On Thursday, without fanfare, the Law Society of Alberta posted a notice stating that one “Kelechi Madu, KC engaged in conduct that undermined respect for the administration of justice when he contacted the Edmonton Police Services Chief of Police regarding a traffic ticket he received on March 10, 2021, and that such conduct is deserving of sanction.”
Kelechi Madu, of course, is better known as Kaycee Madu, and he was minister of justice in then-premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party government when he picked up the phone and called Dale McFee. It’s hard to believe that the position he held at the time didn’t have something to do with why Chief McFee took his call.
So by any measure, the Law Society’s quiet notice Thursday is a major news story.
But since the legal profession’s self-regulating body was already investigating allegations of inappropriate conduct by two other former Conservative Alberta justice ministers, the situation went from merely unusual to unprecedented.
And without a word of a lie, all three of the lawyers in question have been honoured with the Kings Counsel designation!
Independent investigative journalist Charles Rusnell got the scoop about the ministerial trifecta in a story published Friday by The Tyee.
Mr. Madu’s distracted-driving ticket and troublesome phone call were exposed in a CBC story by reporters Elise von Scheel and Janice Johnston on Jan. 17, 2022, more than 10 months after he picked up the phone.
Mr. Rusnell, who left the CBC in December 2021, said word of Mr. Madu’s distracted-driving ticket was received by Ms. von Scheel from a tipster soon after it happened, but for reasons unknown the CBC decided to sit on the story.
The broadcaster only published the story after it learned that Mr. Rusnell and his long-time colleague Jennie Russell, who were by then working independently, had received a call from the tipster and started to work on the story.
When the story finally broke, both Mr. Madu and Chief McFee insisted he didn’t ask to have the $300 distracted-driving ticket pulled but had denied being on the phone while driving his car. Mr. Madu, who is black, also expressed concern he may have been racially profiled by the officer who pulled him over.
“Chief McFee assured me this was most definitely not the case, and I accepted him at his word,” Mr. Madu said in a statement sent to Mr. Rusnell and other reporters at the time.
“To be abundantly clear, at no point did I request that the ticket be rescinded,” Mr. Madu’s statement said. “I would never do that. However, in that particular call, I regret raising the issue at all with the Chief McFee.” He concluded by saying he paid the ticket promptly, and had the utmost respect for the police.
Nevertheless, for months before the story became public, the minister’s misadventure was well known and frequently gossiped and chuckled about within the Kenney Government.
Soon after the matter became public, Mr. Kenney moved Mr. Madu out of the justice portfolio and asked retired Court of (then) Queen’s Bench Justice Adèle Kent to look into the affair.
She concluded that Mr. Madu had indeed tried to interfere with the administration of justice, but that he hadn’t succeeded, although there was nevertheless a “reasonable perception” he had been successful. “The minister of justice cannot phone the chief of police to discuss his traffic ticket,” she said in her report, stating what should have been obvious.
So when the Law Society began to receive calls from members of the public and the legal profession demanding an investigation, it would have been pretty difficult for it to conclude there was nothing worth investigating. After all, a former superior court judge was on record saying there was.
Nevertheless, the society obviously didn’t hurry to launch a hearing, even after the May 29 election.
Before the election, the consequences for Mr. Madu were not particularly severe.
After Ms. Kent’s report was published, Mr. Kenney moved Mr. Madu to the labour portfolio. And when Danielle Smith became premier, she named him minister of skilled trades and professions – and deputy premier.
Only in the May 29 election this year did voters in his Edmonton-South West riding have the opportunity to weigh in. They sent him packing, overwhelmingly electing the NDP’s Nathan Ip.
As for the other two former justice ministers, they are Tyler Shandro, KC, who took over from Mr. Madu in premier Kenney’s February 2021 mini-shuffle, and Jonathan Dennis, KC, named to the portfolio in 2012 by Progressive Conservative premier Alison Redford.
Final arguments in Mr. Shandro’s Law Society hearing into aspects of his behaviour when he was minister of health are scheduled to be heard on Sept. 5.
He too was sent into political retirement on May 29 by the voters in his Calgary-Acadia riding, defeated by New Democrat candidate Diana Batten by a mere 25 votes.
As for Mr. Denis, who also represented the Calgary-Acadia riding, his political career ended in 2015, when he was defeated by the NDP’s Brandy Payne.
PC premier Jim Prentice had relieved him of his cabinet duties before the 2015 election.
A date for Mr. Denis’s Law Society hearing has not yet been set.
The UCP will use the electoral results to justify all and any (very likely) future transgressions – claiming UCP MLAs don’t have to address ethical concerns, commissioner findings nor professional board sanctions when they can rely upon “the voter” to be the only important arbitrator.
NDP MLAs however…
Along with the K.C. designation for Madu, Denis and Shandro, they are to be referred to as “Honourable”. for the rest of their lives. Irony!
As an aside, Doug Ford granted the K.C. designation to all former Attorney Generals, but only if they are Tory. The four former Liberal AGs and one NDP AG that are still alive did not receive the K.C. designation.
Let’s not forget about former MIA MLA Doug Schweitzer who also held the Justice portfolio. I guess the Law Society decided to look the other way when he chose to publicly comment on cases before the courts. https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/justice-minister-faces-criticism-for-comments-on-active-cases/
If we look at the glacial pace of the RCMP’s alleged investigation into Jason Kenney’s campaign finance fraud, the speed of the Alberta Law Society’s decision that Madu’s conduct deserves sanction could be considered greased lightning.
