Prime Minister Jean Chretien: coping with his rules of ethics and his no-fault government
Nipawin - November 24, 2000 - by: Mario deSantis
$615,000 loan	Our hypocritical PM Jean Chretien is asking for an apology(1) from both Joe Clark and
	Stockwell Day for their charges that he behaved unethically when he personally intervened
	with the president of the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) for the granting
	of a $615,000 loan to his friend and business neighbour Mr. Yvon Duhaime. The asking
	of this apology comes after Ethics Counsellor Howard Wilson exonerated Jean Chretien
	of any ethical wrongdoing by stating
did not violate any rule	"The Prime Minister, in calling the president of the BDC, did not violate any rule which has been established by the Canadian government in terms of ministers dealing on behalf of constituents with government agencies(2)."
ethical behaviour	This ethics counsellor is a laugh of a man, first because he has no intrinsic power to say
	anything against Jean Chretien since he is directly responsible to the Prime Minister,
	second because he makes a mockery of our rules by saying that the Prime Minister didn't
	violate any rule. Yes, we must abide by the 'rule of law' but we can't establish too many
	written rules to regulate the behaviour of people. And in this instance, it would be
	impossible to write an infinite number of specific rules to ensure the ethical behaviour
	of Jean Chretien; in fact, Jean Chretien has been called the 'Teflon Jean(3),' that is a man
	able to repulse any charge of wrongdoing.
common sense	So what do we have to do to have a sense of justice in dealing with this kind of a man
	and his friends? We have to go back to the understanding that we cannot rely solely on
	the written laws and on the written rules to have a democratic society. We must
	understand that in the exercise of our freedom we need to use our common sense, and
	respect other people's freedom as well.
no-fault governments	We have too many written (statutory) laws and written rules, and we are losing sight of
	what the ethical exercise of our freedom is. We have too many written laws and written
	rules, and this is happening because our governments are becoming no-fault
	governments(4). These no-fault governments are covering up their misdeeds either by
	claiming that there are not enough laws or rules, or by having one law on top of another
	and one rule on top of another. And then ultimately, when these no-fault governments
	are subject to investigations for wrongdoing, they police themselves by using the most
	restrictive narrow interpretation of the rule of law, and in so doing they get away with
	their unethical and possible criminal behaviour.
patterns	We must remember that ethical behaviour is not the liberty to do anything we want as long
	as we don't violate a specific law or a specific rule. All these laws and all these rules are all
	interrelated and together they should promote our ethical and civil behaviour. Consequently,
	our ethical behaviour is not determined by a single action but by the patterns of our civil
	relationships. In a next article, I will describe a limited set of events which will help us
	understand the behaviour of Jean Chretien as he wheeled and dealed with his friend and
	business neighbour Mr. Yvon Duhaime.
-----------References/endnotes:
	List of relevant political and economics articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign
1. -	PM demands public apology for mudslinging, Robert Fife, Ottawa Bureau Chief, with files from Justine Hunter, Jöel-Denis Bellavance and Sheldon Alberts, November 23, 2000, National Post
2.	Ethics Counsellor's report meaningless, Peter Shawn Taylor, November 22, 2000, National Post
3.	Teflon Jean faces a severe test, Lawrence Martin, November 20, 2000, Southam News,
4. -	PM's power 'unhealthy': ex-official. Need checks and balances, Alan Toulin, November 23, 2000, National Post