Ex-minister broke ethics

Photo: The Canadian Press

Canada's former public safety minister has had his wrist slapped by the federal ethics commissioner for violating conflict of interest rules — and a democracy watchdog wants the Canadian Judicial Council to review the matter.

Vic Toews, who is now a judge in Manitoba, violated the Conflict of Interest Act twice in the months following his departure from politics in 2013 by working for two First Nations with which he had direct dealings during his time in office.

Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson released her report Friday, two years after initial complaints were made about Toews' post-cabinet activities.

The 41-page report finds Toews was hired to do lobbying and consulting work on behalf of two First Nations in Manitoba in the months after he left office. The contracts violated two different aspects of the Conflict of Interest Act.

In one, Toews provided strategic legal advice to Peguis First Nation and even helped draft a settlement proposal to the federal government related to the Kapyong Barracks dispute in Winnipeg. In 2007, Toews was the minister who signed off on the sale of the former military barracks, and was later named as a defendant in a lawsuit from First Nations, including Peguis, about the sale.

In that instance, Toews violated the part of the act which bars cabinet ministers for life from doing work on an issue they handled while in office.

"In providing strategic advice on a proposed settlement agreement in relation to the Kapyong matter, and in participating in its drafting, Mr. Toews switched sides," Dawson says in the executive summary of her report.

In the second matter, Toews violated Sec. 35 of the act because he signed a contract to provide consulting services for Norway House Cree Nation. His work included touching on a trust fund issue which the First Nation had lobbied him directly about on two occasions less than a year earlier.

Former cabinet ministers are prevented from working for an entity which lobbied them while in government for two years after leaving office.