PM mum on Payette’s 2011 assault charge
Appointee calls incident ‘unfounded’
• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is refusing to say what he knew — and when he knew it — about a dismissed, non- f elony charge against his choice for Governor General.
Julie Payette is calling the six- year- old incident an “unfounded” allegation for which she was “immediately cleared” without prosecution.
The second-degree assault charge doesn’t appear in Maryland court records, but is accessible through American-based background check websites that provide the charge, dates, case number, location and reason for its dismissal. The incident, first reported by the political news website iPolitics, has raised questions about whether Trudeau knew about the potentially embarrassing informa- tion during the selection process that took place behind closed doors in the Prime Minister’s Office. And if he did know, why he didn’t see it as an issue. Trudeau twice said Wednesday he had no comment when asked about the deleted charge against Payette.
He said that before any appointment to such a highprofile political post, the government conducts a thorough background search on the candidate’s past. Trudeau wouldn’t say if he had been made aware of the incident prior to her appointment.
“I know that Mme. Payette is going to make an extraordinary governor general. She represents the very best of Canadian values, openness to the world, curiosity, intellectual rigour and inspiration. She will continue to inspire generations of Canadians as she represents us at the very highest level,” Trudeau said in Quebec City.
Political appointees normally are run through a detailed vetting process that includes looking for details that could become damaging for the candidate and government should they become public. The candidate is also usually asked to volunteer any embarrassing details in their personal lives before an appointment is finalized.
The final decision usually rests with the prime minister.
“Generally, security vetting and/or interviews would catch a situation like this,” said Penny Collenette, who was Jean Chretien’s director of appointments for four years and is now an adjunct law professor at the University of Ottawa. “Obviously, this situation is personally disquieting, both for Julie Payette and for the prime minister.”
An online background check search shows that Payette was charged with second degree assault on Nov. 24 2011. The prosecutor dismissed the charge about two weeks later, on Dec. 8, 2011.
The online records don’t detail what led to the charge. The records also don’t turn up in official Maryland records searches, suggesting they were expunged from the public record. In a statement issued through Rideau Hall, Payette declined to comment.
“For family and personal reasons, I will not comment on these unfounded charges, of which I was immediately and completely cleared many years ago, and I hope that people will respect my private life.”
At the time, Payette was living with her then husband William “Billie” Flynn, a retired Air Force pilot who now is a Lockheed Martin test pilot for the F-35 fighter jet.
Payette and Flynn went through lengthy divorce proceedings that closed in late June when Payette withdrew a motion for child support, based on online Maryland court records. The records also show that a motion to seal the proceedings and accompanying affidavits was filed in Maryland court Tuesday.
Trudeau made Payette the next Governor General without the help of an ad hoc committee of experts.
NDP ethics critic Nathan Cullen said the selection process for the Governor General worked out well in this case — he called Payette over-qualified for the job. But he warned the process could go off the rails in the future, citing the recent controversy around the government’s nomination of Madeleine Meilleur to the role of official languages commissioner.
Meilleur withdrew her candidacy after criticism for her Liberal connections and her donation of about $3,000 to the federal Liberals since 2009.