Toews faces ethics questions

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This article was published 21/04/2017 (2560 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A report published on Friday by Federal Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson has picked apart questionable activities by former Provencher MP Vic Toews, in the months following his retirement from politics in July 2013.

Dawson’s report found Toews breached the Conflict of Interest Act for consulting services he provided to Norway House First Nation in October 2013 through a numbered company owned by his spouse. The act prohibits former public office holders from doing work with anyone they have had direct or significant dealings with in their last year of office for a “cooling-off period” of two years.

Toews, as Manitoba’s regional minister, met with the First Nation community in his final year in office on matters which Dawson viewed as direct and significant official dealings. Toews, in an interview conducted by Dawson in January of this year, said that he could not recall the meetings in question.

Dawson also pointed to Toews’ work providing strategic advice to a law firm representing Peguis First Nation as it related to Kapyong Barracks land in Winnipeg. Toews was involved, during his time as Treasury Board President, in efforts to transfer ownership of the land, a move that was blocked by several First Nations, including Peguis. The matter remained in court until 2015.

Dawson in her report that the act also prevents former public officers from “switching sides” to work on behalf of anyone involved in a proceeding, transaction, negotiation or case, for which they previously worked on the government’s behalf.

Toews told Dawson in his January interview he was hired to lay the ground work for developing the Kapyong lands as a liaison with municipal and provincial officials but did not involve himself in discussions of ongoing court action between Peguis and the federal government.

Dawson’s report, however, highlighted evidence of meetings and an invoice paid to his spouse’s company for Toews’ consulting work that suggested the former MP advised on the Kapyong settlement matter on at least four occasions.

Toews was appointed as a Court of Queen’s Bench judge in March 2014.