Do we really need an ethics commissioner?

Canada Free PRess ^ | Friday, June 24, 2005 | Art Weinreb

[Alexander Rubin]

In response to a promise made in the Liberal Party’s 1993 Red Book the office of the Ethics Commissioner was created by the newly elected government in 1994. Howard Wilson, appointed by then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien became Canada’s first ethics watchdog. Wilson was a counsellor rather than a commissioner. He had no independence. Appointed by the prime minister, Wilson reported to and was responsible to the Office of the Prime Minister and critics railed at the fact that the person in charge of the ethics of cabinet lacked even a scintilla of independence. Chrétien defended the system saying that he (Chrétien) was ultimately accountable for his actions and the actions of his ministers and so the fact that Wilson was not independent was not an important consideration.

After his first few investigations, it became apparent that Wilson was bending over backwards to find his political masters free from any ethical lapses and he was quickly labelled as a "lapdog". The critics insisted that the country needed a totally independent ethics counsellor; an officer of Parliament that reported directly to the House of Commons, not the prime minister.