There will be no pillow talk about work between Liberal MP Mike Kelloway (Cape Breton-Canso, N.S.) and his wife,.Catherine Walsh-Kelloway, says Blacklock’s Reporter..That’s because Kelloway is the parliamentary secretary for the Coast Guard while his wife is a planning officer for the same outfit..Kelloway this week signed a pledge not to discuss business with his wife..“The Ethics commissioner and I have agreed a conflict of interest screen is an appropriate measure to prevent any opportunity while exercising my official powers, duties and functions to further the private interests of my spouse,” Kelloway wrote in a Public Declaration Of Agreed Compliance Measures..Walsh-Kelloway is a planning officer at the Coast Guard’s Sydney, N.S. office. Kelloway last December 3 was appointed parliamentary secretary for the Coast Guard..Kelloway endorsed a conflict screen similar to one signed by two cabinet ministers who swore to avoid discussing business with their spouses, both federal contractors..“Screens seek to minimize the possibility of conflicts arising between the public duties of the public office holder and their private interests of those of their relatives and friends,” wrote Kelloway..Managers in the Department of Fisheries that oversees the Coast Guard are to “ensure I am neither made aware nor a participant in any discussion or decision making processes pertaining to the private interests of my spouse,” he wrote..Defence Minister Anita Anand similarly signed a conflict screen by swearing an oath never to discuss business with her husband John Knowlton, director of Toronto supplier LifeLabs that received a $111 million contract for COVID-19 test kits..Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly is forbidden from discussing business with her boyfriend Félix Marzell, a Montréal contractor for Parks Canada whose firm also received a $25,050 grant from the National Research Council..The Federal Court of Appeal in 2018 upheld conflict screens as lawful. The ruling came in the case of Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc who declared a conflict with the billion-dollar conglomerate J.D. Irving Ltd. of Saint John due to his friendship with a member of the Irving family..Conflict screens “are not meant to avoid the reporting obligation,” but to “prevent conflicts of interest from actually arising by identifying in advance the potential for conflict and establishing a means to avoid it,” wrote the Court of Appeal..“In other words, the purpose of the screens is to divert away the potential conflicts before they are brought to the public office holder’s attention. As a result, the public office holder is never even aware of the matter.”.The ruling came on a legal challenge by Democracy Watch, an advocacy group..“It’s a charade,” founder Duff Conacher said in an earlier interview.
