Abuse of Power: Jason Kenney's many violations of democratic norms
Whether you support or oppose Jason Kenney’s policy decisions, as an Albertan you should be concerned about his government’s dishonesty, secretiveness, lack of ethics, unrepresentative decisions and wastefulness. These five areas of abuse violate international democratic standards for good government. Acting unethically includes not only conflict of interest violations and breach of trust, but any violations of fundamental human rights such as those guaranteed by Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Governments that act as Kenney’s does make decisions that are not in the public interest. Each abuse of power is either a dishonest or secretive cover-up of a bad decision, or an unethical, wasteful protection of cabinet ministers’ private interests, the ruling party’s interests or the interests of its supporters.
Duff Conacher is a founder and the director of Democracy Watch, which since 1993 has won more than 180 changes to federal and provincial laws.