Justice Minister Jonathan Denis is one of the defendants named in Sauvageau’s lawsuit. (CBC)
Sauvageau is seeking a total of $5.15 million in the lawsuit. It names Denis, Justice deputy ministers Tim Grant and Kim Armstrong, and assistant deputy ministers Maryann Everett and Donavon Young.
No statement of defence has been filed and none of the allegations contained in the lawsuit has been proven in court.
Political interference alleged
The lawsuit alleges Sauvageau was under “intense pressure” in 2014 to approve amendments to the body transportation contract, “in order to appease the Alberta Funeral Services Association and ‘the rural vote.’”
Sauvageau says in the lawsuit she opposed the new contract because it was too costly. She claims she pointed out that the chief medical examiner’s office would need to spend an additional $3 million over three years to meet requests made by the funeral services association.
The lawsuit claims that when Sauvageau objected, Everett told her, “You think too much of the taxpayers.”
The lawsuit alleges Sauvageau’s concerns were overruled and Alberta Justice prepared the new contract after meetings, from which she was excluded, between the department and the funeral services association.
Sauvageau says in the lawsuit she sent Premier Jim Prentice a briefing note that described her objections to the new contract, laid out the documented problems with the body transportation service, and detailed political interference in the operations of her office.
The lawsuit alleges Sauvageau told Premier Jim Prentice about political interference in her office. (CBC)
She claims Prentice told her in a Sept. 25, 2014, letter that he would not intervene or meet with her because she had already complained to Alberta’s public interest commissioner about political interference.
The next day, the lawsuit claims, Justice deputy minister Tim Grant told Sauvageau her contract would not be renewed. Sauvageau alleges Grant did not provide a reason for the decision.
Staffing decision quashed
The lawsuit alleges Sauvageau was directed not to fire an employee of her office, even though human resources had recommended the employee be fired.
The lawsuit alleges the employee had reported a colleague was going to come into the office with a gun and kill everyone. A subsequent human resources investigation determined the first employee should be fired because the complaint was “malicious.”
But the lawsuit claims Everett told Sauvageau that Justice deputy minister Tim Grant “was forbidding the firing of the employee because it was feared she might be a family relative of the deputy chief of staff, operations, for then-premier Hancock, and now Premier Prentice.”
George Samoil served as Hancock’s deputy chief of staff and holds the same position under Prentice. It is not clear from the lawsuit whether Samoil would have had any knowledge of this alleged interference.
Pressure to view body
Alberta’s former chief medical examiner has launched a $5-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit against Justice Minister Jonathan Denis and four senior government bureaucrats.
In a statement of claim filed Tuesday, Dr. Anny Sauvageau makes sensational allegations of political interference in the operations of her office.
The most controversial allegation is that Alberta Justice negotiated a costly new body transportation contract without her approval in order to appease the province’s funeral services association and curry political favour in rural ridings.
Sauvageau alleges that Justice officials ignored financial analysis, which found the new contract was not cost effective, as well as a litany of documented complaints about the existing body transportation services.
The complaints included:
- A body of a deceased being placed for transportation in the open box of a pickup truck;
- Funeral services staff taking pictures of crime scenes for personal collections;
- Funeral services staff misrepresenting themselves at scenes as being from the chief medical examiner’s office;
- Funeral homes charging both the medical examiner’s office and the deceased’s family for transportation of the same body;
- Funeral homes overcharging the medical examiner’s office for body transportation.
Sauvageau also claims in the lawsuit she was told not to fire a member of her staff because the employee might be a relative of then-premier Dave Hancock’s deputy chief of staff.
In September, CBC News obtained documents that showed Sauvageau had repeatedly complained to Alberta Justice deputy minister Tim Grant about what she called “regular political and bureaucratic interference in all aspects of the death investigation system.”
Denis has publicly denied there was evidence to support an investigation into her allegations.
