Ethics expert slams U of Manitoba for lack of legal action against law dean accused of misspending
CBC
An ethics expert at the University of Manitoba says he's angry the post-secondary institution hasn't pursued legal action to recoup about half a million dollars a former law dean allegedly misspent — most of which was meant for students.
It "makes one's blood boil" that the university didn't take legal action against Jonathan Black-Branch, said Prof. Arthur Schafer.
"Their failure to be accountable to any extent irresistibly raises the suspicion that they're afraid of any public hearing and about what it will reveal about the university [and] its procedures," said Schafer, who is the founding director of the U of M's Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics.
A civil lawsuit or criminal investigation would expose the university to "public scrutiny" of how administrators handled the money troubles, he notes.
Black-Branch suddenly went on leave in May 2020. A whistleblower complaint led to an internal investigation by the U of M around the same time, which found that summer that a senior university employee misspent university funds.
The university didn't publicly name Black-Branch at the time, but filed a complaint with the law society in 2020.
A Law Society of Manitoba's disciplinary panel is now deliberating over whether to suspend, reprimand, disbar or clear Black-Branch after he allegedly misspent about $500,000 during his time as dean, most of it from a U of M endowment fund he oversaw that was earmarked for student development.
In a statement, the university said it decided not to pursue legal action "after a thorough assessment of its options," instead opting to file the law society complaint.
Winnipeg police said they didn't investigate and no report was ever made to the financial crimes unit.
A U of M law school graduate who was a student research assistant of Black-Branch's in 2019 says he's disappointed his alma mater isn't doing more to hold the former dean to account.
"You can walk and chew gum at the same time, and they seem to have just been content with kind of putting all the work onto someone else — the law society — to produce justice rather than pursuing him themselves," said Adam Lakusta, now an intellectual property lawyer in Alberta.
Lakusta said he doesn't "hold [Black-Branch] in any sort of respect anymore."
"For him to lecture everyone on integrity and honesty in the profession seems beyond hypocritical," he said.
The law society alleges Black-Branch misspent $472,000 for his own professional development courses at Ivy League schools, misrepresenting circumstances around thousands of dollars worth of meals expensed to the university, and manipulating internal processes to have the U of M pay $75,000 to a foundation he was president of.
An 81-year-old man from Prince County has died after a single-vehicle crash on Route 14 near Christopher Cross, police say.
The B.C. government has raised the ceiling to $75,000 for potential damages over intimate-image abuse.
A man was found dead inside a house on Elm Street in Niagara Falls after it caught fire on Wednesday night, police say.
It’s been eight days since Suncor’s Sarnia refinery reported an oil spill into the St. Clair River, and it remains unclear what caused the pipeline leak, how much got into the water — and where cleanup efforts are at.
A joint operation involving Edmonton police has led to the deportation of two men, over what police say is a wave of extortions targeting the city's South Asian community.
Red Lake is hoping a petition will help it land federal funding for a new arena.
An N.W.T. MLA says the territory needs to fiercely protect treaty rights and territorial waters, amid Alberta’s merger of two major river basins, and the proposed treatment and release of oilsands tailings into the environment.
The Supreme Court of Canada will hear arguments against the Liberal government's deeply controversial decision to outlaw certain firearms.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is rejecting Opposition accusations of entitlement for using a private jet last fall courtesy of the Saudi government.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s department of Transportation and Infrastructure is promising policy changes after a Conception Bay South family spoke out about the expropriation and resale of the land where their home once stood.
Nova Scotia’s seniors and long-term care minister is calling on administrators at nursing homes to make direct appeals to their employees amidst protracted contract talks with the union representing workers at more than 50 sites.
A pair of Saint John poverty researchers have told N.B. Power's rate hearing that rising electricity prices are a serious affordability problem for low-income households and the utility or provincial government should match programs in place elsewhere that would help.
Lawyers for a man acquitted in a high-profile Toronto murder trial where a police officer was killed are holding a news conference Thursday to address a recent Ontario Provincial Police report that re-examines evidence from the trial.