By Rachel Ward

Lena Diab says her constituency office is only minutes from where she grew up. Now she’s not only representing her long time neighbourhood of Halifax Armdale in provincial politics as a member of the legislative assembly, but writing the laws that will govern everyone in Nova Scotia.

Diab is about to begin her second year as the minister of justice, minister of immigration and attorney general of Nova Scotia. The job builds on her over twenty years of experience as a lawyer, having worked in a wide variety of areas. She’s been careful to leave that behind, as well as her family’s small property management business.

“To be an MLA is a full time job itself,” said Diab in an interview.

More than that, her new position as a member of the government’s executive team – leading discussions around new laws and more – could create potential conflict with her old career responsibilities, had she stayed involved with those.

“I don’t think it would have been possible to continue to practice law,” said Diab.

Part of the problem is that being a member of the legislative assembly is more than enough work, said Louise Cabrert, a political scientist with Dalhousie University, via email, although “historically, being a politician wasn’t expected to be a full-time job.”

Many politicians earn additional income while in office, said Carbert, held back only by “public opinion,” not laws. The rules are different for the big players, including Diab. She is covered by conflict of interest legislation – and it’s that, along with the potential for perceived conflict of interest, that she was trying to avoid.

For example, Diab had been the registered agent for Jono Developments Ltd, a property development company owned by Joe Metlege. Just last fall the company launched a suit against Halifax Regional Municipality, saying the city violated its own policy when selling a surplus school in the city’s North End.

A different lawyer – not Diab – took the case to court. Diab had just been elected, and was about to be appointed as the attorney general, responsible for the Crown.

“I was the registered agent for many, many companies,” said Diab. “That’s part of what I did as a lawyer.”

Diab says she is no longer with the company, and shouldn’t be listed on Joint Stocks.

“Am I still?” she said. “I don’t think so.”

The page, accessed most recently on September 8, 2014, says she is. Diab attributes this discrepancy to the slow process it takes to update the registry.

View a timeline of Diab’s career highlights:

The Nova Scotia Barristers Society, the regulatory body for lawyer, says it supports Diab in how carefully she eliminated any potential for perceived conflict.

“There’s no problem with lawyers who are elected as members of the legislature to continue practicing. Many of them do and have over the years. That doesn’t create a problem,” said Darrel Pink, the NSBS executive director.

“But once they are appointed to cabinet that does change their obligations.”

Listen to Darrel Pink explain conflict of interest expectations:

Diab says she was careful to separate her two lives, and move on to the new adventure. She says Stephen MacNeil, the Liberal party leader and new premier, called her himself to offer the cabinet posting.

“I can tell you, I was thrilled.”

The appointment is a first for Nova Scotia. She’s the first female attorney general. On the walls of her office are portraits of the previous attorney generals back two hundred and fifty years.

“They were all great men, but they were all men,” says Diab.

“I didn’t get that position because I’m a woman, but I think it’s great that I am.”

Diab says her entire career has led to where she is now. She spent over twenty years in a “smaller” law firm on Chebucto Road, touching many branches of law, including real estate, family, estate, etc. The province also appointed her to help on several appeal boards, including ones for the Residential Tenancy Act, property assessments and parking tickets. She says she’s also been a volunteer in her community. Politics partners all those interests, she says.

“Taking on the justice portfolio was just an extension of that.”

As well as being a full time lawyer, Diab ran a small family business owning and managing income properties scatters throughout Halifax and Bedford. The good timing of her children’s ages and education helped with her being able to jump into politics. She’s stepped back, and left that job in the hands of her children – most are now graduated or almost graduated – and her husband, her business partner. Together they own 13 properties worth more than $6.3 million.

“They’re educated, they’re smart. It’s not difficult for them,” says Diab, referring to her children. “My husband’s very good at it. He’s been doing it for 38 years.”

View all of Diab’s properties here:

Diab ran on a platform highlighting her experience as a small business owner in the real estate field. Those connections helped fund her campaign, with over $18,000 in donations. Her father, Steven Metlege, for whom she helped appeal his income property’s water bill in 2008, donated $1,500.

A few other interesting names scatter the list. Cathy Fares, the wife of the honorary Lebanese consulate for Atlantic Canada and a local development company owner, gave $1,000. Joseph Ghosn, owner of an investment company, gave $500, and Solomon Ghosn, owner of Barrington Lane Developments, gave $1,000. Tony Ramia, a business owner and brother of convention centre developer Joe Ramia, also gave that amount.

Diab is now the minister responsible for the Elections Act that oversees all of the expenses and donations rules. Diab spent a total of $39,374.88 on the campaign, all going towards paying her staff, headquarter expenses, some events, and none on “personal expenses,” according to election filings. Since her election last fall, she’s received a total compensation of just over $98,000, according to public disclosure documents.

Diab has been busy in government and her new career. She was  in the news when a man, wrongfully convicted, sued the province for compensation. She’s also introduced six bills, and says she has spearheaded a project intended to speed up wait times for people going through the court system.

“I love what I’m doing, and I love the opportunity to be able to use my legal background and my community experience to affect changes in the law and in legislation to better help our Nova Scotians.”

A look behind the 2009-2010 hiring debacle at Enterprise Cape Breton Corp.

photo credit: Reuters/Canadian Press

John Lynn, CEO of Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC) may have been set up to fail.  But the ambiguous wording in one paragraph of public sector integrity commissioner Mario Dion’s 2014 Report into Lynn’s “inappropriate” hiring practices at ECBC shows that Lynn may have had reason to believe he was acting within his mandate.

