The post of conflicts of interest and ethics officer has been vacant for six months and is still vacant, delaying follow-up investigations and raising concerns that violations may go unnoticed.

Former Commissioner Mario Dion retired in February. He was briefly replaced by Martine Richard, who has been an attorney for the organization since 2013, taking on the role on an interim basis in April. However, she resigned a few weeks later amid controversy that she was the sister-in-law of Secretary of State for Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc.

According to Mr Dion, the role of conflicts of interest and ethics officer is a guarantee against corruption.

It’s a bit like court appointments. “If you don’t appoint judges, it will be difficult to administer justice,” Mr Dion said. So that means things can go virtually unpunished and unnoticed for quite a while until a new persona is named.

This is the longest period without a Commissioner in Canada since the current version of this oversight function was introduced in 2007 following the passage of the Conflict of Interest Act.

Mr Dion, who is involved in the hiring process, says it is not surprising that no candidate has yet been chosen as the field of action is limited and few people are qualified for the position.

By law of the Canadian Parliament, the commissioner must be a former judge, former Senate ethics adviser, former ethics commissioner, or former member of a board, commission, or federal or provincial court with relevant experience.

Difficult to collect evidence

Mr Dion noted that all provincial and territorial jurisdictions have ethics oversight systems: The federal level is currently the only level that does not have an ethics officer.

The absence of a commissioner can result in a backlog of investigations, and the more time that passes, the more difficult it can be to assemble evidence related to a complaint, he suggested.

SO [les enquêtes] are not dead. They are not gone. But they are not supported when they should besaid Mr. Dion.

The Office of the Commissioner for Conflicts of Interest and Ethics declined to say whether any investigations are currently pending. He said in a statement that all investigations would be conducted confidentially pending a report, as required by law.

The Privy Council Office, which is responsible for appointing a commissioner, said the governor will appoint someone in council in due course.

Mr Dion said that several candidates have contacted him to find out more about the position and that he is offering any assistance he can to ensure the position can be filled as soon as possible.

Multiple violations noted

During his tenure, Mr Dion found that Justin Trudeau and several of his ministers had broken ethics rules. That includes Commerce Minister Mary Ng, who stood her ground when her office awarded a job to a friend of hers.

Also MP Greg Fergus, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, who had written a letter to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in support of the proposal for a television station. Politicians shouldn’t write letters of support to quasi-judicial courts like this CRTCgiven their governing role and the influence they have.

Another example involves Dominic LeBlanc, who was convicted of violating conflict of interest rules in 2018 when he was Secretary of Fisheries for approving a lucrative fishing license for a family-run business.

In 2021, then-Treasury Secretary Bill Morneau also broke conflict-of-interest rules by not backing down when the government awarded a contract to WE Charity, to which Mr Morneau had ties.

Also, Mr Trudeau agreed to a trip to the Aga Khan’s private island in 2017 during his tenure as Prime Minister, breaking the law. Mr Dion reprimanded him again in 2019 for his role in the SNC-Lavalin scandal.