Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 09/02) - Embattled former conflict of interest commissioner Carol Roberts is barking up the wrong tree, the territorial government will argue this week.

Carol Roberts: battling to get her job back.

The government is asking the NWT Supreme Court to throw out a lawsuit filed by Roberts. Government lawyers will argue commissioner Glenna Hansen, the only person named in the lawsuit, had nothing to do with the decision to fire Roberts.

"In the matter of Ms. Roberts appointment and the revocation of it, the commissioner ... acted exclusively on the advice of the legislative assembly," submitted the government in its Dec. 21 response to the lawsuit.

The motion to dismiss is scheduled to be heard this Friday in the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories.

Roberts is asking the courts to order the government to give her her job back, pay her what she would have received since being fired and cover her legal costs.

The firing was recommended by a special committee of MLAs appointed to investigate allegations of bias against Roberts and the secret recording of phone calls to her by her accuser, Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen.

On Oct. 24 the assembly accepted the recommendation, which included a provision directing Hansen to revoke Roberts appointment if the conflict commissioner refused to resign.

Roberts refused to resign, drawing Hansen into the fray. Hansen may only act on the recommendations of the assembly or cabinet. She is also the only official with the authority to undo the appointment.

The territorial government's response to the application included a political history of the North, focusing on the transformation of the commissioner's role from an all-powerful administrator to a figurehead.