Lynn was appointed Chief Executive Officer of ECBC by long-time friend, Peter MacKay, through a 2008 Order in Council.  MacKay was then Minister for ACOA which oversees ECBC.  Lynn was a constituent of MacKay’s Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough riding.

He probably did not foresee his very public firing in 2014.

Controversial hires

It was a twisted web Lynn wove and it smacked of patronage.  The four executives hired by Lynn at ECBC in 2009 were Ken Langley, a former chief of staff to former Nova Scotia premier John Buchanan (of the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party); Allan Murphy, who ran for the Conservatives in 2011 and was former chief of staff to Peter MacKay; Robert MacLean, a former executive assistant to Cecil Clark when Clark was a Progressive Conservative member of the Nova Scotia government; and Nancy Baker, who worked for Peter MacKay when he was Minister for ACOA.

The investigation

The investigation into Lynn’s hiring practices at ECBC was initiated by the federal Liberal Atlantic caucus which accused the Conservatives and ECBC of blatant patronage in its appointment of its four executive officers.

Liberal MP for Cape Breton-Canso, Rodger Cuzner, says his party also called for a second investigation into Conservative hiring practices by the Public Service Commission, to ensure ”all public servants must act with integrity and accountability and be perceived as doing so”.

Dion released his Report in May, 2014.  

Dion found that ”relating to Mr. John Lynn, the Chief Executive Officer of the [ECBC], I found that although Mr. Lynn had the authority to appoint four individuals without a formal process that he nonetheless seriously breached ECBC’s own code of conduct which resulted in my making this finding of wrongdoing.”

Dion called the ”Conservative political pedigrees” of the four executives “noteworthy”.   All four had “undeniable links to the Conservative Party” and MacKay – though no fault was found by the commission on MacKay’s part.

In a strongly worded report, Dion said that “Mr. Lynn’s actions were not only unfair but also improper, and they [did]not stand up to the test of public scrutiny. Mr. Lynn seriously breached ECBC’s code of conduct…when he appointed four individuals with political ties to ECBC executive positions without demonstrating that the appointments were merit-based.”

“The unilateral hiring of these four individuals within the federal public sector by Mr. Lynn creates a perception of political patronage, and contributes to my finding of wrongdoing…”

Lynn was fired as he was hired, by Order in Council.

Baker’s job at ECBC was filled by MacKay friend, Allan Murphy.

Who is Nancy Baker?

Of the four executives hired by Lynn, Baker is the anomaly.  She finished her three-year term with ECBC and slid away unscathed into her new position as policy advisor to Justice Minister Peter MacKay.  And she didn’t have to move far: she had never left Ottawa for the lovely isle.  In fact, many people working at ECBC did not know her position existed.

The press – and federal government – have been quiet about Baker. But why the difference between her career path and the others? Being out of sight in Ottawa likely helped. As well, her job as director of government relations and advocacy for ECBC had never been advertised.  She was in essence, invisible.

Although Baker worked for MacKay at ACOA, he would not have been able to ensure her position once the ACOA file moved to New Brunswick MP Keith Ashfield in 2008.

Cuzner says “the appointment to ECBC was a safe haven for Baker until something came up in Ottawa”.

 Baker began her political career as a staffer to (then) Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley MP, Bill Casey, in his Ottawa office in 1993.  Baker worked briefly for the provincial Conservatives during a break in Casey’s tenure, then returned to work for him.

Nancy Baker timeline 2

Casey effuses about Baker and describes her as a “super person”.  He says she has an excellent perspective on issues, especially relating to people, and she was an astute employee who insisted that everything be done by the book.  

Casey also says Baker was well respected on the Hill and he always valued her opinion.  When interviewed, Casey refrained from commenting about the ECBC investigation and did not indicate that he had been following the story. 

Baker has a strong Conservative pedigree. Her father, Walter Baker, was a popular Member of Parliament from Grenville-Carleton (now Nepean-Carleton) in Ottawa.  He was elected to Parliament four times in 1970, 1974, 1979 and 1980.  

Walter Baker was also the impetus behind many government issues that are still debated today, in particular, the first Freedom of Information Bill (Bill C-15).   That died with the defeat of Prime Minister Joe Clark but much of Baker’s original Bill became part of the current Access to Information Act.

Baker’s career trajectory continues to soar, seemingly unmarred by the investigation into the ECBC hiring scandal.

Omission or commission?

Did the federal Conservatives word Lynn’s mandate loosely in order to distance themselves from public scrutiny?  His authority with respect to hiring practices is ambiguous.

In his report, Dion noted that Lynn did have ”the authority to appoint four individuals without a formal process…”[emphasis added]

Cuzner says it is almost impossible to hold governments accountable in these cases because “these arrangements are done with a wink and a nudge. There is never a paper trail on hiring.”

Lynn’s mandate may have been doomed from the start but in the end, he is the only player who was harshly treated by the integrity commission. The people who put him in that position walked away twice: when he hired his executives and when he was investigated.

Baker seems to be cautiously coddled within the Conservative Party family but when the situation got messy, no one had John Lynn’s back.

A lot more Nova Scotians are complaining about their doctors these days. And according to patient advocates, that’s a good thing.

Want to take an incompetent doctor to task? Ditch the lawsuit and call up the doctors’ regulators instead, say experts.

