Ethics investigations, Alberta, style – no rules were broken when Deena Hinshaw was fired! Now please move along, folks

You were wondering about that ethics investigation into the way former Alberta chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw was immediately re-fired after she was hired as a member of Alberta Health Services’ Indigenous Wellness Core last June?

It turns out no rules were broken. 

So there’s nothing to see here folks. Please move along …

On Monday, The Globe and Mail and other media reported that Alberta Ethics Commissioner Marguerite Trussler was looking into the way Dr. Hinshaw was fired before she’d even started her new duties at the AHS Indigenous health program.

That Globe story suggested Dr. Hinshaw was fired because United Conservative Party Premier Danielle Smith, a vocal opponent of public health measures during the pandemic who had fired her as chief medical officer of a few months before, demanded it.

In the story, the Globe quoted the resignation letter of former AHS vice-president Braden Manns to AHS Administrator John Cowell. “The decision implemented by you to rescind Dr. Hinshaw’s contract after what I understand to be your personal discussions with the Premier, her Chief of Staff and others in the government of Alberta,” Dr. Manns told Dr. Cowell, “will have a long-lasting effect on our ability to have trusting relationships with our Indigenous leaders and communities. This type of political interference in hiring should not be permitted.” (Emphasis added.)

This interpretation of the events is widely believed, significantly by both supporters and opponents of the UCP, because it is entirely on brand for Ms. Smith, a former right-wing talk radio host known for her advocacy of quack COVID cures and vaccine skepticism on the air before she returned to politics in 2022, not to mention her lack of patience with the rule of law since becoming premier.

Dr. Hinshaw was fired the first time as CMOH in mid-November 2022 about a month after Ms. Smith was sworn in as premier. She was fired the second time at the start of June 2023, hours after word she had been hired became public, throwing the UCP’s anti-vaxx base into a tizzy. .

Yesterday, various news media published a new story stating that Ms. Trussler’s investigation is already over and the ethics commissioner had concluded, in the phrase that really should be the motto on Alberta’s coat of arms, No Rules Were Broken. 

In a letter to Health Minister Adriana LaGrange dated Monday that was handed out to media yesterday by staff from the Premier’s Office, Ms. Trussler said she had stopped her investigation into the role in the firing played by Dr. Cowell, who had been appointed by Ms. Smith to single-handedly run the agency.

“I am providing you with notice that I have ceased an investigation into an allegation against Dr. John Cowell with respect to his involvement in the decision to revoke an offer of employment to Dr. Deena Hinshaw,” Ms. Trussler wrote in the letter. 

“Although he had input into the decision, I found no evidence that Dr. Cowell directed the termination of Dr. Hinshaw’s employment,” the letter said. “The evidence showed that Dr. Hinshaw’s employment was terminated through proper process.” Anyway, Ms. Trussler added, Dr. Cowell is no longer a senior official as defined by the Conflicts of Interest Act.

“I also received complaints against the Premier with respect to the same matter. However, given the evidence in the investigation of Dr. Cowell, I did not pursue an investigation of the Premier.” 

So who did direct the termination of Dr. Hinshaw’s employment? And what was the premier’s role?

If you feel there are still some huge gaps in this story, you’d be right.

But don’t look for any answers to be forthcoming from the government of Alberta. 

“No rules were broken when the former chief medical officer of health was hired for — then promptly fired from — a new job with the province,” Dean Bennett of The Canadian Press summed up the letter in the traditional Alberta phrase. 

“Ms. Trussler examined events around the dismissal under the Conflicts of Interest Act, which is designed to prevent elected politicians and senior government officials from taking action that financially benefits them or their family,” the Globe explained. “The act’s narrow focus means Ms. Trussler’s decision not to investigate the premier has failed to quell allegations that AHS ripped up Dr. Hinshaw’s contract after Ms. Smith interfered inappropriately.” 

There is nothing mildly surprising, let alone shocking about this outcome. 

It is the way these things work, and not only in Alberta. 

Legislative ethics rules are written by politicians who, understandably if not ethically (as it were), would prefer to shield themselves from the consequences of actions that most of us severely normal Albertans would consider unethical. 

That is why it can never be said that a legislatively constrained investigation of this sort has vindicated anyone, as the premier’s political staff is certain to try to persuade us the letter means for their boss’s tattered reputation. 

Readers can believe whatever they wish, but the known facts – Ms. Trussler’s uninformative letter notwithstanding – strongly suggest it was Ms. Smith who gave Dr. Hinshaw the shove. 

Far out! Alberta won’t let red tape harsh your mellow, man!

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