Sauvageau alleges in her lawsuit that senior Alberta Justice officials retaliated by reneging on a promise to renew her contract, then fabricated performance issues to justify their decision. The lawsuit details several promises, both written and verbal, Sauvageau claims were made to her about renewing her contract for a five-year term.
Justice Minister Jonathan Denis is one of the defendants named in Sauvageau’s lawsuit. (CBC)
Sauvageau is seeking a total of $5.15 million in the lawsuit. It names Denis, Justice deputy ministers Tim Grant and Kim Armstrong, and assistant deputy ministers Maryann Everett and Donavon Young.
No statement of defence has been filed and none of the allegations contained in the lawsuit has been proven in court.
Political interference alleged
The lawsuit alleges Sauvageau was under “intense pressure” in 2014 to approve amendments to the body transportation contract, “in order to appease the Alberta Funeral Services Association and ‘the rural vote.’”
Sauvageau says in the lawsuit she opposed the new contract because it was too costly. She claims she pointed out that the chief medical examiner’s office would need to spend an additional $3 million over three years to meet requests made by the funeral services association.
The lawsuit claims that when Sauvageau objected, Everett told her, “You think too much of the taxpayers.”
The lawsuit alleges Sauvageau’s concerns were overruled and Alberta Justice prepared the new contract after meetings, from which she was excluded, between the department and the funeral services association.
Sauvageau says in the lawsuit she sent Premier Jim Prentice a briefing note that described her objections to the new contract, laid out the documented problems with the body transportation service, and detailed political interference in the operations of her office.
The lawsuit alleges Sauvageau told Premier Jim Prentice about political interference in her office. (CBC)
She claims Prentice told her in a Sept. 25, 2014, letter that he would not intervene or meet with her because she had already complained to Alberta’s public interest commissioner about political interference.
The next day, the lawsuit claims, Justice deputy minister Tim Grant told Sauvageau her contract would not be renewed. Sauvageau alleges Grant did not provide a reason for the decision.
Staffing decision quashed
The lawsuit alleges Sauvageau was directed not to fire an employee of her office, even though human resources had recommended the employee be fired.
The lawsuit alleges the employee had reported a colleague was going to come into the office with a gun and kill everyone. A subsequent human resources investigation determined the first employee should be fired because the complaint was “malicious.”
But the lawsuit claims Everett told Sauvageau that Justice deputy minister Tim Grant “was forbidding the firing of the employee because it was feared she might be a family relative of the deputy chief of staff, operations, for then-premier Hancock, and now Premier Prentice.”
George Samoil served as Hancock’s deputy chief of staff and holds the same position under Prentice. It is not clear from the lawsuit whether Samoil would have had any knowledge of this alleged interference.
Pressure to view body
As CBC News reported in September, internal documents from the chief medical examiner’s office show that last May, former deputy ministers Peter Watson and Steve MacDonald asked for special treatment by the chief medical examiner’s office in relation to a specific case.
Sauvageau’s lawsuit alleges Watson, “pressured the death investigator to modify the policies and procedures with respect to body viewing,” which she alleges is a violation of the Fatality Inquiries Act.
At the time, Watson was the deputy minister of executive council, the most powerful bureaucrat in the provincial government. He is now chairman of the federal National Energy Board.
The lawsuit alleges Watson called the chief medical examiner’s office on behalf of a close relative of a former cabinet minister.
Sauvageau claims MacDonald, then the deputy minister of advanced education, called to request information on the autopsy findings and to ensure the same body would soon be released to the family.
CBC News has confirmed the deceased was Shazim Khan, a 19-year-old relative of current Service Alberta Minister Stephen Khan.
Khan was previously the minister of advanced education.
If you have information about this story, or anything else you think is newsworthy, contact us in confidence at cbcinvestigates@cbc.ca.
Source:: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/dr-anny-sauvageau-former-chief-medical-examiner-sues-alberta-justice-1.2945551?cmp=rss