A growing number of Nova Scotians are doing just that. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia (CPSNS), the agency that disciplines doctors, fielded almost 45 per cent more complaints last year than they did in 2008. While it’s difficult to verify how much actual medical incidents may be increasing, “what this tells us is that more patients and families are finding their voice,” says Jennifer Rodgers, a patient safety improvement lead at the Canadian Patient Safety Institute. “And in the patient safety world, that’s part of the solution.”

Based on data sent by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia’s Pattie Lacroix 

A solution, patient advocates hope, that will prevent fatal medical blunders like the biopsy botched by Truro surgeon Martin Dzierzanowski. In 2012, Dzierzanowski removed a patient’s pancreas instead of his gall bladder. The patient later died in a Halifax hospital. Last week, the College wrapped up a two-year investigation of Dzierzanowski and formally reprimanded him for “deficiencies in his practice”. In 2012, he had been banned from performing major surgeries for a year. Now, he is able to practice with certain restrictions, but his surgeries will be audited for the next six months.

Whether or not that’s the punishment the patient’s family would have chosen, the College is still the only body with the power to formally discipline doctors, which is why even some medical malpractice lawyers will tell clients to file a complaint with the College.

Why complain?

Raymond Wagner, a personal injury lawyer in Halifax, says complaints help the College to flag doctors who have chronic problems, something lawsuits can’t do. “We’ve had multiple suits against the same physician and you get to wonder, from our end, how that doctor continues to practice, given the amount of carnage they have caused in terms of unnecessary deaths,” he says.

Listen to Raymond Wagner on why complaints to the College matter 

Pattie LaCroix, communications director at the CPSNS, said in an emailed response that the College “can review material that is in the public domain as one source of information”, meaning that prior lawsuits against a doctor can be taken into account during an investigation.

But usually, the College will only investigate a physician after a patient complaint, says John McKiggan, who also practices personal injury law in Halifax. So even if a doctor has been sued multiple times before, “when finally someone down the road decides to file a complaint, to the college it looks like a first offence.”

Lawyers like McKiggan had heard about Dzierzanowski long before the gall bladder incident. In 2010, Dzieranowski performed surgery on a 91-year-old patient in Pictou named Walter Langille, after a pathologist incorrectly diagnosed Langille with colon cancer. During the surgery, even though Dzierzanowski couldn’t find the cancerous cells, he still removed a large part of Langille’s colon. Langille spent the rest of his life wearing a colostomy bag. On the urging of his family, Langille sued the pathologist and Dzierzanowski. They settled out of court for a modest claim, and Dzierzanowski continued to practice surgery.

Down by law

There are other reasons a lawsuit might not be the best first choice when dealing with medical malpractice. For starters, they’re very hard to win in Canada. According to data from the Canadian Medical Protective Association, the organization that defends doctors in legal cases, in 2013 its member physicians won two and a half times as many court cases as the plaintiffs did.

And, of course, they’re expensive: Wagner says a medical malpractice suit could cost up to $500,000, and these days many lawyers won’t bother with a medical malpractice suit if they don’t expect it to net at least $300,000 in damages.

That may be why there are about half as many lawsuits against Canadian doctors as there were twenty years ago, according to CMPA data. At the same time, physicians across Canada are contacting the CMPA to help with College cases they’re implicated in nearly twice as often as they did a decade ago:

Graph: Canadian Medical Protection Association Annual Report, 2013

Wagner thinks Canadians are becoming less willing to say  “this is God’s will, we just need to suck it up and carry on with our lives,” and more likely to want to hold doctors accountable for their actions. “There’s an element of public protection that goes into it. People do legitimately state on a regular basis, I don’t want this to happen to someone else.”

A family doctor disciplined three times for drug abuse in the last 10 years is accepting new patients in a Dartmouth clinic, bringing to light a widespread problem among Nova Scotia physicians.

Meet Stephen Harley. The ex-drug addict spent years in and out of rehab programs, fighting a destructive addiction to narcotics. He lied, cheated, filled out illegal medical records, all for a few pills of Dilaudid or Hydromorph Contin. He lost his job more than once, stuck in a cycle of quitting, relapsing and avoiding the many drug tests imposed to him. Stephen Harley is not any drug addict. He is also a family doctor, who admittedly abused his powers as a physician to obtain narcotics and feed his addiction.

According to The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia, Harley started using in 2004, writing “fraudulent narcotics prescriptions for his family and friends, which he then used for himself.” For four years, the phony prescription scheme went on. Until a confidential complaint was lodged in May 2008.

His license was immediately suspended and he was sent in treatment. Six months later, the Hearing Committee of the College issued a decision: Harley was reprimanded, but could go back to work with restrictions, including regular urine screenings for drugs. He was also prohibited from prescribing narcotics to his patients until October 2009.

Harley is far from being the only doctor ever caught intoxicated or tampering with prescriptions on the job. Addiction is one of the main reason why doctors are disciplined by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia, according to an analysis of all final decisions published online between 1995 and 2014.

On a total of 42 physicians whose final disciplinary decision was published online by the College, 13 were accused of “inappropriate prescription”. Then came sexual misconduct, misdiagnosis and malpractice.

The tip of the iceberg

Like many doctors fighting addiction, Harley was probably sent to the Centre for doctor wellness, an assessment and counselling service for physicians, veterinarians, dentists and residents in Nova Scotia. The Center is run by doctor Carolyn Thomson and one colleague. Services are partly paid by membership fees of the provincial doctors association, Doctors NS.

