The asking of this apology comes after Ethics Counsellor Howard Wilson exonerated Jean Chretien of any ethical wrongdoing by stating "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)."

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.

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. 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.

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

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 http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20001123/380195.html

2. Ethics Counsellor's report meaningless, Peter Shawn Taylor, November 22, 2000, National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20001122/378906.html

3. Teflon Jean faces a severe test, Lawrence Martin, November 20, 2000, Southam News, http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20001120/376168.html

4. PM's power 'unhealthy': ex-official. Need checks and balances, Alan Toulin, November 23, 2000, National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20001123/380209.html