Ethics chief probes cheque complaints

[CHIMO]

Last Updated: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 | 6:46 PM ET

Canada's ethics commissioner will investigate dozens of allegations that Conservative MPs are using taxpayers' money for partisan purposes.

But Mary Dawson says she's not sure how far her mandate allows her to go into ethical issues, despite her job title.

Dawson is looking into how to deal with the dozens of complaints about Tory MPs putting their own names and party logo on economic stimulus cheques.

"We're still receiving the 50-odd complaints," Dawson said Tuesday.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/10/20/ethics-commissioner-cheques.html

What do you mean the word "ethics" doesn't appear in the Conflict of Interest Act? - (Sort of) Liveblogging the Ethics Committee
October 20, 2009 12:22 PM

8:36:32 AM Greetings, fans of slightly time-delayed semi-livebloggish reporting! As noted yesterday, at the moment, I'm not yet able to post just-this-side-of-realtime dispatches from the parliamentary front, but the girl who sat through a seven-hour filibuster over the in-and-out affair isn't going to let a niggling detail like that stop her from covering what could turn out to be a surprisingly lively Ethics meeting. Yes, I'm back at Ethics -- oh, how I've missed it -- and on the agenda today is an appearance by the commissioner herself, Mary Dawson (last seen -- or at least liveblogged -- before the finale Oliphant policy forum over at the University of Ottawa.

This morning, she'll be discussing her annual report on the Code of Conduct for Public Office Holders, which I confess to not actually having re-read before scrambling my way here to the Hill this morning, so the contents will be just as much of a surprise to me as to any committee members who failed to do their homework last night.

Anyway, since this is a timed-release post, I'm going to stick to the highlights of today's meeting rather than making you all sit through sadly dated second-by-second coverage; I should warn any of y'all who aren't familiar with my usual practice of committee journalizing that my definition of "highlights" doesn't always correspond with that of my colleagues. Don't worry; you'll get used to it. Probably.

8:49:33 AM Before we get down to business, here's the lineup for today: Over on the government side, we have Pierre Poilievre leading the troops for Team Blue; the troops in question will be comprised of Kelly Block, Patricia Davidson, Greg Rickford and Bob Dechert, and you're allowed to have no idea who two -- but not *more* than two -- of those people are.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/politicalbytes/2009/10/what-do-you-mean-the-word-ethics-doesnt-appear-in-the-conflict-of-interest-act---sort-of-livebloggin.html#

There we are folks. No recourse to fraud. Next, we will have electronic voting machines.

[Metric System]

1. I wonder if Cheque-gate will hurt the Cons numbers in the polls? I hope so. Some of these latest

polls are scaring me. Who knew Canadians could be so easily manipulated?