“Their biggest worry is their job. All other aspects of their life have degraded before, their family, their marriage, sometimes their health situation. They feel like work is the one place where they can feel good and put everything else out of their mind,” says Carolyn.

The tall blond doctor explains it is really hard to know exactly how many doctors suffer from addiction issues, but points out to one key proportion. “One physician out of 10 will face addiction issues at one point or another in his or her career. Some specializations like intensive care, anaesthetists and family medicine are more likely, too.”

Doctor Michael Teehan, of the Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine, goes even further. “In his lifetime, practically every doctor will either have addiction problems or see a colleague struggling with addiction issues.”

Relapse and redemption

The spiral of addiction went on for doctor Stephen Harley.

On October 14, 2009, a few days after his narcotics prescription restriction was lifted, he slipped again.

This time, he “obtained the narcotics Dilaudid and Hydromorph Contin through non-prescription means for his own use,” failed to provide a random urine sample for drug testing and deliberately avoided tests.

Harley was permanently prohibited from prescribing narcotics, ordered to pay a fee of $8,500, four times higher than for his first offence.

In December 2010, he was allowed to return to practice with stricter restrictions, including more random drug screenings.

And then he relapsed for the third time, failing a urine screening in early 2011.

The College decided to give him one last chance, justifying its decision in a short statement.

“We acknowledge that Dr. Harley’s drug addiction is an illness very difficult to overcome and manage. It is therefore appropriate and just to give Dr. Harley an opportunity to return to practice in light of the success management of his addiction and his demonstrated competence.”

How many is too many?

Harley is not an outlier, according to our analysis. Since 1995, the College revoked the license of 8 doctors, including one doctor accused of inappropriate prescription. All other doctors were reprimanded and had to pay a fee of a few thousand dollars. Some were issued restrictions like random drug testing, supervised classes or were forbidden to prescribe narcotics.

Pattie Lacroix, from The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia, stresses that “situations where there is more than one complaint are taken into account when a settlement is made.” She also argues that the number of complaints related to “physician health and fitness” [i.e. addiction issues] have gone down steadily since 2009.

Independent psychological consultant John Streukins has another explanation. “Substance-use disorders are classed as a disability and as such, people need to be accommodated in the workplace under the Employment and Assistance for Persons with Disabilities Act. They need to be given a fair opportunity to correct their addiction problem. It would be no different if an employee has cancer. He can’t be fired. He needs to be given an opportunity to be fit for work again.”

Almost a year after being allowed to practice, Stephen Harley now has his name and title back on a clinic door. In May 2014, he started working at the Burnside Family Practice and Walk-In Clinic in Dartmouth. Staff confirmed Harley is still accepting new patients, adding that “he has gotten tons of inquiries from new patients and his schedule is booked solid every day.”

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Dream home lotteries, donations and bake sales have brought in a lot of cake for charities across Canada through the United Way of Halifax over the years, but overhead, operating costs and a growing competition for your donations has stagnated the organization.

A data analysis using their own annual financial reports, audited statements and the Canada Revenue Agency tax records has revealed that while their revenue is declining, director compensation, travel and vehicle expenses and occupancy costs are increasing.

Evelyn Barkhouse, chief operating officer of Halifax’s United Way says, “We are continually trying to lower expenses, cut the cloth where we can, but we have to operate a business.”

The United Way of Halifax is designated as a “Public Foundation” by the CRA not a “Charitable Organization” as many people assume. Public foundations are essentially fundraising organizations for other charities.

Barkhouse says they have gone as far as considering double-sided printing and copying to trim costs.

18 per-cent of expenses are classified as fundraising costs, however since 2010 30-39 percent of the United Way’s annual revenue has gone to costs other than funding for other charities–their primary objective.

Part of their expenses go toward what the organization calls “Community Impact”, a number of small local programs funded by the organization. Peter Mortimer who oversees this part of the United Way says it aims to fund local research-driven programs in Halifax.

He says the United Way’s role is as a project manager and ties together fundraising and vision.

“It about making a measurable lasting impact,” he says.

Despite higher expenses, the United Way has increased their funding for community impact annually each of the past five years.

According to their own audited financial statements community impact accounts for 46 per-cent of total expenses, but only results in 15 per-cent of money invested into the community. Community impact expenses include a portion employee salaries.

Mortimer says the expenses would be higher if the United Way used external contracted labour to run the program.

Another constantly rising cost for the organization is their 7000 square foot facility in the heart of downtown Dartmouth.  In 2013 occupancy cost them $230,000, $55,000 more than the same building cost them in 2009 according to their CRA filings.

When asked if they considered moving operations to a less costly neighbourhoods like Spryfield– a neighbourhood that the organization sought to make an impact in–Barkhouse says they had not considered such a location. She says that when the United Way was looking for a new home in 2002, they looked in Downtown Halifax and Bayers Lake- both of which she says would have been more costly than Dartmouth at the time.

The United Way operates a separate organization called The Tomorrow Fund started in 1985 with the hopes of investing funds to offset the operating costs of The United Way with interest from long-term investments, but thus far it has failed to do that. The fund remains active and the organization hopes it will eventually realize its purpose.

The problems with big charities

United Way of Halifax’s Detailed Expense Breakdown: 

Experts agree that charity is a big business in Canada.

“I’m more surprised when I see low operating costs, than high ones,” says Tom Juravich, a professor of sociology at The University of Massachusetts.

He researches and teaches how to investigate not-for-profits and charities in both The United States and Canada. He operates a website devoted to providing resources on the subject.

