed when he was the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner. Despite his failings in that role, Dion was appointed to a seven-year term as Ethics Commissioner in a secretive, unethical process by the Trudeau Liberal government in January 2018."
"In naming Dion, the government ignored a legislated requirement to involve the opposition in his nomination and he was appointed without any consensual support from the Opposition parties. In a premeditated scheme, Liberal MPs orchestrated a hastily convened Parliamentary committee to rubber stamp his appointment,running roughshod over Opposition MPs who raised serious concerns about his ability and credibility to carry out the duties of Ethics Commissioner. "
Ottawa Life Magazine July 11, 2019
https://www.ottawalife.com/article/meet-mario-dion-canadas-overpaid-political-eunuch?c=1
What do you think?
Justin Trudeau's family members were paid by the WE charity, just under half a million dollars collectively.
Do you think Justin Trudeau was in a conflict of interest?
Is there deliberate twisting of the truth in order to find Justin not guilty?
Should the Ethics commissioner be voted into office by the Canadian citizens?
Should the Ethics commissioner be held to strict discipline and reprimand?
What do you think about the penalties?
Currently, the maximum penalty for any ethics violation does not exceed $500.
Conflict of interest rules C-36.65 -Violation:
52 "Every public office holder who contravenes one of the following provisions commits a violation and is liable to an administrative monetary penalty not exceeding $500:"
Should the penalty match the seriousness of the Ethics violation?
For instance, Justin Trudeau is in the highest office in our government. If he was to have been found guilty, he would have been fined $500.
Do you find this penalty weak considering that he would be trying to influence a $ billion contract?
Please write into Next-Level-Democracy and tell us what you think the fines should be.
List of political scandals in Canada
Federal and all Provinces
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_scandals_in_Canada#Federal