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Uproar as Liberal cabinet minister's relative appointed interim ethics commissioner


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https://nationalpost.com/news/uproar-as-liberal-cabinet-ministers-relative-appointed-interim-ethics-commissioner

 

Martine Richard is sister-in-law of Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who ran afoul of ethics rules as fisheries minister

OTTAWA — This week’s appointment of an interim ethics commissioner with family ties to a Liberal cabinet minister caused an uproar in the House of Commons.

In a heated exchange during question period on Wednesday, Conservative MP Michael Barrett revealed that newly appointed Interim Ethics Commissioner Martine Richard is the sister-in-law of Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc — a veteran parliamentarian with a history of running afoul of Canada’s conflict-of-interest laws.

 

Government House Leader Mark Holland did not deny the allegation, instead assuring that measures are in place to ensure the appointment didn’t violate the rules.

 

“As the member opposite knows, the interim ethics commissioner is a career public servant who was, in fact, engaged by the Stephen Harper government to come into the ethics commissioner’s office,” he said. “She was number two in the ethics commissioner’s office, and she has been working there for over a decade.

 

Holland said the appointment makes “absolute and complete logical sense,” and that “ethical screens” exist to ensure conflicts don’t occur.

 

“The intergovernmental affairs minister — the new ethics commissioner’s brother-in-law — was found guilty of breaking the Conflict of Interest Act, the Prime Minister was found guilty of breaking the Act, the (international) trade minister was found guilty of breaking the Act,” Barrett countered. “How can Canadians have confidence in the officers of Parliament if these guys are stacking the deck?”

I mean - it's like they're not even trying to hide it anymore.

Edited by CdnFox
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7 minutes ago, TreeBeard said:

Not a good look.   You’d think they’d be more careful with the polls indicating a virtual tie race, or worse, for the Libs.  

Well especially with the other ethics violations. And the suggestion of accepting chinese money - you'd want to look a little cleaner than this.

I think they know they're going to lose the next election and they're just trying to squeeze as much money as they can  out of their power now.  But it's pretty blatant.

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Trudeau knows he has the NDP backing to keep him in power for another 2-3 years and he probably realizes his time is up because he is fairly unpopular.  So he may be planning to step down sometime between now and 2025.  Therefore if he is planning to leave politics, he may not care that much about what kind of mess he leaves behind.  I think he has already decided he's bailing out in a year or two which will give the Liberals enough time to find a new leader.  Roughly ten years is usually the maximum any PM can maintain support anyway and 2025 will be ten years.

Also, I doubt he will do much about the Chinese interference because it mostly benefits the Liberal party.  Why would he want to stop the election interference if it helps the Liberals?  Besides the Liberals do not have enough support to form a majority government and need all the help they can get. 

Edited by blackbird
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7 minutes ago, blackbird said:

Trudeau knows he has the NDP backing to keep him in power for another 2-3 years and he probably realizes his time is up because he is fairly unpopular.  So he may be planning to step down sometime between now and 2025.  Therefore if he is planning to leave politics, he may not care that much about what kind of mess he leaves behind.  I think he has already decided he's bailing out in a year or two which will give the Liberals enough time to find a new leader.  Roughly ten years is usually the maximum any PM can maintain support anyway and 2025 will be ten years.

It's very possible - but i doubt he's going to step down. His ego is a thing, and he likes the power.   If he DID step down it would have to be pretty soon - the libs would need time to hold a proper leadership race which usually takes about a year and then the new person would have to have time to get all their people in place and get a plan for the next election etc, and its a safe bet the opposition won't give them as much time as they'd like. So if he doesn't go by the end of this year i don't think he'll have time to do it.

7 minutes ago, blackbird said:

Also, I doubt he will do much about the Chinese interference because it mostly benefits the Liberal party.  Why would he want to stop the election interference if it helps the Liberals?  Besides the Liberals do not have enough support to form a majority government and need all the help they can get. 

That seems to be what's been happening so far.

7 minutes ago, blackbird said:

Additionally, it would be very difficult to stop the China supporters from voting Liberal. How is that even possible? 

I think they just want to stop the chinese gov't from buying the liberal candidates or their advisors.

THe argument about chinese supporting china literally goes back to John A's day where they had massive discussions about it in the parliament. But it's different if the chinese gov't is actively spending money to screw with the system or pressure people into voting their way. We CAN do something about that.

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7 hours ago, blackbird said:

Trudeau knows he has the NDP backing to keep him in power for another 2-3 years and he probably realizes his time is up because he is fairly unpopular.  So he may be planning to step down sometime between now and 2025.  Therefore if he is planning to leave politics, he may not care that much about what kind of mess he leaves behind.  I think he has already decided he's bailing out in a year or two which will give the Liberals enough time to find a new leader.  Roughly ten years is usually the maximum any PM can maintain support anyway and 2025 will be ten years.

