" Ms. Dawson wrote a report faulting a CRTC commissioner for not returning flowers and chocolates from a radio station, but the Morneau case showed a failure in enforcing the basic purpose of the conflict of interest rules. Those rules, and the ethics commissioner, are supposed to reassure Canadians. Now they can't."

""Yes, Ms. Dawson flagged that [putting assets in a corporation] as a flaw in the law that should be amended, in a 2013 submission to a committee reviewing the legislation. But she didn't tell Mr. Morneau to comply with the intent of the law. And she could have."

"She should have insisted: The law gives her power to order an asset be divested if it creates a conflict."

" But now no politician can expect Canadians to have confidence when they say they've done what the ethics commissioner recommends – not until the everyone knows the law is clear and the ethics commissioner is clearly enforcing its intent."