Alberta minister Tyler Shandro takes stand at law society conduct hearing | 24CA News

Tyler Shandro took the stand Wednesday, on the second day of the Law Society of Alberta’s (LSA) tribunal listening to into his conduct whereas well being minister in early 2020.

The citations embrace behaving “inappropriately” whereas visiting the Calgary house of Dr. Mukarram Zaidi on March 21, 2020; acquiring and utilizing the non-public cellular phone numbers of two docs after a Feb. 26, 2020 press convention on the Red Deer Regional Hospital; and his e mail response threatening to refer the person to “protective services” in response to a message despatched to his spouse on March 20, 2020.

Shandro’s first day of testimony was the primary time the previous well being minister offered his perspective on these occasions and the context round them.

Red Deer ruckus

The now justice minister stated on the Red Deer hospital, his exit after the press convention was redirected by the premier’s safety element.

That’s the place he had the interplay with Dr. John Julyan-Gudgeon and Dr. Lauralee Dukeshire whereas making an attempt to enter a freight elevator with the minister, premier and entourage.

“I admittedly did want to just get (the conversations with the doctors) over with – meeting with those physicians, allowing them to be heard even if they’re angry,” Shandro stated.

“I was actually kind of annoyed I was taken with (the premier’s security) and not allowed to engage with these folks.”

1:45Doctors testify at legislation society listening to into previous conduct by Tyler Shandro: ‘How did he track me down?’

Shandro stated a person who was loudly studying from a sheet, who was later recognized as Dr. Julyan-Gudgeon, was “yelling” and “quite agitated” whereas he learn his assertion.

Earlier on Wednesday throughout the completion of his testimony, Julyan-Gudgeon disagreed with Shandro’s lawyer Grant Stapon that he was yelling.

“I talk loudly, I project well… I wasn’t yelling,” the previous armed forces physician stated, including he was typically nervous whereas talking in public.

Under cross-examination, the Red Deer physician stated he didn’t converse with Dukeshire earlier than or after the incident at his hospital, and had solely a “vague recollection” of her being there.

“Any suggestion that we worked together is really baseless,” he stated.

Shandro testified he known as Julyan-Gudgeon after which Dukeshire the next day, whereas driving house to Calgary from Edmonton within the late afternoon and early night, timing that seems to run opposite to Julyan-Gudgeon’s recollection of receiving the decision whereas in mattress studying – an exercise the physician usually does round 9 p.m.

Shandro stated because the time of his 2019 marketing campaign to grow to be MLA of Calgary-Acadia, he refrains from calling individuals after 8 p.m.

Chain of communication

Testimony from Shandro and AHS VP of communications Colleen Turner appeared to corroborate textual content messages learn out on Tuesday that the well being minister requested Turner discover out who the docs had been and that the minister wished to talk with them.

Turner stated she had an AHS employees member contact the hospital for the docs’ names and cellphone numbers, private data that was handed alongside by a hospital employees member.

Turner stated she wasn’t knowledgeable if the numbers she was offered had been business or private, nor did she ask. She additionally stated if she knew there was confidentiality or consent points with the contact data, she wouldn’t have offered it to the minister.

“I believed that I was connecting two parties that wanted to have a conversation,” Turner stated.

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On Tuesday, Julyan-Gudgeon and Dukeshire stated they didn’t request, anticipate or consent to a cellphone name from the minister in late February 2020.

Julyan-Gudgeon stated that there are particular circumstances by which he would anticipate extraordinary calls from well being officers, however that February night was not one.

“The minister of health was not calling out an emergency call to action to physicians regarding some medical crisis,” Julyan-Gudgen stated Wednesday. “He was seeking that info, at least I presume as such, he was seeking that info in order to communicate to his critics.”

On April 27, 2020, the AHS chief privateness officer decided the sharing of non-public cellular phone numbers, offered to the hospital for emergency functions, was a breach of the Alberta Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Shandro stated he believed he was calling the docs as a politician and never as a lawyer.

“There was a constituency that wanted to have their voices heard,” Shandro, who was known as to the bar in 2005, stated.

Shandro’s assertion to the LSA when the code of conduct allegations first got here up included factors that “the telephone numbers were business related” and “the physicians accepted my business call for the purposes of business.”

Julyan-Gudgeon described the cellphone name from the minister to his non-public cellular phone a “breach of professionality.”

On Wednesday, Shandro stated a part of his assumptions of with the ability to name docs was primarily based on his expertise because the son of a doctor, and the measures obtainable at the moment for the hospital to contact his father.

1:59Alberta well being minister beneath fireplace for confrontation with Calgary physician

Threatening emails

Janice Fraser, who served as a supervisor of a pair of Calgary constituency workplaces within the 2010s, first met Shandro at a felony accidents evaluation board throughout an attraction.

A member of that board from 2005 to 2011, Shandro wrote an attraction choice in favour of Fraser’s household.

“I was impressed by his understanding of the issues in his write-up,” Fraser instructed the tribunal. “I reached out to him personally and sent an email to him to thank him for that empathetic ear.”

When Shandro was making ready for his in the end profitable marketing campaign to grow to be MLA, he requested for Fraser’s assist, which she agreed to. She characterised the interactions to that time as “warm.”