Juravich says high expenses and compensation costs are commons problems in both Canada and the United States. He notes working as director or senior manager of a charity can be extremely profitable.

He says most people are not entirely sure how much of the money they are donating is actually going to the disclosed cause.  It worsens for international charities operating programs outside of North America, but he says there are plenty of charities lacking transparency domestically as well.

Juravich says big established charitable brands like the United Way are more accountable than many smaller charities, but they have high operating costs due to their size and the amount of money they raise.

Charity Intelligence Canada researches and grades the level of transparency of Canadian charities, in their most recent grading The United Way of Halifax received a ‘B’ for transparency, but they also rated it as a four-star charity overall, which is the highest grade they give out.

You can see their grading criteria here.

How the United Way works

There are two main ways of donating money to The United Way of Halifax:

1) Donate directly: You may chose to donate to local programs by donating to the “General Fund”.

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2) You can donate to your charity of choice through United Way’s designations.

If you donate directly The United Way says your money will be used locally, however if you donate through them than you can pick any organization that is recognized as a charity by the CRA.

Organizations the CRA recognizes include charities, non-profits and anything from hospitals to universities.

28 per-cent of donations to The United Way of Halifax are designated, because this money is technically raised by The United Way it is counted as a part of their revenue, even though in many cases it does not benefit local organizations or programs that have anything to do with the United Way.

The designated money in 2013 went to 1083 different organizations.

The organizations people chose to donate to through the United Way of Halifax ranged from cancer research to churches, to universities, to international organizations, to Rabbit Rescue of Ontario.

When asked if they were reconsidering a change the designation program to only include organizations approved by The United Way–as other United Way branches do– Barkhouse says they are not.

She says the goal is to promote gifts to their own organization, but they have no control over who people designate too.

The United Way takes a small percentage of the designated money as a processing fee.

They do not provide a breakdown of where designated funds go to, but the data analysis shows 28 per-cent of donations made through the program are designated.

Who’s at the top?

Managing the cake and eating it too, the CEO of the United Way of Halifax is Catherine Woodman.

She has been with the organization as the CEO since 2005.

Despite the financial stagnation and rising expenses, the top salary at the United Way of Halifax increased  from $80,000-$120,000 bracket to the  $120,000-$160,000 between 2011 and 2013.

Her responsibilities include overseeing the entire operation and being the face of the campaign.

Multiple attempts were made to contact Woodman for this story, but she was not available.

She is active on Twitter and Facebook.

Her social media presence is a mix of local initiatives, United Way news and vacation pictures from around the world.

In 2001, MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay owed so much money that she had to declare bankruptcy. Now, as Minister of National Revenue, the politician from British Colombia is in charge of a $4.3 billion budget. For political experts, the situation raises many questions.

“It’s a little bit ironic that someone who is a minister of National Revenue suffered a personal bankruptcy”, says Cristine De Clercy, who is a professor at the University of Western Ontario and also co-director of the Leadership and Democracy Laboratory.

She is not the only one to think that way. Nelson Wiseman, Director of the Canadian Studies Program at the University of Toronto, says he is surprised the Conservative Party chose her for the job. “A question that you could ask is: Do you think you are in a good position to be the Minister of Revenue in light of the fact that you’ve been bankrupt?”

The 2011 controversial election

Ironically, Findlay’s personal finances became of public interest because of another conservative member that went bankrupt as well.

In 2011, Findlay, who is a lawyer, was seeking the conservative nomination in Delta-Richmond East riding, in British Columbia. However, she lost against Dale Saip, who was at that time Chair of the Delta Board of Education.

It should have been the end for Findlay, but fate decided otherwise. A few days after his nomination as a conservative candidate, Dale Saip had to step down after revelations about his past bankruptcies. In 1993, the candidate owed $289,000 to his creditors and wasn’t able to pay them. Saip also declared bankruptcy in 2004, with $71,000 in debts, and again in 2005, with $102,000 in liabilities.

Therefore, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, who was the next in line, became the conservative candidate for Delta-Richmond East riding, even if she went bankrupt too and with more debts. According to her file in the records of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, she owed more than half a million in 2001.

Why did Saip have to resign because of his past financial troubles but not her? We contacted Minister Findlay’s office to ask her the question. Her Director of Communications, Rebecca Rogers, answered that the Minister would not comment.

Findlay was elected as MP in May 2011 and then appointed as Minister of National Revenue in July 2013. Her ministry is one of the largest federal departments with 43,000 employees. The previously bankrupt lawyer suddenly became accountable for the government main source of revenue: the 200 billion dollars collected every year through the taxes.

Her financial problems

We asked Findlay’s office why the Minister went bankrupt in 2001, but the question stayed without answer. However, before being elected, Findlay explained to several media outlets that a long judicial battle against the Musqueam Indian Band sank her financially.

In 1999, she also testified in front of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples about her situation. Findlay was a leaseholder on the Band’s land. The First Nation decided to increase the rent from $450 a year to $35,000 a year. However, the leaseholders and the Band had a contract stating that the rent had to be 6% of the “current value” of the land. Leaseholders and members of the Band couldn’t agree on how to evaluate the value of the site. Therefore, the case went on trial, up to the Supreme Court.

Leaseholders won the case with a decision in their favour on November 9, 2000. Nevertheless, the value of the rental contracts and the houses, built by the leaseholders themselves, dropped. Because of the judicial troubles, the land interested nobody anymore and the financial institutions considered the investment risky.

