The Office of the Ethics Commissioner has found that UCP leader Danielle Smith contravened the Conflicts of Interest Act in her interaction with the justice ministry in relation to the criminal charges against Artur Pawlowski..The allegations were that Premier Smith sought to influence the prosecution of Pawlowski, who was facing charges relating to the Coutts border crossing blockade, and, thereby, improperly tried to interfere with the administration of justice..But Smith was cleared of allegations made by the CBC and DNP she or her office had contacted Crowns about the case.."At this point, I make no recommendations with respect to sanctions against the premier... but reserve the right to make recommendations once the Legislative Assembly is back is session," Ethics commissioner Marguerite Trussler said.. Live debate coverageLive debate coverage .Trussier added that the Crown Prosecution Service has a right to be free from political interference. Nonetheless there was an improper attempt to influence the independence of the legal system in this case..Moments after the report was released, Smith sent out a statement claiming she had been partially vindicated.."I was gratified to read the Ethics Commissioner’s findings confirming that neither I, nor anyone in my office, tried to or did contact any Crown Prosecutors regarding any COVID-19 prosecutions," Smith said.."This confirms that the CBC and NDP have repeatedly lied to Albertans for months with false accusations stating that my office and I had done so. Both the CBC and NDP should apologize and withdraw those false accusations immediately and publicly. They should also apologize to Alberta’s independent Crown Prosecutors and Civil Service for repeatedly questioning their integrity in addressing these matters.".Smith said as to her discussions regarding COVID-related charges and violations with my Minister of Justice Tyler Shandro: "I have always stated I wanted to find a path of amnesty for those charged with non-violent COVID-related offences and violations during the pandemic."."As I have explained before, I spoke with Minister Shandro, who is an experienced lawyer (I am not) as I was very interested in his advice on what could legally be done about this. He gave me his advice on the matter and, as the Commissioner has also confirmed, I accepted it. It went no further after that," Smith said.."In the Commissioner’s opinion, I had a discussion with Minister Shandro that was inappropriate regarding this subject.".Smith said she invited the Commissioner to give her and future premiers the benefit of some guidance on how to advance sensitive policy issues similar to this with the minister of justice if she thought there was a more appropriate way.."Although she has yet to offer a different approach or advice for me to consider in this regard, I will be seeking legal advice on creating specific formal guidelines as to when and how a Premier may speak with a Minister of Justice in the future about policy issues and other sensitive matters in order to respect all applicable rules and conventions. I will be asking the Ethics Commissioner to review those guidelines, once drafted, in order that her advice and input are incorporated," Smith said.."As to Mr. Pawlowski, a verdict in his case has been rendered by the court and the matter is now closed.".Smith said given that various false and defamatory statements are now confirmed to have been made by the CBC and NDP in this matter against her and several individuals in her office, "this matter remains the subject of potential civil litigation.."I will confer with my counsel on what next steps are to be taken after the election," Smith said.."I look forward to spending the remainder of the campaign talking about issues that Albertans are focused on — namely the economy, jobs, affordability, public safety and healthcare.".Pawlowski was facing charges related to the Coutts border blockade. He was eventually found guilty..Trussler said she interviewed the following people who were either sworn or affirmed:.Deputy Minister of Justice and Attorney General Justice Frank Bosscha Deputy Minister of Executive Council Ray GilmourAssistant Deputy Minister of Justice, Alberta Crown Prosecution Service Kim Goddard, K.C.Chief of Staff to the Premier Marshall Smith.Executive Assistant to the Premier Dr. Jeremy HexhamChief of Staff to the Minister of Justice Christopher ThresherCrown Prosecutor Steven Johnston,Dr. Dennis ModryExecutive Director, Office of the Premier Rob AndersonMinister of Justice and Attorney General Hon. Tyler ShandroPremier of Alberta Danielle SmithElise von Scheel, CBC reporter."I also received statements from all 44 Crown Prosecutors who worked on Covid and Coutts related cases and from all 32 political staff members in the premier’s office," Trussler said..In a statement, Smith said Trussler “confirms CBC and NDP have repeatedly lied to Albertans for months with false accusations that my office and I had done so.”