Shandro recalled first interacting with Fraser throughout his work on the evaluation board.

Fraser stated she turned conscious of the allegations of battle of curiosity between Shandro as then-health minister and the Shandro household’s holdings in Vital Partners, a third-party well being advantages dealer.

Shandro characterised the allegations surrounding Vital Partners and his spouse, and the alleged revenue from authorities adjustments to health-care protection, from screenshots of public ethics fee filings on social media, calling them “quite a web of conspiracy theory” that Fraser seemed to be caught up in.

Fraser was not requested straight about any “conspiracy theories,” however when requested how she discovered concerning the allegations, stated she heard about them within the media and was unaware of the social media exercise about them.

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Fraser stated she disagreed with the ethics commissioner’s discovering of no battle of curiosity, saying there “should have been a cooling-off period” earlier than he took workplace. In March 2020, the ethics commissioner discovered Shandro held his 50 per cent of voting shares in Vital Partners in a blind belief and was consistent with legislative necessities.

On March 20, 2020, she reached out to the minister’s spouse through a public-facing contact type on the corporate’s web site.

“Dear Andrea- you and your husband Tyler Shandro (who I used to have a tremendous personal and professional respect of up until 2020) are considered to be in a conflict of interest by Albertans. We will not forget! Sincerely, Janet Fraser.”

Fraser stated she thought it her duty as a politically-engaged Albertan and an acquaintance of the minister’s “to hold them to account,” given their connection to Vital Partners.

“I’m not one to make anonymous comments,” Fraser stated. “I’m a pretty straightforward person. I consider myself to have a high level of integrity. I had nothing to hide.”

She added the “We will not forget” line was in reference to Albertans not forgetting on the polls, and stated she didn’t view that as bodily threatening.

Shandro and his spouse took the that means as threatening.

“Andrea’s name wasn’t on the ballot,” he stated.

1:00Video reveals confrontation between Alberta well being minister household and protestors

But Fraser stated she had a visceral response to the reply she obtained from the well being minister an hour after she submitted the online type, an e mail that addressed her by first title.

“Sending threatening emails to my wife is completely inappropriate and must stop,” he wrote.

“If you want to believe lies about her on social media, that’s up to you. But you can send your threatening emails to this office and this office only.

“Email her again and it will be referred to protective services.”

Fraser took “protective services” to imply the police and, along with her private historical past with PTSD and being a sufferer of individuals in positions of energy, she stated she started to shake.

“It petrified me,” she testified. “I was quite shocked that he would say that because he knew my past.”

On Wednesday, he stated he didn’t beforehand know Fraser suffered from PTSD.

Shandro stated he obtained the e-mail whereas on the legislature in Edmonton.

He stated he was stunned to see somebody he knew sending his spouse messages, on condition that Fraser had his publicly-available e mail handle, including he seen emailing his partner was “inherently threatening.” That was a part of why he requested her to e mail him straight.

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“If she had concerns with government policy, if she wanted to send emails about this conspiracy theory, she’s welcome to do so, but she can send it to our office,” Shandro instructed the tribunal. “I included the ministry assistant (Chad Hallman) for our office, allowing him to engage and leave me out of this.”

Shandro stated that week his spouse had been receiving quite a few threats of bodily violence, sexual violence and even demise, and it culminated in a person visiting the Vital Partners workplaces threatening to trigger hurt to his spouse.

Shandro stated members of the Calgary Police Service visited their house due to the threats earlier than he was capable of return from Edmonton.

Fraser stated she discovered the affiliation between her message and the demise threats “irrelevant” given she made no such threats.

Shandro’s testimony was paused Wednesday afternoon and can proceed Thursday. Shandro’s spouse Andrea can also be anticipated to supply her account of occasions.

‘A huge differential of power’

Fraser stated she contacted the CBC to “go public” as a way of defending herself from backlash from the minister and authorities.

“I was protecting myself as a single woman in a huge differential of power,” Fraser instructed Grant Stapon, the lawyer for Shandro.

Shandro described Fraser going to the media as politically-motivated, “to assist the Opposition in being able to criticize me publicly for the allegation.”

Fraser additionally replied again to Shandro and Hallman later that afternoon, which she additionally despatched to the Calgary Police Service, the Sargeant-at-Arms, the Opposition and the mayor of Calgary. In it, she stated her preliminary message to Shandro’s spouse “was not to agitate but to inform a public company for-profit that their choices are known to Albertans.”

“If I had been actually threatening, then protocol would determine that this would go to Sargeant-at-Arms for review and they should be contacting me, neither of you should be!” she wrote.

Only the LSA and members of the media contacted Fraser after the e-mail change, not Shandro nor the Sargeant-at-Arms.

Fraser stated having first been launched to Shandro in his capability as a lawyer was how she seen the present justice minister.

“I would never hire Tyler Shandro as a lawyer again or (have him) represent me in any way professionally, personally or legally, ever, because he has displayed a complete incapacity to separate personal legal professionalism and politics,” she stated.

The code of conduct listening to is scheduled to proceed Thursday and will go later within the week.