Government, health authority seek injunction against former Alberta Health Services CEO

A Court of King's Bench judge has reserved her decision on the province's request to compel the former CEO of Alberta Health Services to delete work emails she sent to her private account the day before she was fired.

Lawyers representing the Alberta government and Alberta Health Services argued in an Edmonton courtroom Friday that the nine emails they know about contain confidential information that belongs to AHS. They are seeking an injunction against Athana Mentzelopoulos from sharing the material. 

The government also wants the court to compel Mentzelopoulos to face cross-examination by its lawyers to find out who she has already sent that information to. Mentzelopoulos's lawyer Dan Scott called such an exercise, "a fishing expedition."

The injunction request is tied to a wrongful dismissal lawsuit Mentzelopoulos filed against her former employer and Alberta's health minister earlier this year.

She claims she lost her job, in part, because she had launched an investigation and forensic audit and was taking a second look at the prices in contracts involving the Alberta Surgical Group before extending the agreement.

Mentzelopoulos also widened the AHS investigations to include the procurement of medical supplies.

LaGrange and AHS have denied the allegations in her statement of claim. 

On Friday, lawyer Munaf Mohamed argued for the government that Mentzelopoulos violated her employment contract by forwarding the emails. The document says an employee cannot take confidential information belonging to AHS when they leave the organization.

AHS said in an amended statement of defence that it learned in mid-March that Mentzelopoulos forwarded nine confidential emails to her personal email account on January 7. Mohamed said two of those emails are protected by solicitor-client privilege.

Mohamed also alleged that Mentzelopoulos has purposely avoided cross-examination on what AHS material she has and who she shared it with.

"If she comes under oath and tells us she's deleted it all, no one saw it other than her, I'm not going to have a problem," he told the judge. 

Mohamed said if Mentzelopoulos needs the documents she can access them through discovery as the lawsuit proceeds. 

Scott told the court his client has already deleted the emails. 

Mentzelopoulos's allegations about AHS procurement and contracting have led the Alberta auditor general and RCMP to launch investigations. The Alberta government has also hired a former provincial court judge from Manitoba to look at AHS contracting.