Ex-ambassador to Israel sues Ottawa
Harper appointee claims Liberals acted in bad faith
• A former Canadian ambassador to Israel who was removed from her post shortly after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s election is now suing the federal government, arguing she was undermined by her superiors, treated in bad faith, and is still owed pension money.
The lawsuit marks an escalation in the long-running battle between Canada’s diplomatic establishment and Vivian Bercovici, whose appointment stirred controversy from the day Stephen Harper’s Conservative government announced it in January 2014.
Bercovici’s statement of claim, filed in Ontario Superior Court on Monday, alleges numerous breaches of duty by the government and names the top management of what was then still called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Daniel Jean, who was deputy minister at the time but went on to be Trudeau’s national security and intelligence adviser. It also names Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief of staff, alleging Telford ignored Bercovici’s correspondence in the months after her firing.
The former ambassador has remained in Tel Aviv where she is self-employed and writes for various publications, including the National Post. Bercovici declined to comment for this story, instead directing inquiries to her lawyer, Natalie MacDonald.
The allegations in the court documents have not been proven, and those named have not yet filed a defence. The Prime Minister’s Office and Global Affairs Canada both declined to comment for this story. The Post attempted to contact the individuals named, either directly or through media relations, but did not get a response.
Trained as a lawyer in Toronto, Bercovici, who is Jewish, was appointed to the sensitive Tel Aviv post in 2014. Though she had no diplomatic experience, she was an outspoken and unequivocal supporter of Israel’s government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was seen to share Harper’s views on Israel. That made her an outlier in a foreign affairs department where many preferred to see Canada take a nuanced, “honest broker” approach in the Middle East.
When Trudeau’s Liberals won the October 2015 election Bercovici was roughly halfway through what is by convention a three- or fouryear term, but she was not expected to last long in the job after the change in government. On April 21, 2016, her statement claims, she was informed via phone call that “her appointment as Ambassador would be terminated.”
Bercovici alleges that the foreign affairs ministry (now called Global Affairs Canada) was out to get her from the start, pointing to media reports in which detractors from within the ministry described her as a mouthpiece for Netanyahu. Among those reports, she cites a Globe and Mail story published after her removal that quoted a former diplomat saying Global Affairs staff would feel “total, total elation” to see her gone.
The court documents reveal an extraordinary legal fight transpired in the months after Bercovici was removed, as her lawyers pushed aggressively for the settlement of her claims. The government, for its part, argued that appointed ambassadorial positions are precarious by nature, that Bercovici’s requests for financial benefits after her termination were unreasonable and that she owes the government more in overpayments of salary and benefits than what the government owes her in pension contributions.
Bercovici’s statement of claim says she does not contest the government’s right to terminate her job, but says the senior officials along with “countless others” in the public service had “intentionally and maliciously waged a campaign of abuse against the Plaintiff designed to malign, undermine and destroy her credibility in that role ...”
MacDonald, Bercovici’s lawyer, acknowledged that prime ministers have the right to replace ambassadors, but said Bercovici believes her right to be employed in a respectful and harassment-free workplace was violated. This is not just a political fight with a new government, she said.
“I can tell you that this is a very real cause of action,” said MacDonald. “We’ve made claims against five individuals, as you know, and we do intend to move against all five named individuals specifically.”
Along with Jean and Telford, the lawsuit also names two of her direct reports from the time, Mark Gwozdecky and Alexandra Bugailiskis, as well as Barbara Richardson, who was the department’s inspector general. Gwozdecky is still a senior Global Affairs official while Bugailiskis and Richardson are now both ambassadors.
The lawsuit and seeks a total of $10 million in damages, as well as $31,974.32 in pension funds. She also filed an application in Federal Court on Monday that seeks to force payment of the pension money, and which includes an affidavit along with more than 300 pages of correspondence with government staff and lawyers.
The statement of claim sets out a long list of allegations from Bercovici, and says the purported campaign against her started from the day she accepted the job.
In one case, she says Harper was set to visit Israel shortly after she took office, but she claims Gwozdecky wanted a more experienced embassy official to take the lead on the visit. She appealed to the Prime Minister’s Office, which intervened on her behalf.
She goes on to outline numerous disputes over expenses and alleges Richardson conducted an audit meant to target her. She claims officials repeatedly made defamatory remarks about her, such as that she was “anti-Arab” and “racist.” She alleges senior officials accused her of putting “Israel’s interests before those of Canada.”
The correspondence outlines what Bercovici asked for after she was terminated: a full year of salary (which was $180,600 in 2015-16), permission to say in the residence through July, full medical and dental benefits for a year, payment for the shipping of her personal effects from Toronto to Israel, payment of a year’s worth of rent in Tel Aviv, payment of her legal expenses and an “Agreed Joint Statement in respect of her valued service for Canada while Ambassador.”
In an Aug. 10, 2017, letter from the Justice Department filed in Federal Court, the government rebuts the claim it acted in bad faith and argues it fulfilled all of its obligations to Bercovici.
“Ambassadors fulfil constitutionally defined state roles and are one of the exceptions to which the general law of contracts does not apply,” it says.
The letter points out a case from 2009 where an ambassador unsuccessfully challenged his termination in court.
“This is why courts have referred to such appointments as intrinsically precarious positions,” it says.
I CAN TELL YOU THAT THIS IS A VERY REAL CAUSE OF ACTION.