“Her assets were evaluated at $175,000 at the time,” notes Tim Hill, lawyer specialized in bankruptcy for Boyneclarke law firm, in Halifax. “It was much less than her $557,000 debts.” Hill adds that because of the bankruptcy process, her property was certainly seized and the rest of her debts wiped off. The bankruptcy statement would have stayed in her credit history for six years. “It’s an embarrassment for sure, but at least it, it allows you to have a fresh start,” says Hill.

However, for the lawyer, it is not because someone went bankrupt that he is an incompetent or irresponsible person. “It could happen to anyone.”

But would he trust someone who went bankrupt when money is at stake? “If someone came with a good business idea and asked me: ‘Would like to be my partner?’ If this person was bankrupt in the past, I would probably say no.”

What’s private? What’s public?

In her answer by email to our questions, Findlay’s Director of Communications wrote “this is a very personal matter that was fully resolved over a decade ago.”

However, Nelson Wiseman, professor in political studies at the University of Toronto, strongly disagrees. For him, Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s bankruptcy is not a private matter because she is not a private person. “I gave you another example. If she was convicted of a crime, could she say now ‘it was a private matter’? I don’t think so. Being bankrupt isn’t a crime, but it’s on the public records the same way.”

Cristine De Clercy, professor in political sciences at the University of Western Ontario, underlines that it is normal to have MPs that went bankrupt since over one hundred thousand Canadians declare bankruptcy each year. “The legislature does reflect the composition of the society,” she says. Though voters often want their representatives to be exactly like them, there is a tendency to hold politicians to a higher standard, explains De Clercy. “So there is a bit of a contradiction and it’s a problem in every democracy.” The professor adds that the only counterweight to the problem is to ensure that citizens receive as much information as possible about their candidates “so they can make an informed choice on the day of the vote.”

Even the former mayor of one of Nova Scotia’s largest municipalities can’t escape the high unemployment rate.

John Morgan, the former mayor of Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) has become the reluctant poster boy for the issues he tried to fight against his entire political career.

Last week, Morgan’s home was listed in the foreclosure notices in a local newspaper.

“It was very sad,” said Jim Guy, a professor emeritus at Cape Breton University about his reaction to the news. “He’s a mayor that served our community – he was a controversial mayor, but he was a good mayor.”

After only two year out of office, Morgan, who was known for his battle to get a bigger slice of the federal pie for CBRM, is suffering from the same financial fate as many of the citizens he worked to protect.

Current financial troubles

“Sadly, I have only been able to get part-time temporary work locally,” Morgan said via email to The Chronicle Herald. “It is a very difficult time for me and my family.”

The home he owns with his wife Alana, is located at 29 Riverdale Drive and is valued at $121,700, according to property records.

A former lawyer, Morgan told the newspaper he was teaching paralegals part-time at one of the local colleges, but to get any permanent work in the legal field, they’d have to leave the island.

Despite having a salary of around $100,000 during his last year in office, the former mayor still hit financial troubles with Cape Breton’s current economy.

In June 2013, the license for his personal law office, John W. Morgan Law Office Incorporated, was “revoked for non-payment.”

Morgan couldn’t be reached for comment prior to publication.

Mayoral legacy

During his tenure, Morgan became known as “the man of the people.”

In early 2006, just after winning his second mayoral election, the then-mayor started a battle many didn’t think was possible: he filed a lawsuit against the province, alleging it wasn’t doling out the amount of money owed to CBRM outlined in the constitution.

It was a controversial battle, said Guy.

“There were mixed opinions,” he said. Some people questioned Morgan’s decision to “turn the noses” of the politicians who, in the end, control the money and municipal support.

“They thought that Morgan’s strategy was a counter-productive way of dealing with it,” he said.

But, Guy believes Morgan’s intentions and perspective were distinctive.

“He felt that a legal decision trumps a political decision,” he said.

If Morgan could get the courts to agree that the Nova Scotia government wasn’t living up to what is set out in the constitution, the politics of the situation wouldn’t matter anymore – the province would have to cough up what Morgan believed was the right amount of cash for the ailing municipality.

But that wasn’t the case.

The Nova Scotia Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit in 2008.

After an interview with a CBC Cape Breton radio host about the decision, Morgan faced accusations of professional misconduct for his criticism of the justice system.

In the interview he characterized the Nova Scotia justices as an “endemic” part of “the political structure” and claimed the presiding judge in the case “had ties to the Conservative party,” among other accusations, according to disciplinary hearing documents.

While the Nova Scotia Barrister’s Society panel found him guilty of professional misconduct, he was not penalized for his actions because he was not acting as a lawyer during the interview, but was acting as the mayor.

But Morgan’s battle didn’t end there – he took the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Supreme Court of Canada also dismissed the case.

After 12 years in office, the long-time mayor made the snap announcement in August 2012 that he would not be seeking re-election that fall.

“It is something that I have loved, but it is something that I have done for a long time now,” he told CBC Cape Breton’s Mainstreet, just after his announcement. During his time in office, he wasn’t as “present” with family and friends as he wanted.

“It’s something that can’t last forever,” he said. “You have to move on to other things.”

Island unemployment numbers

High unemployment rates on the island aren’t a new phenomenon, according to data from Statistics Canada.

In recent years, the numbers have been getting better – but the rate is still far behind the provincial and national average.

The most recent unemployment rate released for Cape Breton was 15.5 per cent, nearly seven percentage points higher than the provincial rate.

A new report about the Nova Scotia economy released recently rings the alarm bells for the entire province.

