conflict of interest

Weekly Pulse: Giffords shooting reveals flaws in U.S. mental health services

By Lindsay Beyerstein

| January 13, 2011

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was shot in the head at a constituent outreach event in a supermarket parking lot in Tucson on Saturday. In all, the gunman shot 18 people, killing 6, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl.

Jamelle Bouie of TAPPED urges President Barack Obama to take up the issue of mental health care in his upcoming speech on the mass shooting. Several people who knew the alleged shooter came forward with stories of bizarre behavior and run-ins with campus police at his community college. College administrators ordered him to seek treatment before he returned to school, but he does not appear to have done so.

in his own words

The Conflict of Interest Act is toothless and leads to conflict of ethics at the PMO

Nigel Wright's position in the PMO, as Stephen Harper's new chief of staff, is only possible because of huge loophole in ethics rules.

How is it that a senior executive, formerly one of the managing directors of private equity fund Onex, who stills own shares in this huge conglomerate corporation, could serve as chief-of-staff in the Prime Minister's Office and take part in policy decisions on many issues that affect the corporation?

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Stephen Harper prime minister's office Nigel Wright federal government ethics conflict of interest

The Conservatives' inadequate open government plan

By Democracy Watch

| April 12, 2012

The federal Conservatives' so-called Action Plan that they will submit to the Open Government Partnership meeting in Brasilia, Brazil on April 17-18 fails to increase public integrity and transparency in the federal government.

The plan says that the Conservatives believe they can "introduce measures that will further strengthen access to information, public ethics, and public participation" but no one should believe them because their plan fails to commit to any measures that will close the dozens of loopholes and correct the many flaws in the federal Access to Information Act, Conflict of Interest Act and MP and Senate ethics rules, Lobbying Act, Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, Financial Administration Act and Canada Elections Act.

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