Laurentian University will not have to give documents it considers confidential to the Auditor General of Ontario, a judge ruled on Wednesday.
The decision was rendered by Justice Geoffrey Morawetz of the Superior Court of Ontario. In interview with The dutyAuditor General Bonnie Lysyk has confirmed her office will appeal the ruling. His office wishes to obtain the documents to shed light on the financial troubles of the establishment, which took shelter from its creditors on 1er February 2021.
“It’s disappointing that an insolvent university that is part of the public sector has chosen to fight my office and the legislature instead of being transparent,” says Bonnie Lysyk.
Since April, his team has been trying, among other things, to get their hands on the documentation prepared in anticipation of the meetings of the university’s board of directors over the past ten years as well as on the emails exchanged between the employees. of the university and its president. She turned to the courts in September when the facility refused to hand them over to her.
According to Justice Morawetz’s analysis, section 10 of the Auditor General Act, which governs the work of the Auditor General, “does not clearly state that the audited entity must disclose information protected by privilege. [avocat-client] “. “At most, these are general disclosure provisions that cannot be interpreted as authorizing the auditor to access inside information,” continued the judge.
According to counsel for the Auditor General, the intent of this section was “clearly” to include inside information because of section 27.1 (3). The latter obliges the person who obtains documents or privileged information not to disclose them, “unless the person has obtained the consent of each holder of the privilege”.
In their submission to the judge, lawyers for Laurentian argued that the “text and outline of the Auditor General Act do not demonstrate a clear and unambiguous intention of the Ontario legislature to repeal client-attorney privilege. “.
Never seen
Bonnie Lysyk explained to Duty that she has never had such problems in her previous investigations. Laurentian’s situation, she says, is “unusual and strange”. Before making an audit public, his office usually shares the document with the audited entity, to prevent compromising information from being disclosed. “We never disclosed information that was considered privileged,” she says.
However, the auditor is not afraid that other institutions will follow Laurentian’s example and that the latter will thus set a precedent. “I think people in the public sector understand us and appreciate our work,” she says. “We are all working in the same direction, for the best of Laurentian. Motivation [de mon bureau] is not negative, ”says Bonnie Lysyk.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.