> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.onthetrail.info/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Commissioner of lobbying covered up 32,000 violations - URL: https://www.onthetrail.info/latest/commissioner-of-lobbying-covered-up-32-000-violations/ - Published: 2026-10-01T22:26:33.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-01T22:26:33.000Z - Description: “Negligently weak lapdogs,” Democracy Watch says of the lobbying commissioner and the RCMP. - Author: Isaac Peltz - Tags: News The Commissioner of Lobbying has let off 99.99 percent of all lobbyists that she has caught violating the Act or Code. Only 3 out of 31,806 violations have been penalized. Of those, she let off 5,054 *significant* violations. Significant violations can be failing to register as a lobbyist for more than 30 days, or filing inaccurate registrations, or not correcting inaccurate registrations. Some of these violations lasted more than 6 months before they were fixed. The commissioner has had a poor record since her appointment in 2018\. Despite this, she was reappointed to a second term in November 2024\. The House Ethics Committee is conducting a “long-overdue review of the Lobbying Act,” Democracy Watch said in their release. This is the first time they have done so since 2012\. As it stands, there are loopholes in the act and its code that allow for secret lobbying and unethical lobbying, and fail to “require independent, timely, transparent, affective and accountable enforcement,” the release says. Among the violations that the commissioner let slide are lobbyists who helped former Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, win an election. Ben Bergen and Dana O’Born lobbied Freeland’s department after co-managing her election campaign and serving as her riding association executive. Elected officials are also supposed to wait five years after leaving office before lobbying the government, but the commissioner has [granted 30 exemptions to the 5-year prohibition](https://democracywatch.ca/wp-content/uploads/CommOfLobbyingBadEnforcementRecord2018-2026.pdf?ref=onthetrail.info) on lobbying after leaving public office. > "Commissioner of Lobbying, Nancy Bélanger, has a horribly negligent enforcement record and has let thousands of lobbyists violate the federal lobbying law in serious ways without identifying lobbyists publicly or penalizing them,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch. “To stop rampant secret, unethical lobbying, the House Ethics Committee’s current review of the lobbying law must result in recommendations that call for closing all the loopholes in the law and code.” Conacher is also pushing for stricter laws that would force the commissioner to apply penalties on every lobbyist. ### Various violations Democracy Watch says that the most flagrant example of unregistered lobbying in recent years was that of the WE Charity scandal to former Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. Jenni Byrne, the former adviser to the leader of the Conservative Party Pierre Poilievre, [established a lobbying firm in the same office](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-pierre-poilievre-advisers-staff-established-new-lobbying-firm-with/?ref=onthetrail.info). Many of the staff who worked for Byrne also worked for a lobbyist called Forecheck. Of these 31,806 violations of the lobbying laws, it is impossible to accurately determine how many were minor. We know that at least 5,054 are significant, but there may be many more. From April 2021 to March 2026, 1,367 monthly communications were filed 16-30 days late. From April 2023-March 2026, 571 lobbying registrations were filed 16-30 days late. There are many journalists and watchdogs investigating these situations, but the government regularly violates the Access to Information act. There are constant delays on every request, and [MPs have said they wanted to fix it since 2022.](https://globalnews.ca/news/9340073/delay-delay-delay-mps-seek-fix-to-canadas-broken-access-to-information-system/?ref=onthetrail.info) ### WE Charity scandal The federal government has a poor track record around ethics. In 2020, the Trudeau government awarded a contract with WE Charity to administer a $912 million Canada Student Service Grant program. Soon after, it was revealed that the Trudeau family had been paid by the charity to appear at events. At one point, WE paid Trudeau’s family $425,000, including expenses. Trudeau countered the reporting by saying it was the cabinet, not him who had decided on working with WE. The ethics commissioner at the time, Mario Dion, excused Trudeau of culpability. Democracy Watch applied in June 2021 for a judicial review of Dion’s ruling, alleging that there were errors in the commissioner’s interpretation of the conflict of interest. Federal lawyers wanted the court case dismissed because they believed that the “[Conflict of Interest Act bars judicial review concerning questions of fact and law.](https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/supreme-court-says-judicial-review-of-ethics-ruling-in-trudeau-case-can-proceed/?ref=onthetrail.info)” (CTV) Democracy Watch appealed to the supreme court, and won in a unanimous ruling that they could continue with the case. This does not mean that the case will be won by Democracy Watch in contesting Dion’s decision about the WE scandal; however, they are able to continue the case. We have continued reporting extensively on lobbying in Canada, and have multiple articles coming out in the next few days with The Walrus and Ricochet about lobbying and lobbyists in Canada. [We also reported on the landmark recommendation recently that says the PM should have to sell and divest all his assets when in power.](https://www.onthetrail.info/latest/a-landmark-recommendation-to-secure-democracy-in-canada/)