Questions of fitness from the very start

OTTAWA • The appointment of Julie Payette was controversial from the outset.

Shortly after she took the job as Canada’s governor general, it emerged that she’d been charged with second-degree assault while living in Maryland in 2011.

She called the charge unfounded, and it has since been expunged.

But as details of that incident emerged, so did revelations that she was involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident that same year. The case was closed without charges after a police investigation.

Both incidents raised immediate questions about how thoroughly she had been vetted for the high profile post, and accusations she wasn’t the right fit for it have dogged her ever since.

Payette, a 57-year-old former astronaut, was named to the position in 2017.

Her predecessor david Johnston had been selected by the previous Conservative government using an ad hoc committee that was later turned into an official panel on vice-regal appointments.

But upon forming government in 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau abandoned that approach and moved the selection process inside his office.

She did not move into the official residence of rideau Hall when she took the job, and she still isn’t living there, citing privacy concerns linked to ongoing renovations. Instead, Payette based herself in her home province of Quebec, where she has also spent a great deal of time during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As reports of how she was allegedly treating her staff emerged, Trudeau expressed his confidence in her abilities, dismissing the idea of replacing her. At the time, the Privy Council Office hired Quintet Consulting Corp. to conduct a third-party investigation into allegations of workplace harassment in her office. That came after CBC reports alleged that Payette belittled and publicly humiliated employees, reducing some to tears and prompting some to quit.

during an interview on red FM’S The Harjinder Thind Show in Vancouver in September Trudeau said she was excellent. “I think on top of the COVID crisis, nobody’s looking at any constitutional crises,” he said.

While the Governor General is a largely symbolic position, it does have some constitutional importance, particularly during a minority government such as the one Canada has now.

In 2008, former prime minister Stephen Harper asked then-governor general Michaëlle Jean to prorogue Parliament to avoid a non-confidence vote he was expected to lose — a decision that was controversial at the time but in keeping with constitutional tradition.

In the event a Governor General can’t carry out the job, is removed, or dies, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada assumes the office’s powers as long as necessary.