Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 18/99) - A saga which gripped the Northwest Territories for the better part of a year might now finally be closed.

On Thursday, NWT Supreme Court Justice John Vertes released his ruling on an application by former premier Don Morin asking the court to rule on the activities of Conflict of Interest Commissioner Anne Crawford in conducting her inquiry into Morin's activities as premier.

Morin had said Crawford was biased and requested a judicial review of the whole matter.

In a 38-page ruling, Vertes rejected the arguments of the former premier's lawyers, saying Crawford's position and action are subject to parliamentary privilege and subject to a review by the courts.

"In this case I have concluded that the power to discipline members for violations of the conflict of interest provisions is an exercise of parliamentary privilege," Vertes wrote.

"I have further concluded that the actions and decision of the Conflict of Interest Commissioner are made within and with respect to that privilege."

Morin's legal team had gone to court in December the day the report was to be presented to assembly Speaker Sam Gargan and asked that it be kept from MLAs.

At that time, Vertes rejected the arguments of Morin's lawyers. Crawford's damning report -- which found numerous violations of conflict provisions on Morin's part -- was made public.

Morin resigned the NWT's top political job soon after. MLAS later voted to accept Crawford's report.

Vertes also had a message for MLAs who argued in December they felt unsure if they had the authority to examine Morin's concerns about Crawford and whether or not she was biased in how she acted -- too bad.

"In my opinion, the fact that the assembly is unsure of the extent of its privileges is immaterial," he wrote. "Either the privilege exists or it does not; either the privilege extends to the actions of the commissioner or it does not."

"... the legislature has retained its privilege over the entire process of internal discipline. The commissioner is merely carrying out some functions within that process."

He also said MLAs had chosen to police themselves using a conflict of interest commissioner and it was up to them to abide by the process.

"I think the simple response to the argument is that the legislators ... chose this process," Vertes wrote. "What Mr. Morin has been found guilty of are not `crimes'; they are contraventions of internal rules of conduct."

Vertes also rejected the notion, put forward by Morin's lawyers, that the NWT's legislature had no constitutional status similar to the federal parliament and the provincial legislatures. Vertes wrote, "It (the legislative assembly) looks like, acts like, and has all the attributes of a legislature in the traditional sense of that term. It is also a legislature in the legal sense of that term ..."

Reached late Thursday afternoon by News/North, Morin said he was unaware the ruling had even been issued.

"I better call my lawyers," he said. "I haven 't even seen in."

In Iqaluit, Crawford said she had received a faxed copy of the judgement.

"Aside from upholding the role of the conflict commissioner as part of the legislature," she said. "It's a very substantial decision for the constitutional development of the territories."