.Smith said she accepted Shandro’s advice and “it went no further than that.”.Trussler made some recomendations.."All new Members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta attend mandatory training upon election about the structure of Canadian government and the roles of the three branches of government," Trussler said.."The Legislative Assembly of Alberta consider whether to amend the Conflicts of Interest Act to provide for a stay on any ongoing investigation from the time that the writ drops for an election until the election results are certified.".Smith’s call to Shandro.Smith called Minister Shandro on January 6, in the evening, the report stated..Smith initially remembered having a telephone call with Shandro but not the date of the call, except that she thought that it was after Mr. Pawlowski’s press conference which took place later in January.."However, during the second interview with me, she accepted that it was on January 6. Minister Shandro remembers the call clearly as he was in Fernie, BC on vacation with his family," Trussler said.."The premier did not advise Shandro that she had had a personal telephone call with Mr. Pawlowski. She started the conversation by stating that she did not know if it was appropriate to call him. She advised that he indicated that she could continue as the Deputy Minister shielded him from the COVID-related cases. While she says that she started to talk about the cases generally, at some point she turned to Mr. Pawlowski’s case.". Trussler said It is important to note that this call was only a few hours after the Pawlowski call.."However, Shandro has a different version of the conversation. Shandro does not recall the premier beginning the call by asking him if it was okay for her to ask him about the COVID-related prosecutions," Trussler said.."He advised me that he never felt any such conversation would be appropriate and that he almost certainly would not have indicated it was okay to proceed. He remembered that there was a brief conversation generally about Covid-related prosecutions but premier Smith turned very quickly to Mr. Pawlowski’s case, which Minister Tyler Shandro understood was the reason for the call.".The CBC allegation.On January 19, a story was aired on CBC that someone in the premier’s office had contacted the Crown Prosecution Service about the Coutts cases, the report stated..CBC also sent an email to the premier’s office alleging three emails had been sent in late 2022 challenging the Crown’s assessment and direction on Coutts-related prosecutions..In one of the emails, the staff member had allegedly sent a video. CBC admits it has not seen the emails and has not revealed the source who provided the story, the report stated.."The person who was alleged to have sent one, or perhaps more, of the emails was incensed by the allegations and denied them. The lawyer conducting or participating in all the Coutts prosecutions, Steven Johnston, said that he was never contacted by anyone in the premier’s office," Trussler said.."Kim Goddard, Assistant Deputy Minister of Justice, at one point held a town hall video meeting with prosecutors and reiterated the independence of the Crown Prosecutors. She told them to ignore political statements and to advise her if anyone was contacted, particularly if the contact was from a political source.".Trussler said at one point, she requested and received from the Crown Prosecution Service an update on all cases, but it was used by her merely as a reference to brief the Attorney General and was never forwarded.."The Public Service Commissioner, with the consent of Deputy Minister Gilmour for Government staff and Mr. Marshall Smith for political staff, conducted an email search of the emails of all political staff in the Premier’s office and all Crown Prosecutors with Covid-related cases," Trussler said.."Nothing was found. The email search was fairly reasonable given the time parameters in which it was done. A more thorough search would have taken considerably more time and would have been costly. I think that it can be said that the members of the Crown Prosecution Services were annoyed and even incensed by the allegation that one of them had received outside political pressure.".Trussler said Assistant Deputy Minister, Kim Goddard, is "confident no one in the Service received an email."."All 44 Crown Prosecutors who had Coutts or COVID-related files provided a statement that they did not receive any contact relating to their files from the premier’s office," Trussler said.."All 32 political staff members in the Premier’s office, at the relevant time, provided a statement that they did not contact any Crown Prosecutors regarding the Coutts or COVID-related files.".Due to a high level of spam content being posted in our comment section below, all comments undergo manual approval by a staff member during regular business hours (Monday - Friday). Your patience is appreciated.