Also, I doubt he will do much about the Chinese interference because it mostly benefits the Liberal party.  Why would he want to stop the election interference if it helps the Liberals?  Besides the Liberals do not have enough support to form a majority government and need all the help they can get. 

This is the most federal power the NDP will ever have.  They will never collapse the government.  They've had their daycare, dental care programs etc pushed through Liberal budgets.  They're in their glory.

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58 minutes ago, Moonlight Graham said:

How would this relative appointed not know this was a big conflict of interest??

They know - their defense is that while it may be a conflict it's not technically illegal or against the rules technically sooooo.....

Quote

This is the most unethical federal government during my lifetime. 

THis is pretty bad.

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Nobody visits The Office of the Ethics Commissioner more than the PM - he even has his own penalty box there - and he said it is no big deal: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/trudeau-defends-appointment-of-cabinet-minister-s-sister-in-law-as-interim-ethics-commissioner-1.6337754

Quote

if there is any office in the country that understands how to manage conflicts of interests and ethical perception issues, it is that office there that has always done exceptional work at ensuring the confidence of Canadians," said Trudeau,

The confidence of Canadians is a mythical beast, but maybe he's right about this being no big deal. 

She probably sits at that desk every time a new ethics commissioner goes off work with PTSD. 

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1 hour ago, WestCanMan said:

Nobody visits The Office of the Ethics Commissioner more than the PM - he even has his own penalty box there - and he said it is no big deal: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/trudeau-defends-appointment-of-cabinet-minister-s-sister-in-law-as-interim-ethics-commissioner-1.6337754

The confidence of Canadians is a mythical beast, but maybe he's right about this being no big deal. 

She probably sits at that desk every time a new ethics commissioner goes off work with PTSD. 

I think people will see it as further evidence of his scummyness.  In and of itself it's probably not that big - lets face it he's gotten away with much much worse. But - every scandal like this pushes him lower and lower and lower in the eyes of people. They get fed up trying to make excuses. They get fatigued by it.

So i think it's more of 'another nail in the coffin' so to speak or at least another straw on the camel's back.

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12 hours ago, CdnFox said:

I think people will see it as further evidence of his scummyness.  In and of itself it's probably not that big - lets face it he's gotten away with much much worse. But - every scandal like this pushes him lower and lower and lower in the eyes of people. They get fed up trying to make excuses. They get fatigued by it.

So i think it's more of 'another nail in the coffin' so to speak or at least another straw on the camel's back.

I am not going to defend the appointment as is does look bad.

Thing is though, the person appointed has been a public servant for many decades and has climbed the corporate ladder of that department and is, to some degree, entitled to promotion.

What she should have, as an ethics commissioner minion, decline the appointment for optics if nothing else. Trudeau is clearly oblivious to these things and his staff his as culpable as he is. His staff should be warning him of the optics of appointing relatives. His appointment of her is not a breach of ethics but a breach of common sense. A seemingly regular failing.

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1 hour ago, ExFlyer said:

His appointment of her is not a breach of ethics but a breach of common sense.

Sure.  I haven't seen anyone claim or suggest she's not great at the job. As you suggest that's not the issue.

There's an old saying:  "It's not enough to be pure, you must be seen to be pure". And that's the problem here, even if she can do the job in an unbias fashion, even if she's come up with some means of recusing herself or the like where appropriate, at the end of the day the public HAS to see this as a complete conflict and it absolutely erodes her credibility and worse the credibility of the office in the eyes of the public.

Fair or unfair, she should never have accepted and he should never have offered.

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On 3/30/2023 at 10:20 PM, TreeBeard said:

Not a good look.   You’d think they’d be more careful with the polls indicating a virtual tie race, or worse, for the Libs.  

Really, not a good look, do you really think they are worry about good looks, this is who the liberals are, they do what they want when they want regardless if it is wrong, this behavior is the norm... what else were you expecting ? 

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On 3/30/2023 at 10:28 PM, CdnFox said:

Well especially with the other ethics violations. And the suggestion of accepting chinese money - you'd want to look a little cleaner than this.

I think they know they're going to lose the next election and they're just trying to squeeze as much money as they can  out of their power now.  But it's pretty blatant.

Sad part of this whole thing this type of behavior is acceptable to many liberal voters...in fact they crave it, beg for it.. Please Justin we want more...

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1 hour ago, CdnFox said:

Sure.  I haven't seen anyone claim or suggest she's not great at the job. As you suggest that's not the issue.

