Toews broke conflict rules

‘SWITCHING SIDES’

MARIE-DANIELLE SMITH OTTAWA • Former Conservative cabinet minister Vic Toews broke conflict of interest rules by “switching sides” after leaving office, Canada’s ethics commissioner has found.

Toews retired from politics in July 2013, having served as public safety minister and senior regional minister for Manitoba under Stephen Harper’s majority government. In March 2014, he was appointed as a judge on the Court of Queen’s Bench in Manitoba.

In a 35-page report released Friday, commissioner Mary Dawson concluded Toews contravened the Conflict of Interest Act on two counts after leaving Parliament Hill, and before he became a judge.

After leaving office, cabinet ministers are subject to a two-year “cooling-off” period under the Conflict of Interest Act, during which they’re not allowed to pursue activities related to files they held within a year of leaving government.

However, using a company owned by his wife, about six months after quitting politics Toews provided legal advice to the Norway House Cree Nation, “an entity with which he had direct and significant official dealings during his last year in office,” Dawson found.

In another case, Toews worked with a different First Nation on a matter with which he had dealt as minister. In 2007, as president of the Treasury Board, Toews had approved a land transfer near Winnipeg that had been challenged by Peguis First Nation, among others, with Toews named as a respondent in legal documents. Courts ended up ruling in favour of the First Nations over a lack of consultation.

A few months after leaving office, Toews provided “strategic advice” to the First Nation’s legal counsel on a settlement proposal related to the land transfer, Dawson found, “and (met) with municipal and provincial officials” about it. Toews told Dawson in an interview his role was “strictly limited to community outreach.” But “the documentary evidence shows that Mr. Toews’ involvement went beyond the level of superficial discussions,” Dawson’s report says.

Public office holders are prohibited from acting on behalf of, or for, organizations connected to legal proceedings where the Crown is a party and where the office holder had previously acted on behalf of the Crown. There’s no time limit on this particular provision of the act.

Violations of the ethics and conflict of interest code aren’t criminal offences. The Conflict of Interest Act says if former public office holders are noncompliant, Dawson is allowed to “order any current public office holders not to have official dealings with that former reporting public office holder.”

Toews could not immediately be reached for comment.