Angry in the Great White North

For a full history of the Abotech affair as investigated by this blog, check out the catalog of entries.

When the Ethics Commissioner completes his report, he normally delivers it to the Speaker of the House:

28.(1) Forthwith following an inquiry, the Ethics Commissioner shall report to the Speaker, who shall present the report to the House when it next sits.

But if there is an election, the House might not sit again until the spring, especially if there is a change in government.

Fortunately we won't have to wait that long:

28.(3) During the period following a dissolution of Parliament, the Ethics Commissioner shall make the report public.

But then maybe we would be made to wait after all.

Notice that 28.(1) clearly requires the delivery of the report quickly ("forthwith": at once; immediately), and that it must be presented at the next sitting of the House. In contrast, 28.(3) merely states that the Ethics Commissioner must make the report public sometime during the period of dissolution, such as when Parliament has been dissolved in order to hold an election.

The day before the voting? How about the day after, since Parliament is still in a state of dissolution?

As far as I can tell, it would meet the requirement of the statute.

Of course, we wouldn't even know if the Ethics Commissioner was sitting on the report. He could deliver it the day after the voting and say he had just finished it.

It wouldn't even matter if we had evidence that he held the report back, since the statute does not require immediate delivery of the report during a period of dissolution.

Do you think that when the Liberal government designed that little bit of Conflict of Interest Code, they were thinking that it would be convenient for these kinds of reports to remain buried during the period of an election?