DND boss expresses no regret over breaking hiring rules to advance diversity goals

OTTAWA — The senior government official who was found last week to have broken federal conflict-of-interest rules resisted numerous opportunities Monday to express regret, instead telling a parliamentary committee that she had “genuine intentions” in supporting the government’s diversity goals.

Christiane Fox, now the deputy minister at the Department of National Defence, was found by an ethics commissioner report to have broken hiring rules when she helped an unqualified person she knows get a job in 2023 while she was the top public servant at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Appearing Monday before the Public Accounts Committee on another matter, Fox responded to opposition MPs more than once by saying that she acknowledges the ethics commissioner’s report, will reflect on its findings, and that she’s always made workplace diversity a priority. “The actions in this particular context I have to reflect on.”

When opposition MPs asked her if she had regrets or if she made a mistake, however, Fox told MPs that IRCC had “systemic barriers” and some officials who resisted diversity policies.

Conservative Ned Kuruc, one of the MPs who asked Fox about the matter, said after the committee proceedings that he was surprised Fox wouldn’t acknowledge that she made a mistake.

Kuruc, who represents the Ontario riding of Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, also questioned if this hiring was an outlier or part of a broader problem in the public service, saying that it’s particularly unfair if an unqualified person gets a government job when thousands of public servants are set to lose their jobs over the coming months.

“It’s not fair to people who are qualified.”

According to the report by Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein, Fox used her position as deputy minister to get a job for someone she knew, Björn Charles, even though he lacked government experience or a background that fit the position. Fox was advised by department officials that Charles was not qualified, von Finckenstein found, but Fox still helped Charles get preferential treatment by helping him meet with departmental officials, provided him with updates about the hiring process, gave him internal information, and later pushed that he get a higher job classification.

Fox maintained throughout the investigation that her role in the hiring process was appropriate, while the ethics commissioner “did not find these claims credible.”

Fox doubled down Monday on that view, downplaying her relationship with Charles, a gym manager whom she knew from university and through basketball circles. She told MPs that Charles, also a distant relative of Fox’s husband, had experience in client services, something the government needed more of.

Fox, considered a rising star within the public service for more than two decades, wrote to DND employees late last week to say that she helped Charles, who is black, to advance the government’s diversity goals as part of “a clear mandate to lead a large-scale cultural and organizational change.”

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, a group that advocates for democratic reform, said the government’s conflict-of-interest rules for employees include penalties such as being fired, but not for ethics violations for cabinet ministers, deputy ministers and other senior officials.

Conacher said it’s one of the loopholes that make the ethics rules ineffective, an issue now being reviewed by a parliamentary committee.

Fox and other DND officials joined Auditor General Karen Hogan in appearing before the committee Monday to discuss the auditor general’s report last fall that found that some of Canadian armed forces personnel’s living quarters lacked basics such as safe drinking water and functioning toilets.

National Post

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