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(Several U.S. states have adopted similar laws.) France, Germany and Italy prohibit the use of compulsory union dues for political contributions. And in Australia, workers can neither be forced to join a union if one exists at their place of work nor have to pay the portion of union dues that would go toward political activities.

Meanwhile, those countries all have systems in place that require unions to disclose basic financial information about major expenses.

In Canada, union financials are utterly opaque. According to the Ministry of Finance, about $860-million worth of union dues were deducted from tax returns in 2012, the last year for which numbers are available, up from $705-million in 2007. There are estimates that the total amount of dues collected runs into the billions. That money, which is exempt from federal taxes, can be spent however the union chooses: office space, staff salaries, organized protests, political attack ads. And the employee has no say over any of it.

Russ Hiebert, the B.C. MP who introduced a private member’s bill that would require unions to disclose basic financial statements, plus expenses of $5,000 or more, says “these are institutions that receive a public benefit in terms of tax deductibility, and in terms of tax-exempt revenues, and there is no accountability in terms of how those dollars are spent.”

His bill, C-377, passed the House of Commons last year — a rarity for a private member’s bill — but was hung up in the Senate. It had the unfortunate timing of landing in the upper chamber at about the time the Senate was in the throes of an expense scandal, and was collateral damage in the feud between both houses of parliament and the Prime Minister’s Office.