 |
|
|
|
|
  
|
South Baffin MLA guilty of integrity slip-up 'Maybe, in hindsight, I shouldn't have sent the e-mail," Fred Schell says of 'intimidating' correspondence to bureaucrat Casey Lessard Northern News Services Published Friday, October 21, 2011
Commissioner Norman Pickell said the South Baffin MLA is guilty of using his position to try to influence a government employee after sending the e-mail about a contract between his company, Polar Supplies, and the Hamlet of Cape Dorset. The legislative assembly now has to vote on whether they will accept the commissioner's findings.
"I have to accept his decision," Schell told Nunavut News/North.
He was elected to the legislative assembly in October 2008. He was accused of four breaches of the Integrity Act, but found guilty of only one, stemming from a meeting about a contract for road construction in the hamlet. The Speaker of the legislative assembly presented the allegations, made by deputy justice minister Janet Slaughter, as well as Pickell's decision, to the legislature in an Oct. 18 report.
Pickell's recommendation to censure Schell relates to an e-mail sent June 23, 2009, in reply to one sent by GN employee Timoon Toonoo about a meeting the previous day.
Schell had attended the meeting between Polar Supplies and the Department of Community and Government Services (CGS) to act as a source of information about a contract for road construction in the hamlet. The hamlet chose to do the work itself instead of hiring Schell's company.
He had filed to put his business into a blind trust, to remove his decision-making powers over it, in September 2009 but it did not become official until January 2010. Until then, he was the sole owner of Polar Supplies, and he argued that he was the only person who could answer the questions about the business at the meeting.
Accused of breaching the Integrity Act by being at the meeting, Schell was found not guilty on this count because his role did not influence any decisions about the contract.
"Basically, it was a very vague contract which my person in charge of Polar Supplies was not aware of, so I sat in on the meeting to explain it," Schell said.
The next day, however, Schell sent what Pickell called an "intimidating" e-mail to Toonoo, who "knew he was an MLA," the commissioner's report stated.
Among other "demands and threats," according to the report, Schell wrote in the e-mail that he expected the department would agree Polar Supplies had done work to start the access road construction project, and should be able to complete the project with the "support" of the department to ensure "the hamlet starts to treat us fairly and keeps to their agreements."
Writing that the department's decision not to side with Polar Supplies was "insulting" and "disappointing," Schell told Toonoo his lawyer was prepared to "take this to the next level," but would "give CGS the chance to correct the error you made."
Pickell said Schell should not have had any communications with Toonoo after the meeting, and that Polar Supplies' manager could have sent Schell's e-mail under her name instead to avoid the conflict.
Pickell found Schell guilty of not conducting his private affairs in ways that promote and maintain public confidence in his integrity, objectivity and impartiality.
"Maybe, in hindsight, I shouldn't have sent the e-mail," Schell said.
He said he has not been involved with the business since it was put into trust.
Schell took over the Human Resources portfolio Sept. 28, well after Slaughter presented her allegations, dated June 7, to the integrity commissioner on June 9. Premier Eva Aariak said she did not learn of the allegations until they were tabled in the legislature.
"Absolutely not," Aariak said when asked if she was aware of the situation before Schell was given the portfolio. "He was a regular member when the investigation was on. This is private information until the integrity commissioner (decided) what he had to do, and then it was released."
If the caucus decides to censure Schell, Pickell recommended he be reprimanded and make a public apology in the legislative assembly, write an apology to Toonoo, meet with "his elders," pay a $500 fine and read the Integrity Act orientation manual for MLAs. He also recommended Schell's right to sit in the legislature be suspended if he fails to do these things in a timeframe set out in the report.
"You have to be bit more careful about what you do," Schell said of what he has learned from the incident. "I guess my assumption that because it (the business) wasn't in trust, I could to this, was wrong. I guess I'll just have to make sure this doesn't happen again."
|
