Laurentian University in Sudbury is trying to have a mandate suspended that would force the institution to submit confidential documents concerning its financial situation to the Ontario Parliament by the 1er February. A strategy that raises its share of doubts.
The rector of the university, Robert Haché, and the former chairman of the board of directors Claude Lacroix risk jail if they do not submit the requested documents to the Ontario Parliament as required by the appearance warrant issued on December 9. “Looks like they got legal advice from Donald Trump,” says political scientist Graham White, a former Ontario legislature. The latter questions the strategy of the university, which attacks the “highest authority in the province”.
A hearing will be held in Superior Court on Jan. 18 to determine whether a temporary suspension of the mandate can be imposed, according to Mr.e Fredrick Schumann, one of Laurentian’s lawyers. The establishment took shelter from its creditors on 1er February 2021 and removed nearly 70 programs from its offer.
The brief of the university’s lawyers requesting the suspension of the mandate also reacted to the Auditor General of Ontario, Bonnie Lysyk, who is accused of having tried to bypass the legal process to gain access to confidential documents. . Lawyers for the Office of the Auditor General will respond to the charges in their own brief on Tuesday, learned The duty.
Looks like they got legal advice from Donald Trump
The Auditor General began an investigation into the university’s financial woes in April at the request of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. But Bonnie Lysyk had to turn to the courts in September for the documents, as the university refused to make them available to her. A hearing on the matter was held on December 6, and the parties are awaiting a judge’s ruling.
Complicity?
University lawyers accuse the Auditor General of having worked in complicity with the committee. In early October, days after asking the Superior Court to determine whether she was entitled to privileged documents, Bonnie Lysyk allegedly began working “secretly” with the committee to circumvent the legal process, argue lawyers at Stockwoods LLP.
According to them, Bonnie Lysyk would have met the members of the committee behind closed doors on October 6. “Although there are no minutes of the meeting, the Auditor General obviously told the committee that she could not have access to the documents, and the committee told her that it would get them for her” , the lawyers said.
NDP MP France Gélinas, who served as vice-chair of the committee until last October, says, however, that no discussion on Laurentian took place between members on October 6. But she confirms that during this month, the auditor came to see the committee to tell it that its investigation “was going quite badly”. “From that moment on, the committee resumed its work, namely to communicate directly with the university and to meet with the university,” describes the elected official. But we are doing our job, and she is doing her job. “
Would the committee provide the documents possibly obtained to the Auditor General? France Gélinas responds to university leaders that “it is none of their business”, in an interview with The duty.
Part of the government?
France Gélinas affirms that the Ontario Parliament has without a shadow of a doubt the authority over the university. “We have access to hundreds of lawyers at Queen’s Park, and they’ve all told us the same thing: […]we have the right to issue [un mandat de comparution] for all payment transfer agencies, such as universities, hospitals, schools, ”she concludes.
“Have they forgotten that the legislature has control over their life or their death? Wrote Graham White, who agrees.
Lawyers for the university believe, however, that although funded by the government, Laurentian is not one of them. Parliament’s access to confidential documents, such as communications between officials and the establishment’s lawyers, is therefore not permitted, they say.