For the past couple of months, Canadians have been inundated with stories,commentary and parliamentary debate about corruption — as in thesponsorship scandal. It is unfortunate that the same amount of attention isnot paid to a kind of corruption that is much more serious, and has a farlarger impact on far more people. I am speaking here of the corruption ofthe role of government, often at the behest of the country’s — and theworld’s — largest corporations.

This is not to say that the sponsorshipscandal should be ignored or is unimportant. But on the grand scale ofthings the sponsorship scandal is a side-show of Lilliputian proportions. Thepeople involved, the usual bottom-feeders of power politics, don’t deservethe attention they’re getting. The Liberal government has a lot more toanswer for when it comes to political corruption.

How do we compare this sordid, run-of-the-mill corruption to the corruptionof actual democratic governance? The Oxford dictionary offers these helpfuldefinitions with which we can get a start: decomposition; moraldeterioration; perversion of its original state.

Spoiling democracy

What is it if not corrupt — that is, indicative of moral deterioration — that our federal government would deliberately deny a visa to Africa’s Dr.Tewolde Egziabher, one of the world’s foremost scientists in the field ofbio-safety, in order to prevent him attending a UN conference in Montreal?This crude move against Tewolde (eventually reversed) because he opposesCanada’s position — on behalf of corporations — on commercialization of GMOfoods, is a violation of the principles Canada agreed to when Montreal wasmade the centre for the Secretariat for the UN Convention on BiologicalDiversity in Montreal. It is also evidence of corruption at the highestlevels of the Liberal government.

What is it if not corrupt — as in a perversion of its original state — that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), which in its original formwas mandated to protect Canadians from unsafe food products, now has amandate that trumps this important goal. The CFIA now must promote theexport of Canadian food products, again at the behest of industry.

This institutionalized conflict of interest has played out just as you mightexpect. When Shiv Chopra, Margaret S. Haydon and Gérard Lambert, scientistsin the veterinary drugs directorate, who for years had dedicated themselvesto protecting Canadians, tried to do their job they were harassed,threatened and eventually fired for it.

Is it not corruption of the very essence of democracy when the federalgovernment can charge five Muslim men using “security certificates” whichallow for the men’s indefinite detention on secret evidence though nocharges have been laid? That when trials do take place, neither thedetainees nor their lawyers are allowed to see the evidence and if convictedthey can be deported — even though they may face even more unfairimprisonment, torture or death? This assault on civil liberties adds nothingto Canada’s security. It is a perversion of the rule of law; it is thecorruption of our democratic values and institutions.

What is it when Canada sends delegates to a conference examining the safetyof so-called terminator seeds with a secret agenda to try to pass aresolution that would allow for the corporate commercialization of thishorrible technology? Or when Canada colludes with the United States in avirtual coup against the democratically elected President Aristide of Haitiin clear violation of UN principles? Or when Canada’s own trade officials,unbeknownst to Canadians, and in concert with giant service corporations,negotiate away our domestic regulatory authority at the WTO?

It is the dictionary definition of corruption: a perversion of the originalstate of democratic governance, the moral deterioration of our democracy.

Conservatives’ narrow focus

And these are just the most egregious examples.

Canadians in large majorities have said for years they want the federalgovernment to protect the environment yet recent reports suggest we haveamongst the worst records of any country in the developed world.

Canadians say they want poverty dealt with, but according to NationalCouncil of Welfare, our welfare system is “an utter disaster” with thefederal government sharing much of the blame.

These citizen demands represent Canadians’ core beliefs about the properrole of government. For over 12 years, Paul Martin and the Liberalgovernment have deliberately and systematically corrupted that role.

There is little doubt that there is corruption in the Liberal government.But it is important to judge which kind of corruption is more damaging tothe public good.

In this context it is instructive to examine how the two opposition partiesin English Canada have judged political corruption. Stephen Harper and theConservatives tried to force an election on Canadians based on thesponsorship corruption. Partly as a result they are in a popularity freefall.

The NDP concentrated on the more substantive corruption of democracy andforced Paul Martin to listen to the people. For their trouble they arerising in the polls.

The polls also say that the sponsorship scandal is dropping down the list ofconcerns — replaced by traditional issues such as health care, childpoverty and the environment. Canadians have got it right.

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Murray Dobbin

Murray Dobbin was rabble.ca's Senior Contributing Editor. He was a journalist, broadcaster, author and social activist for over 40 years. A board member and researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy...