Are Our Ethics Truly Ethical?

                                              by Kenneth Bagnell

         One of history’s most renowned men, Mahatma Ghandi – leader of India and father of the civil rights movement – once composed a short list of what he believed to be life’s most unethical practices. Ghandi gave his list, known now as The Seven Social Sins, to a grandson almost on the eve of his assasination in January, 1948. The list of social sins ends with a powerful three words: “politics without principle”. Sadly, Canada just now has glaring illustrations of what Ghandi meant. We see it in public improprieties, some of which leave me almost in disbelief, asking myself if this has really happened.

     Consider but three instances. All are now too widely publicized to be dismissed as a collection of spurious falsehoods.  I’ll be brief: a now former Premier of Alberta, Alison Redford, a well educated lawyer, and an experienced public person, did as follows: in December 2013, with a family member, flew at federal expense of $45,000, to South Africa for Nelson Mandella’s funeral. (It raised such indignation she repaid it in 2014.) She also spent several days with her daughter, a friend and an aide, at an Alberta lodge, costing the public almost $6,000. But most shocking and ethically unacceptable was a practice of her staff acting on her behalf.  They “block-booked” seats aboard planes with false-named passengers, then as takeoff time neared, they cancelled the phoney passengers so that Ms. Redford would have the plane virtually to herself. There’s more, but that’s enough.    

      As for the federal stage, we all know the relevant Senate players. But as issues have recently rapidly unfolded, we know more about  one — the former Senator Duffy now charged by the RCMP with 31 criminal acts, all dealing with his financial affairs: travel claims for travel that was personal, Senate expenses for claims unrelated to the Senate, and roughly ten counts of fraud and breach of trust. This is no small matter. As a respected Liberal MP Marc Garneau, put it, it’s “extremely serious.”  Moreover, it’s more harmful to the Senate than the unfortunate Senate deserves no matter what you or I may think of it. (Don’t neglect to recognize its past worthy examples:  a number of honorable men and women have made worthy and constructive contributions, from the late Senator David Croll’s inquiry into poverty and the late Senator Keith Davey’s inquiry into the responsibility of Canadian media. Both were constructive. 

    But having briefly surveyed the ethical landscape of senior governments, take one glimpse at the third: local municipal government. Consider for example, that of the small city of Brampton, Ontario (population 433,000), an hour or less west of Toronto. There the current mayor is now under such serious review that Canada’s largest circulation newspaper, The Toronto Star, on August 11, gave a full page with a revealing title followed by a chilling summation: “Anatomy of an Audit.” The first paragraph: “A forensic audit of Brampton Mayor Susan Fennell and councillors’ expenses found scores of transactions that violated city spending and travel policies. The audit, conducted by Deloitte Canada, the country’s most noted investigative firm, concluded Fennell and her staff broke the rules 266 times…” It got worse: a list of alleged violations and marginal matters took up an entire page.

   One example must do. It’s headed: “Credit card purchases.”  In part it says: “Between 2007 and 2012 the mayor and another staff member used the corporate credit card for ‘personal purchases or purchases not related to city business.’ Some of the purchases included Florida expenses, airline tickets, and jewelry, according to the audit. Auditors found fifty transactions totalling $30,863 and $8,933 in charges that were not ‘specifically identifiable.’ The Deloitte auditors conclusion? “American Express Cards had been used for personal purchases or purchases not related to City business in breach of the American Express Corporate Card Program Policies and Procedures.”

       In all of the above, the most commonly applied descriptive of the misconduct of Ms. Redford, Mr. Duffy and Ms. Fennell is that it’s inspired by their lofty sense of “entitlement.” I’m not persuaded “entitlement” is the fully and precise descriptive. In some cases maybe; in some I suspect it was a combination of attitudes: “everybody does it”, “it goes with this job,” or a blithe feeling that while it’s not just right, it’s not all that wrong. Whatever the motive, the fact is this: there’s a formalized public code of conduct we hear little about but which has been national policy for several years and either directly or indirectly applies to all politicians. It was drafted as a serious guideline for Canada’s public servants. While some politicians may have a sense of entitlement placing them above ethical guidelines of public servants they should set aside their pomposity. They should recognize that the code – a sample of which follows — though crafted for the public service — can justly be a model for elected representatives.

        Here’s one paragraph from Chapter One of “Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service.” I quote from a section called “Ethical Values: (1) “Public servants shall perform their duties and arrange their private affairs so that public confidence and trust in the integrity, objectivity and impartiality of government are conserved and enhanced.” (2)  “Public servants shall act at all times in a manner that will bear the closest public scrutiny: an obligation that is not fully discharged by simply acting under the law.” (3) “Public servants in fulfilling their official duties and responsibilities shall make decisions in the public interest. (If a conflict should arise between the private interests and the office of the public servant, the conflict shall be resolved in the public interest.” Idealism……?  Perhaps. But would you not prefer Ms. Redford, Mr. Duffy and Ms. Fennell gave some thought to idealism before they dipped into the public purse, apparently deeply, for private purpose?

      The fact is, despite the scandals of Canada, the United States and most of Europe, all is not dark. In political life there are still good people doing good things.  It takes me back to the man we began with, Mahatma Ghandi. Once, when friends apparently needed hope in the face of political despair, he reminded them that not all was corrupt. His wisdom might well apply to some of us now. “We must not lose faith in humanity,” he said, “Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” Of course he’s right.

      All my past blogs are archived on my website: your comments are welcome here: www.kennethbagnell.com.