On December 9-10, the United States hosted roughly 100 countries for a virtual Summit for Democracy. The Summit was held by the US in recognition of the growing global erosion of democracy and increasing influence of authoritarianism.
All participating countries were required to make commitments that they will follow up on in a ‘year of action’ until a follow up summit in 2022 to chart progress. This step is welcomed by Transparency International as too often summits are held, declarations are made, but no follow up is recorded and held to account. Transparency International Canada signed a joint letter with over 100 TI chapters around the world calling countries to have meaningful engagement with civil society during the year of action.
In terms of addressing corruption following the summit, TI Canada welcomes the Government of Canada’s proposed anti-corruption actions, looks forward to reviewing more details on all commitments, and hopes the government will not forget additional important points that were left out.
In the Government’s preamble, TI Canada welcomes the acknowledgement of the importance of the media and journalists in fighting corruption. We also welcome the Government of Canada’s attention to the impacts of gender and corruption. It is also important that the government acknowledged that Canada is not immune from corruption and work needs to be done domestically. TI Canada would note that Canada has dropped seven points since 2012 and out of the 10 best countries in TI’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
Canada’s complete anti-corruption corruption commitments are as follows:
Canada will continue to support collective efforts to tackle corruption internationally by supporting capacity-building initiatives enhancing the ability of foreign states to prevent and respond to this phenomenon and other security threats such as money laundering.
Canada will convene a national high level, multi-sectoral roundtable to explore options to strengthen the international legal framework and architecture to combat corruption globally.
Canada will support the implementation of a publicly accessible corporate beneficial ownership registry by 2025 with a view to providing safeguards against money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and tax avoidance, while ensuring it remains easy to do business in Canada.
Canada will strengthen federal procurement and contracting policies by placing Human Rights, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles, as well as climate change, at the heart of our procurement processes.
Canada will support open and transparent governments and natural resources governance in developing countries.
Canada will increase the information that government entities proactively publish on contracts to the public so that Canadians are better able to hold their government to account.
TI Canada applauds the government’s re-commitment to the establishment of a publicly accessible registry of beneficial ownership to combat global illicit financial flows that facilitate corruption, kleptocracy, tax evasion, and other crimes. TI Canada would like to see the government leverage this commitment by calling on peers, including the US, to also adopt beneficial ownership registries that are publicly accessible.
While all the anti-corruption commitments made by Canada are welcome, more details are needed, specifically:
What new is being done in regard to supporting capacity building and natural resource governance beyond existing programs?
Implementing ESG standards in public contracting and procurement is good, but what framework will be used, specifically on anti-corruption? In this framework, TI Canada encourages the Government of Canada to adopt beneficial ownership transparency as part of this plan and extend it to licenses and permits as well.
What is the objective of holding a national roundtable on global anti-corruption law and architecture? Will the recommendations tie into the Summit of Democracy or other venues?
Increasing transparency of public contracts is good, but a baseline and target need to be published.
In addition to these questions and comments, TI Canada hopes that the Government of Canada also address the following gaps in its commitments:
Increase capacity and legal mechanisms to enforce the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act;
Improve whistleblower protections domestically;
Make a specific commitment to addressing gender and corruption;
Address the cross section of corruption and environmental degradation.
Integrate anti-corruption into the Canadian military’s operational doctrine.
TI Canada will monitor the government’s implementation of the summit commitments and TI Canada welcomes any opportunity to help see that the commitments are met and that their indicators are robust.
For More Details:
Read the all the commitments made by Canada at the Summit for Democracy here.
Read the Prime Minister’s review of Canada’s commitments for the Summit for Democracy here.
Watch the Prime Minister’s official intervention for here.
Watch the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ comments here.
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For media inquiries, please contact
James Cohen
Executive Director, Transparency International Canada
e-mail: ti-can@transparencycanada.ca
phone: 416-488-3939