Ottawa: A Mayor on Trial Refuses to Deal Responsibly with an Unrelated Conflict

Ottawa is currently in the grips of its mayor's influence-peddling trial. The allegations are that the mayor tried to get another mayoral candidate out of the race by offering him money and a federal position. The Ottawa Citizen has an excellent chronology of what allegedly occurred. There is a lot of evidence, but most of it appears to be hearsay, at least so far. But I'm more interested in an unrelated ethics matter that occurred a couple of months ago.

According to an article in the Ottawa Citizen, just before the trial, the mayor was pushing to hold a defense industry trade show on city property, despite the fact that such trade shows were banned in 1989 (pre-amalgamation of the city and regional governments) and despite the fact that a company he founded, Calian Technologies, is a member of the industry association putting on the show, and a subsidiary of Calian would be exhibiting at the show.

The mayor left Calian just before becoming mayor two years ago, but he remains a member of its board and a shareholder.

The mayor said that he has no conflict of interest because he is not involved in the "day-to-day" management of Calian or of its marketing decisions. But this is not the basis for a conflict. According to the article, "Ontario's Municipal Conflict of Interest Act says that if a local politician is a director of a publicly traded company, he or she has "an indirect pecuniary interest" in any issue that comes before council that affects the company's financial interests."

You would think that an official about to go to trial would think a bit about appearances of impropriety. But instead the mayor has focused on technicalities: whether the ban still exists after amalgamation, and exactly what constitutes an "indirect pecuniary interest."

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

---