There's an old saying:  "It's not enough to be pure, you must be seen to be pure". And that's the problem here, even if she can do the job in an unbias fashion, even if she's come up with some means of recusing herself or the like where appropriate, at the end of the day the public HAS to see this as a complete conflict and it absolutely erodes her credibility and worse the credibility of the office in the eyes of the public.

Fair or unfair, she should never have accepted and he should never have offered.

I am not sure her offered as opposed to his staff doing the work and he just makes the announcements.

But you are 100% correct that she should have recused herself.... especially since she works in the the ethics commissioners office overlooking incidents such as this..

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On 3/30/2023 at 9:20 PM, TreeBeard said:

Not a good look.   You’d think they’d be more careful with the polls indicating a virtual tie race, or worse, for the Libs.  

Unfortunately, being in a tie is not good enough for the conservatives. As long as NDP back the libs, they win.

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3 hours ago, Army Guy said:

Really, not a good look, do you really think they are worry about good looks, this is who the liberals are, they do what they want when they want regardless if it is wrong, this behavior is the norm... what else were you expecting ? 

I remember Harper hiring cronies and someone convicted of fraud….   So, I can’t say the Cons are any better as the new leader, and many current MPs, were complicit in this as well.  I think the cronyism between the 2 parties is a wash;  neither seemed to care about that.  
 

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3 hours ago, ExFlyer said:

Unfortunately, being in a tie is not good enough for the conservatives. As long as NDP back the libs, they win.

It depends….  If the NDP eventually severs ties and there’s a no-confidence vote that dissolves parliament, it would be tough for them just to get back together right after an election.  

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3 hours ago, Army Guy said:

Really, not a good look, do you really think they are worry about good looks, this is who the liberals are, they do what they want when they want regardless if it is wrong, this behavior is the norm... what else were you expecting ? 

indeed

the Liberals will literally do anything to cling to power

you wont even be permitted to run for the Liberal party

unless you are a sociopath perfectly wiling to sell Canada down the river to the Chinese Communists in Beijing

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1 hour ago, TreeBeard said:

I remember Harper hiring cronies and someone convicted of fraud….   So, I can’t say the Cons are any better as the new leader, and many current MPs, were complicit in this as well.  I think the cronyism between the 2 parties is a wash;  neither seemed to care about that.  
 

Who did harper hire that was convicted of fraud?

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2 hours ago, TreeBeard said:

I remember Harper hiring cronies and someone convicted of fraud….   So, I can’t say the Cons are any better as the new leader, and many current MPs, were complicit in this as well.  I think the cronyism between the 2 parties is a wash;  neither seemed to care about that.  
 

You might have a point if it was not so rampant in this liberal government, every week there is a new ethics scandal or some scandal...and it is not about cronyism in the parties, it is about Canadians and how we don't hold our politicians reasonable for anything... This liberal government seems to have taken this to a whole new level.

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On 3/31/2023 at 1:27 PM, Moonlight Graham said:

How would this relative appointed not know this was a big conflict of interest??  LOL.  This is the most unethical federal government during my lifetime.  They just don't care, they just think it will be off the news cycle in a few weeks.

Note Leblanc's ethic's violation, not to mention it's flagrant blatancy, was during his tenure as Fisheries Minister.

DFO is probably the most unabashedly corrupt institution in Canada.  Some economists look at fishing communities the way coal miners look at canaries, when either suffer and die it says there's something wrong. In the case of canaries it's an abundance of toxic gases in the case of fishing communities its toxic mismanagement.

Fishing communities have been dying off for decades - you have to wonder if Canadians even care.  I doubt Conservatives care or they would have noticed and done something about it by now.

I mean this has been going on for DECADES now.

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4 hours ago, TreeBeard said:

Dude - that was a bit of a lie on your part then. The CPC never hired him. Nor were they considering it - it says very clearly in that trial that it would have been the first nations who hired H2o - not the gov't . The gov't would just fund it.

The guy was just doing lobbying for H2O and stepped over a line with regards to that. That had nothing to do with the CPC.

And the fraud charges wouldn't show up till after the CPC was out of power.

So if i'm being very kind - your statement was a GROSS and MASSIVE exaggeration. If i'm being VERY kind.

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On 4/1/2023 at 4:46 PM, CdnFox said:

Who did harper hire that was convicted of fraud?

Lets not annoint Harper to sainthood :)

He had his issues as well.  https://www.thestar.com/news/federal-election/2015/08/14/a-conservative-collection-of-harper-government-scandals.html

One of his advisors, Bruce Carson was convicted of fraud, twice

https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/supreme-court-upholds-fraud-conviction-against-former-harper-advisor-exposed-by-aptn/

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