{"id":36118,"date":"2014-12-22T03:45:50","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T19:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=36118"},"modified":"2014-12-22T00:50:35","modified_gmt":"2014-12-21T16:50:35","slug":"ethics-watchdog-starts-preliminary-probe-into-pair-of-conservative-mps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/12\/22\/ethics-watchdog-starts-preliminary-probe-into-pair-of-conservative-mps\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics watchdog starts preliminary probe into pair of Conservative MPs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/shutterstock_154197683.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16162\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/shutterstock_154197683.jpg\" alt=\"canada technology\" width=\"1000\" height=\"662\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/shutterstock_154197683.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/shutterstock_154197683-300x198.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>OTTAWA\u2014The House of Commons ethics watchdog is reviewing a potential conflict of interest case involving Conservative MPs Rob Clarke and Rod Bruinooge.<\/p>\n<p>Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson\u2019s office says it is conducting a preliminary review into the facts around a complaint brought against the two by Liberal MP Scott Simms.<\/p>\n<p>Simms alleges that Clarke, a Saskatchewan MP, and Bruinooge, whose riding is in Winnipeg, violated ethics rules when they voted in favour of a recent bill that would allow the use of electronic devices at polling stations.<\/p>\n<p>The two men have a stake in a piece of campaign software called ProxiVote, a tool to help keep political canvassers in touch with each other and to track which supporters have cast ballots.<\/p>\n<p>Simms argues that Clarke and Bruinooge were in a conflict of interest when they voted for changes to the Canada Elections Act, because the company stands to benefit from the lifting of restrictions on devices.<\/p>\n<p>Dawson\u2019s office emphasizes that they are simply gathering information on the Simms complaint, in order to determine whether it warrants a full-blown inquiry.<\/p>\n<p>Clarke and Bruinooge, whose wife owns the firm that makes the software, were not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OTTAWA\u2014The House of Commons ethics watchdog is reviewing a potential conflict of interest case involving Conservative MPs Rob Clarke and &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":16162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}