Friday, June 20, 2014

New Crop Life ceo under fire

Ted Menzies, the new chief executive officer for Crop Life Canada, is under fire from the Sierra Club for taking the job after serving in cabinet.

The Sierra Club says that Menzies work in the Finance Department ought to exclude him from lobbying on behalf of Crop Life Canada which was created by pesticide companies to lobby on their behalf.

The Sierra Club has asked the federal ethics commissioner to investigate, yet Crop Life Canada says Menzies did check with the commissioner before he accepted the job.

 The Sierra Club, in a letter to Mary Dawson, points out the former minister of state and parliamentary secretary for the Finance Department became director of Crop Life Canada almost immediately after leaving politics last November.

"This raises serious issues about the rules," said Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch, which prepared the request for the Sierra Club.

Crop Life spokeswoman Nadine Sisk said "we are confident the commissioner will accept the conclusion that there is no conflict of interest.”

In its letter, the Sierre Club points out that Crop Life was registered to lobby the Finance Department when Menzies was in politics and still is. Federal legislation says politicians are forbidden to use confidential information acquired during their time in government to advise clients or employers.

"People must be prohibited in every case from participating in discussions and decisions when they have a private interest, and must be prohibited from giving advice to others when they know inside information that could give others there an advantage," says the letter.

"This means a former public officeholder must be prohibited from being an adviser to any client, business associate or employer that has an interest in federal government operations."

Conacher said even if Menzies isn't lobbying himself, he may be advising his employer based on what he learned in cabinet.


"How does he 'unlearn' what he learned and not use the secret information he knows when he gives advice?" asked Conacher.