The Conservatives and the NDP agree: well-funded lobby groups masquerading as independent non-partisan organizations are distorting public debate and should be obliged to reveal the source of their funding.

It’s known as astroturfing, University of Québec professor Stéphanie Yates told the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics on Thursday.

But as to who’s out-astroturfing whom? That depends on whom you’re talking to.

“It’s a growing phenomenon. And the idea here is to pursue a communications strategy whose real source is hidden and falsely claims to be citizen-based,” she explained.

Yates, along with Duff Conacher from Democracy Watch and John Chenier from Arc Publications, were invited to weigh in on the five-year statutory review of the Lobbying Act.

But while the two-hour meeting exposed many flaws in the legislation — some of which, for Conacher, have been frustratingly repeated before — it was the concept of astroturfing that immediately grabbed the attention of NDP MP Charlie Angus.

After hearing Yates describe the case of Mon Choix — a group of Canadian citizens that was funded by cigarette manufacturers to ask for the right to smoke in public places — Angus offered an example of his own.

“A perfect example is Ethical Oil. It’s a total front organization. It seems to be a revolving door between the PMO’s office, key cabinet ministers and this front group,” he said.

“My question is: Does that come under lobbying? Because it seems that their job is to distort public discourse,” he asked.

“Indeed there are certain activities … that don’t come under the sphere of lobbying. They do lobbying that we’d qualify as indirect,” Yates answered.

But when they communicate with Public Office Holders, she followed up — when they’re actually added to the Registry of Lobbyists — it would help to have a field in that registry that specifies their major sources of funding.

A group such as Friends of Science, which disputes the role of human activity in climate change, she continued, would be required to disclose their funding from Calgary-based Talisman Energy for all Canadians to see.

Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro used the opportunity to subtly revisit the influence of foreign radicals.

“I’d actually like to pick up on this question of astroturfing. I think it’s a tremendous recommendation you’re making, because I do think groups should have to demonstrate who is funding them,” he began.

“If they appear to be a public interest group that’s actually funded by — especially money outside the country — I think that Canadians have a need to be able to see that so that they can understand what might be motivating that position.”