| OTTAWA
– The growing power among
unelected personnel in the Prime
Minister's Office is a threat to
democracy, retired Justice John
Gomery says. Gomery
told a parliamentary committee today
centralized power in the PMO is a
"danger to Canadian
democracy" and paves the way to
political interference in public
administration.
He
said there is growing gulf between
the executive, the Prime Minister
and cabinet, and Parliament, giving
less voice to MPs. Gomery
headed up the commission that
investigated the Liberal sponsorship
scandal, which resulted in two
reports.
The
first, filed in November 2005, found
millions of sponsorship dollars were
funnelled to Liberal-friendly
advertising agencies. The second
report offered guidelines on how to
fix government and restore
accountability. Gomery
said the Conservative government has
all but ignored the second report,
much to his chagrin.
"I
am disappointed. I find it hard to
swallow," he told the Commons
government operations committee,
which is reviewing the
Conservative's handling of his
report. "I
gave them two years, I thought it
would give them the time to do
something." |