The report, entitled Now of Never: an urgent call to action for Nova Scotians, said the entire province is in such bad shape, it can barely support the standard of living now.

Now or Never Short Ivany Report (Text)
If the local economy stays on its current path, the population is expected to drastically decrease, the report estimates in the next 20 years, there will be 100,000 fewer working age people in 2030s than now.

And that’s a particular problem for smaller municipalities such as Cape Breton, according to Guy.

When a municipality tax rate is higher than the average and it still can’t afford to keep up the standard of living, it doesn’t exactly bolster the local economy, he said.

“Industry doesn’t come, business don’t start up because you’re living in a community that is in visible decay,” said Guy.

“If we don’t get enough support to govern ourselves, whose going to want to live here?” he said. “We’re falling apart.”

The situation on the island is exactly what Morgan predicted and fought against, said Guy. Even Morgan couldn’t escape it.

Rethinking municipal support

While Morgan’s long-term political fight to get more money out of the province didn’t pan out the way he imagined – both politically and personally – the fight hasn’t stopped.

Rethinking municipal support is the goal of a report from the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities, an association of smaller Nova Scotian municipal leaders.

The report assesses how effective the current payments are that trickle down from the federal and provincial governments to Nova Scotia municipalities and how the formula could be improved, said Betty MacDonald, the executive director of Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities.

The province is currently considering the draft report.  MacDonald hopes to have a final report to release by the end of September, she said.

It was nearly a decade before a woman came forward with information on the sexual misconduct of a Halifax psychiatrist. According to Statistics Canada only 12 per cent of sexual assaults are ever reported and often childhood sexual abuse is not reported until later in life.

Nancy Ross teaches in the department of social work at Dalhousie University and is researching how to make coming forward with reports of sexual abuse easier for women. She says it’s not uncommon for women to not open up about issues related to childhood sexual abuse until later in life.

“For some women they may not even recognize it as abuse at the time because they’re a child,” says Ross, “and often if it’s a care-giver or someone that they’ve trusted, they may not see it fully as abuse.”

Curtis Steele is the psychiatrist who lost his licence after a woman filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia College of Physicians and Surgeons 10 years after he allegedly took nude photos of her when she was a 14-year-old patient. She also filed a civil suit against him.

Steele went to high school in New York, according to his Facebook, before moving to New Orleans to attend Tulane University. He graduated in 1958 with his medical degree and went on to study at the same university for his psychiatric specialty.

In 1967 he was certified by the American Board of Psychiatry before moving to Nova Scotia, where he got his licence to practice medicine in the province.

According to the statement of action in the civil case against Steele, in 2003 the woman, who was then 14, was referred to him for symptoms of depression.

She went for eight session over the course of a year. In the settlement agreement from the college, it says the photos were not taken until the last session.

Ross says that a lot of women who are sexually abused by a doctor or someone in a position of trust and authority, might be afraid to come forward because doctors hold a lot of credibility. “To bring something forward that’s going to discredit them,” she says, “I think would take a lot of courage.”

She also says since Steele was the girl’s psychiatrist he would have had access to her personal feelings, making his sexual misconduct an even greater breach of trust.

Steele had his own private practice in Halifax on Coburg Road and worked at the Community Mental Health Clinic of the Capital District Health Authority. He was also a faculty member at Dalhousie.

While Steele was treating her, the woman claims Steele said he was also a photographer. In her notice of action she says he asked if she wanted to do some modeling for him. She undressed and then he took photos of her. She never returned to see him.

Ross says there are many reasons why a woman wouldn’t come forward with information about childhood sexual abuse or not report it until later in life. They may not have known that what was happening was abuse, and even though it was not their fault they may feel shame or guilt. “So sometimes they try to bury it and not deal with it,” says Ross, “and a lot of times they just try to forget about it.”

The settlement agreement from the college, says Steele “lacked the necessary insight of psychiatrist in failing to immediately recognize the impropriety of taking the photos.”

Pattie LeCroix, the media contact for the college, says Steele’s case is rare among the complaints the college receives each year. In their annual report the college says they reviewed 217 physicians in 2013.

It may be a rare case for a doctor to be accused of sexual misconduct, but unfortunately it’s not rare for women in Nova Scotia to experience childhood sexual abuse. Ross says nearly one in four women will have experienced some form of sexual abuse in their life.

After Steele allegedly took the nude photos and stopped seeing the patient, he continued to work at the mental health clinic, operate his own practice and teach at Dalhousie for almost a decade. Until the patient came forward.

The woman, now in her early twenties, filed a civil suit against Steele in August of 2013 and filed a complaint with the college in September. His licence was suspended in December while the college investigated. He stopped working at the mental health clinic and retired from Dalhousie that same year.

There are many reasons why women finally do come forward, “but a lot of time I think it’s for their own personal sense of justice,” says Ross. She says it also shows themselves that they are valuable and it should never have happened, and some women feel it will help end the stigma and silence around sexual abuse.

Women who are sexually abused can experience depression, anxiety and often substance abuse says Ross, along with confusion about what is a healthy sex life, and it could affect their self-esteem and self-worth.

LeCroix says the college couldn’t speculate why it took this particular woman so long to come forward with the report of sexual misconduct, “but as soon as it comes to us we address it immediately.”

Eighty-eight per cent of sexual abuse is not reported to police according to Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey.

After the college investigated the claim and spoke with the woman and her parents, Steele’s licence to practice medicine was revoked and he is not eligible to apply for a new licence to practice in Nova Scotia at any time.

