Overview of 18 Legal Initiatives — www.DavidEmersonLegal.com

The 12 initiatives launched and six initiatives proposed can be mapped with respect to the alleged violator and violated. Figure 1 depicts the alleged violator and violated with red dots with an arrow from former to latter.

Launched initiatives are preceded by the letter 'L' plus a number indicating order of launch; proposed initiatives are preceded by the letter 'P'. The letters 'L-1' with superscripts 1-8 depict the eight inquiries made with respect to the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons, listed below as the House of Commons Conflict of Interest Code.

Figure 1: Eighteen legal initiatives launched or proposed about MP David Emerson’s 2006 switch of parties
Stephen Harper	David Emerson	Vancouver-Kingsway Liberal Riding Association (and Future Riding Associations)		Vancouver-Kingsway Voters (and Future Voters)
· ——–—––—→ ·
L-1^1-3: Violation of Sections 8-10 of House of Commons Conflict of Interest Code?
	· —–—–—–—————–—→ ·
	P-1: Federal Court to recover funds raised by Riding Association?
	P-4^1-2: Future election candidates to swear oaths about not changing political affiliation?
	· –————————–––––––––––——–––––——————––––—→ ·
	L-1^4-5: Violation of Sections 8-9 of House of Commons Conflict of Interest Code?
	L-2: Violation of Subsection 482(b) of Canada Elections Act?
	L-1^6-7: Violation of Principles 2(b) and 2(e) of H. of Commons Conflict of Interest Code?
	L-1⁸: Violation of Principle 2(c) of House of Commons Conflict of Interest Code?
	L-3: Violation of Section 3 of Public Office Holders Conflict of Interest Code?
	L-4: Misleading/false advertising according to Industry Canada?
	L-5: Amendment to the Federal Accountability Act to address floor-crossing by MPs
	P-2: Violation of Section 3 of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
	P-3^1-2: Comparison with violation of “representation” in two sections of Competition Act
	P-4^1-2: Future election candidates to swear oaths about not changing political affiliation?
Key: L: launched; P: proposed			2007 www.DavidEmersonLegal.com

In three of the 18 initiatives shown in Figure 1, David Emerson is the alleged violated party. These three are the inquiries made to the Ethics Commissioner about whether Stephen Harper violated Sections 8-10 of the House of Commons Conflict of Interest Code when he approached Mr. Emerson about joining the Conservative Party Cabinet.

In the remaining initiatives, David Emerson (or a future MP making a similar switch of political affiliation) is the alleged violator. In three of the initiatives, the Riding Association is the alleged violated subject (the Riding Association is the candidate’s party before an election, hence Liberal in the case of David Emerson). In the remaining twelve unique initiatives (excluding P-4^1-2 which applies also to Riding Associations), the voters are the alleged violated subject. (One of the proposals — requiring political candidates to sign contracts or swear oaths — applies both to future riding associations and voters.)