Ex-Public Servants Appointed to Watchdog Positions in N.L.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government appoints officials to watchdog positions directly from the departments and organizations whose decisions they must now review.

For example, the Child and Youth Advocate is currently investigating a series of allegations of sexual assault committed against young people in state custody. Linda Clemens Spurrell was assistant deputy minister responsible for child protective services between 2019 and 2022, the period during which several of the alleged assaults took place.

This situation harms the credibility of the bodies supposed to monitor political decision-makers and civil servants, according to a former deputy minister, a former Crown prosecutor and a political scientist interviewed by Radio-Canada.

She will investigate herselfaffirms Mike Murraya former Crown prosecutor who retired last year.

According to documents including CBC obtained a copy, social workers expressed concerns about the accused, Tony Humbyin reports written in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023. Arrested in April 2023, the man faces 72 counts related to alleged sex crimes against minors.

When a person is in a leadership position, there will inevitably be conflicts of interestsays the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Andrew Fureystressing that the Defender’s Office will be able to conduct an impartial investigation, according to him.

There may be conflicts, but the important thing is how you handle them.

The Defender’s Office also affirmed that it will take the necessary measures to carry out an impartial investigation.

This is not acceptable

Ron Penneyformer provincial deputy minister of Justice between 1979 and 1984, recalls that Linda Clemens Spurell is far from being the first parliamentary agent to be appointed immediately after having been an executive within the ministry that she must now supervise.

He points out that the last three auditors general of the province had worked, either as deputy minister of Finance or as clerk of the Privy Council, just before their appointment to head the office of the VGsupposed to investigate the government’s financial policies and spending.

They had been directly involved in budgetary policies for yearshe recalls.

In July 2023, Kevin Faganat the time a vice-president at Hydro Newfoundland and Labrador, was appointed as a commissioner of the Public Utilities Board, an independent commission regulating the province’s energy companies.

This is not acceptable and I think people have less confidence in the work they dohe believes.

Provincial intervention

Last year, the provincial government intervened to avoid the possibility of conflicts of interest during an investigation led by a parliamentary agent.

The province sued the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Michael Harveybecause the latter wanted to look into the cyberattack that paralyzed the health system in 2021.

Michael Harvey had worked as an assistant deputy minister in the Department of Health and Community Services before his appointment as Information Commissioner. The investigation was finally entrusted to an assistant to the commissioner.

If the defender tells us that there is a conflict of interest, we could give her support so she can manage itaffirms Andrew Furey. If we need to find someone else down the line, that’s okay.

Russell Williamsa political scientist at Memorial University, points out that Newfoundland and Labrador has only half a million people and the pool of candidates for watchdog positions is rather limited.

However, he believes that the government must do everything possible to appoint parliamentary agents whose impartiality will not be called into question.

This is obviously not an ideal situation if the people expected to investigate are closely tied to the policies being examinedsupports the assistant professor.

With information from CBC’s Rob Antle