The chief of staff for Public Works Minister Anita Anand’s gave her personal vouching for a Liberal lobbyist seeking a federal contract for his son, internal emails show..Blacklock’s Reporter said the exchange was never reported to the Commissioner of Lobbying though federal law restricts undisclosed favour-seeking under threat of six months’ jail..Elly Alboim, a lobbyist with Earnscliffe Strategy Group of Ottawa, emailed Anand’s office March 24, 2020 seeking a contract for his son..“There is a group of companies (including one run by my son) looking to provide engineering and manufacturing services to whomever in government or in the public sector might need them,” wrote Alboim..“Some of what they want to offer sounds important. I’ve attached a note. Any idea where they might send this?”.“I vouch for Elly,” Leslie Church, the minister’s chief of staff, replied 25 minutes later. Church forwarded the request to a director of operations for the Department of Public Works.. Anand’s chief of staff vouched for Liberal lobbyist .Alboim is a registered lobbyist and former advisor to then-Prime Minister Paul Martin and Kathleen Wynne, ex-Liberal premier of Ontario..“He has been active during federal and provincial election campaigns,” according to an Earnscliffe biography..Church on Wednesday declined comment..The public works minister’s office would not say why Alboim’s son was not referred to a standard queue of some 26,000 companies seeking federal contracts for pandemic goods and services..Alboim said he did not believe he had to report his communication under the Lobbying Act..“Anyone is free to contact a Minister’s office to ask for help,” said Alboim..“They can do so on behalf of another person without registering to lobby providing they are not being paid. This has been the law for years..“As I understand it, the Lobbying Act is not designed to prevent people from speaking to government. It is designed to regulate communications in very specific instances. This wasn’t one of those instances.”.The Lobbying Act requires that all lobbyists report within ten days any attempt to “communicate with a public office holder in respect of…the awarding of any contract by or on behalf of Her Majesty, or to arrange a meeting between a public office holder and any other person.”.Lobbyists must disclose contacts with public office holders under threat of a $50,000 fine or six months’ jail. Alboim did not report the “my son” exchange..Alboim said his son did not win a federal contract..Alboim, a former bureau chief for CBC-TV on Parliament Hill, in a 2019 commentary criticized media coverage of ethical breaches on Parliament Hill as hypocritical..“In its coverage of public affairs, media does not admit to grays in a world it tends to see in the blacks and whites of moral absolutism,” he wrote in an essay published by the website Capital Current..“That increasingly journalists arrogate to themselves the right to unilaterally pronounce on and judge the conduct and views of public actors is ironic and puzzling. They insist on and impose full public accountability on those they cover without having significant professional or third-party accountability mechanisms themselves.”.Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.Twitter.com/nobby7694
