Alberta Premier Smith breached Conflicts of Interest Act, says ethics commissioner

Alberta's ethics commissioner says Danielle Smith, in her capacity as premier, contravened the Conflicts of Interest Act in her interactions with the minister of justice and attorney general in relation to criminal charges faced by Calgary street preacher Artur Pawlowski.

"In the whole scheme of things, it is a threat to democracy to interfere with the administration of justice," Alberta Ethics Commissioner Marguerite Trussler wrote in her report.

In January, CBC News reported that a staffer in Smith's office had sent a series of emails to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, challenging prosecutors' assessment and direction on cases stemming from the Coutts border blockades and protests. 

Later that month, CBC News reported that Smith pressured Justice Minister Tyler Shandro and his office to intervene in COVID-related court cases, according to multiple sources familiar with the interactions. 

Smith would ask for updates on cases or inquire whether it was possible to abandon them, specifically including the prosecution of Artur Pawlowski, a pastor who was then facing charges of two counts of criminal mischief and a charge under Alberta's Critical Infrastructure Defence Act related to the Coutts border blockade.

In March, CBC News reported on a leaked call on which Smith spoke to Pawlowski just weeks before his criminal trial, in which she said she had already been having "almost weekly" communication with justice department officials.

Trussler wrote in her report that she had found no evidence of emails as described by CBC News and "could only come to the conclusion, based on the evidence that I have, that no Crown prosecutor was emailed directly about any of the cases."

"There appears to be no interference with the independence of prosecutors on this level," she wrote.

In her report, Trussler wrote that Smith called Shandro on Jan. 6 in the evening. During the call, the premier didn't advise Shandro that she had had a personal telephone call with Pawloski, Trussler writes, and started the conversation by "stating that she did not know if it was appropriate to call him."

"She advised that he indicated that she could continue as the deputy minister shielded him from the COVID-related cases. While she says that she started to talk about the cases generally, at some point she turned to Mr. Pawloski's case," Trussler writes. "It is important to note that this call was only a few hours after the Pawloski call."

Shandro remembered a different version of the conversation, Trussler said. He did not recall the premier beginning the call by asking if it was OK for her to ask about the COVID-related prosecutions.

"He advised me that he never felt any such conversation would be appropriate and that he almost certainly would have not indicated it was OK to proceed," she said. "He remembered that there was a brief conversation generally about COVID-related prosecutions, but Premier Smith turned very quickly to Mr. Pawloski's case, which Minister Shandro understood was the reason for the call."

Shandro also recalled that during the call, but not at the beginning of the call, Smith asked him about the extent to which he could get involved in a prosecution, Trussler wrote. Smith pointed out that he was the attorney general, and seemed to suggest something that was influenced by a letter sent by Ezra Levant, who runs the right-wing media company Rebel News, she wrote.

In response, Shandro recalled that he tried to explain the role of the attorney general and said while the Crown prosecution service is under his authority, he could not personally get involved in files or speak to prosecutors. He made the point that there is a separation between his office, and that of the prosecutors.