U.S. input on gay bill worries Cotler
Religious groups send money and services north of the border
OTTAWA - Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler says he will examine possible changes in Canada's laws to prevent foreign interests from using their spending power to try to tip the balance in Canadian political debates.
"Clearly, we have free speech, but at the same time we want to protect the political equities in terms of the marketplace of ideas," Cotler said yesterday. "In other words, we don't want the public opinion to get mortgaged to the highest bidder in a certain sense.
"This is something as a result of your article that I am going to look into."
Cotler's comments follow the revelation by The Gazette that powerful U.S. religious groups are sending money and services north of the border to allies fighting Ottawa's same-sex marriage legislation.
The U.S. headquarters of the Knights of Columbus paid $80,782 to print 2 million postcards at its New Haven, Conn., printing plant, then shipped them to Canada, where they are being distributed in Catholic parishes across the country.
Influential U.S. evangelical leader James Dobson has waded into the same-sex debate in a paid radio show being broadcast to 130 radio stations across Canada.
Dobson's group, Focus on the Family, reports on its financial statements filed in the United States that it supplies hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in services "necessary to the operation of Focus on the Family Canada," a group at the forefront of the opponents to same-sex marriage.
While there are strict guidelines in times of election and referendum campaigns on the ability of foreign interests and third parties to buy influence, there are no restrictions in Canadian law on what a foreign group can spend to influence political opinion at other times.
Cotler says that might have to change. "This is something that raises a bigger issue. There may indeed be very little that we can do, but I think we need to ask ourselves, 'How do we both protect freedom of speech in every sense as we wish and at the same time ensure a certain accountability in the matter of the financing of political debates from the outside?' "
Cotler said he has had his own questions about where the money is coming for in the battle over same-sex marriage, such as who paid for a full-page ad in the Globe and Mail newspaper last week opposing same-sex marriage. The group listed in the ad as paying for it is one that nobody has heard of and its address is a post office box in Toronto.
Cotler said he wasn't surprised to learn that U.S. interest groups were helping Canadian same-sex marriage opponents.
"I wasn't aware of it, but I'm not surprised by it because I understand the intensity with which groups in the United States have fought that in the U.S., and for them this is an issue that has no borders and therefore they feel that they ought to fight it wherever the issue presents itself. But they don't seem to realize that we have a Canadian constitution and Canadian courts who have pronounced differently from the U.S. and we have a parliamentary process that is different from the U.S."
Aaron Freeman, an expert in money and politics and a former member of Democracy Watch, a national ethics watchdog group, says the government should adopt new rules requiring better disclosure of money spent trying to influence political decisions between elections.
Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe was sharply critical of Canadian groups that accept money from U.S. interests.
"I think it is reprehensible conduct for Canadian groups to accept such a thing."
New Democratic leader Jack Layton called on Revenue Minister John McCallum to ensure the groups aren't breaking rules governing charitable status.
"I think Canadians should be concerned when the George Bush right-wing religious viewpoints are brought here."
However, Conservative House leader Jay Hill says he sees nothing wrong with U.S. groups sending money or support to Canadian allies fighting same-sex marriage and no need for a law to control it.
"I have a lot of confidence in this issue and any other issue that Canadians have the ability to think for themselves on this, and they know how they feel on these issues, and I don't think they are going to be unduly swayed by third-party advertising in this particular case."
Meanwhile, Patrick Korten, vice-president of communications for the Knights of Columbus U.S. headquarters, moved yesterday to distance his group from Focus on the Family, pointing out that his group does not consider itself part of the U.S. religious right.
Korten also moved to dispel any impression that the U.S. headquarters was dictating a position to its Canadian members, pointing out the text of the postcards was composed by Canadian members in conjunction with Canadian bishops.