Women coming forward, like Steele’s former patient, and reporting sexual abuse is a step in the right direction. “I think every time you hold someone accountable for their actions and do so in a way that the public knows about it,” says Ross, “it has an impact.”

Ross says women often come forward later in life, because once they’ve matured it’s harder to suppress and they gain perspective realizing it was not their fault.

Ross says that Nova Scotia has a lot to do in order to make it easier for women to come forward. Including having a sensitive, kind and encouraging approach to helping women come forward and deal with their experience. And a broader education in schools that “normalizes the experience, because sadly it’s a fairly normal experience I think for women in Nova Scotia to experience a form of childhood sexual abuse.”

Local bankruptcy lawyer Tim Hill says Canada Revenue Agency is taking a rare stand on a recent income tax debt case. And if the agency gets its way, it will make future cases difficult to resolve.

The case is built against Cape Breton construction manager Darrell Wilcox. According to information contained in the Statement of Affairs document, he owed the agency over $800,000 in tax. He also owed money on his credit card, which added up to over a million dollars of debt in total.

Wilcox, who owns the WICO Construction Management Ltd. in Sydney, chose to file a consumer proposal instead of declaring bankruptcy. It means his property didn’t get sold to pay for the debt. Instead, he paid his creditors in cash a certain percentage of the money he owed.

The proposal was accepted by his creditors, including Canada Revenue Agency, in December 2012. It was approved by the court a month later.

Tim Hill says Wilcox has paid off all the money agreed in the proposal in February. But the $450,000, which accounts for 40 per cent of his debt, hasn’t been distributed among the creditors yet because Canada Revenue Agency says the income tax liabilities weren’t filed on time, so they have to charge him interest and penalties for that.

However, the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act doesn’t allow additional proceedings to be charged off of the proposed payment.

“But the income tax act says there can be interest. Because the case is being dealt in the bankruptcy court, the bankruptcy act should govern,” says Hill, “But the agency says the bankruptcy court doesn’t have jurisdiction over the matter of interest and penalties, and it should be settled at the tax court, which doesn’t make any sense.”

Hill expects the agency to file an appeal today. If it wins, the case will be brought to the Tax Court of Canada, and Wilcox will have to pay an additional $16,000 for late payment.

Hill says bankruptcy cases involving income tax debt is quite common in Nova Scotia, but only a few of such cases have interest and penalty issues, which makes Wilcox’s case important.

“I don’t expect the agency to win the appeal, but if they did, this case would set an example for similar cases in the future,” says Hill, “and it’s going to make it too expensive for people to go to two separate courts to sort things out – the bankruptcy part in the bankruptcy court and the tax part in the tax court.”

Bankruptcy court sees more tax debt cases

Hill says the ruling of the agency’s appeal will have an impact because more and more proposals are being filed at the bankruptcy court.

“There are new provisions in the bankruptcy act that upped the limit on the amount of money a proposal can settle,” says Hill, “so more rich business people are making these proposals, which invariably involve some income tax owed at the time.”

Late payment argument in Wilcox’s case

The trustee, who helped Wilcox prepare the proposal, says he submitted Wilcox’s $120,000 tax return to the agency in March 2013. And the money was sent to the agency’s office in Sydney well before the April 30^th deadline. But the agency says it didn’t have records of receiving the money.

According to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia’s documents, there’s no communication regarding the payment until six months later, when the agency called the trustee, asking for Wilcox’s 2012 tax return. At the same time, the agency decided to charge Wilcox $6,600 worth of interest and $9,600 in penalties due to the late payment.

The court bought the trustee’s testimony of filing the tax return before deadline, and ruled in Wilcox’s favor, saying the agency is not entitled to charge him any interest or penalties.

How did Wilcox’s tax debt add up?

According to Hill, Wilcox owed more than $411,000 of income tax over the course of three years before he had to file the consumer proposal. “The amount is quite large,” says Hill.

However, he says he can’t comment on how the tax debt piled up. Canada Revenue Agency’s Atlantic region office responded by email, saying according the tax act, they couldn’t discuss specific taxpayer’s information. Wilcox himself can’t be reached for comment either.

The documents from his trustee’s company, BDO Canada Limited, says he spent too much money and didn’t have the money to pay taxes.

Geoffrey Loomer, who teaches personal and corporation income taxation at Dalhousie University, says there are two scenarios. One is tax evasion – Wilcox didn’t file tax at all or filed it very late. “There are interests against late filing and it goes up everyday. So if you’re making a lot of money, the tax debt could add up quickly,” says Loomer.

He says another scenario is Wilcox unintentionally reported way less income than he should have. “The set of rules that apply to business people and employees is a lot different, and they make a huge difference on how much tax you pay,” says Loomer.

“I’ve seen cases where, a person runs a private corporation, and it owns 15 cars, and the person’s only been using them for personal use occasionally. But all of a sudden, Canada Revenue Agency says, the full value of those cars gets attributed to the person’s every year income.”

Loomer says it’s difficult for an average person to fully understand the 2,500 page tax act. And for business people, if they don’t have a good accountant to help them, they could fall into tax debt pretty easily.

“One thing that can benefit everybody is to simplify the income tax system, to harmonize different sets of rules,” says Loomer.

According to the Statement of Affairs document, Wilcox worked for two companies before he inherited the debt. The license of one of the companies has been revoked in 2013. But Wilcox is still the director of the WICO Construction Management Ltd.

“Hopefully, he has learned his lesson and pay taxes,” says Loomer.