I’m guessing that when it came to recruiting those of the legal profession to pursue political careers for the UCP, it can be successfully that good ethical character was not held at a very high bar. Back in the early 1980s, when Brian Mulroney was recruiting candidates to run for the PCs in Quebec, he was very interested in recruiting lawyers who had reach dead ends in their respective legal careers. Many lawyers flocked to Mulroney’s call, because real estate or insurance law just didn’t hold the glamour of a political career. And when the expectation of getting elected was pretty much a sure thing, why not go for it? In the case of Jason Kenney, he, like Mulroney, sought out lawyers who were not exactly stellar at their legal profession. Hell, I suspect any number of them thought they had made a terrible mistake when they heeded the call to the bar. One thing that can be said of the UCP lawyers is that they have a weak grasp of right and wrong, as well as the character and the conduct that the Law Society of Alberta demands of its members. One wonders how their respective hearings will go? Will they get pilloried for their conduct unbecoming of the profession? Or, will Danielle Smith pull many strings and get them off their respective hooks? It’s not like Smith has any sense of decorum, right or wrong, or even reality; so, I’m betting on the latter.
What does it say about some Albertans that they would vote for a party containing such a shallow pool of talent that three former Justice ministers would be confronted by their own professional governing body?
Maybe it could be called the curse of the conservative Justice Ministers. Both electoral defeat and professional disciplinary investigations seem to follow. Once is bad, twice is terrible, but three times indicates a great deal of carelessness or disdain beyond that.
I’m not sure how they pick these people, but neither Kenney or his PC predecessor had a long and illustrious career as Premier either.
I’ve always thought Health, Social Services and Environment were the punishment cabinet positions. However, given recent history, I could understand if those getting Justice now would not be thrilled either.
No doubt it is also easier for the Law Society to deal with someone who is no longer a cabinet minister or a MLA. So at this point, I don’t see a great future for those former Justice Ministers.
As Ian Fleming famously observed: “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.” DJC
Anything ethical, or moral, is definitely beneath the UCP. These are great examples. However, Albertans didn’t learn their lesson in the last provincial election in Alberta, and look what it got us. You cannot be anymore foolish than that.
Jamie Sarkonak, a columnist for the National Post, criticized the Law Society for hearing the complaints against Tyler Shandro because the people complaining are political activists. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jamie-sarkonak-albertas-law-society-usurps-public-by-going-after-tyler-shandro
Christine: I’m sure some of the people complaining were political activists, but in the cases of Shandro and Madu I know some of them were also members of the legal profession offended by the actions of their learned friends. This is an unsurprising false narrative spread by right wingers and doesn’t require refutation. The Law Society is not exactly run by woke Marxists. Mind you, I’ve met a lot of Marxists in my life, and none of them were particularly woke. DJC
I do not doubt for a second that Mr. Madu was pulled over because he was driving while black.
A couple of years ago there was a photo of a grinning Madu at the Calgary Stampede flanked by a couple of grinning CPS officers and my immediate thought was that the cops were acting all chummy only because they know who he was. I also wondered how they or other cops would act if they had no idea who he was and got the answer.
Mr. Madu could have handled the situation so much better by going through the proper channels and maybe could have actually accomplished something on the racial profiling front. However, that is not to be in the mindset of these latter day Conservatives. Self-interest is paramount with them.
Police run folks plates before they pull them over, he knew exactly who was driving before he went to the window. He knew what he was doing, and it’s not likely he was racially profiled.
Bird: I doubt Mr. Madu’s registration would have said he was justice minister and AG. And I don’t think most police officers run the plates at the time they make the decision to pull someone over but after the car has pulled to a stop. At least when they pull me over (an old white guy, I grant you) they do something for a minute before they get out of their car. I’ve always assumed they’re running my plate. I felt at the time that Mr. Madu’s concern in that regard was plausible. I think it’s interesting that he also cited the harassment and stalking of NDP MLA Shannon Phillips by the Lethbridge Police Department as reason for additional concern. DJC
I don’t think anyone would accuse me of being pro police, but I do find it unlikely an EPS officer would have no idea who the justice minister is, especially being that he was also based in the city.
Could have been he was driving a company car provided to him by virtue of his position (?) that would also come up as the minister or at the least a vehicle registered to the ministry ?
Also, you are correct that moment you are waiting is usually when they are running your plate, and or talking with the dispatch. That is of course unless they ran it when they were following you.
In any case, I have always thought the idea he was worried about racial profiling only when it came to himself was illustrative of his character if nothing else, and based on him being admittedly guilty in this incidence suggests he was being less than truthful.
Finally, Is the Russnels digging into this independently the reason they were unceremoniously dumped from the CBC ?
You might say that there is a “reasonable perception” that conservative ministers of justice in Alberta think they’re above the law. You might say that in general, Alberta conservative governments of late think that trying to interfere with the administration of justice is a tossed gauntlet. Would we hear anything about any of this if any of these attempts had succeeded?
As for the Law Society of Alberta, what took so long? Were they waiting for Kaycee Madu to be punted from office by the people, then waiting to see if he would be appointed by the premier to her unelected and undemocratic shadow government for Edmonton? Were they cowering in a corner? There is nothing timely about their decision to stop avoiding an investigation of Kaycee Madu’s conduct. After years of what might fairly be perceived as “hoping this whole thing will go away”, what changed? The KC designation seems to be an indicator of arrogant entitlement, not an indicator of honorable behavior. If the elite KC lawyers get away with questionable conduct, what shenanigans are everyday lawyers with offices at the strip mall getting away with?
Welcome to the Republic of Alberta….I’m not sure which is worse, the blatant arrogance of the UCP ministers, or the Premiers (both JK &DS) putting them in positions to make decisions for the people of Alberta. Okay, realistically that’s probably a moot point, but I find it hard to get my head around what is going on with the “Government of Alberta “….besides Danielle going full on Kruel Ladevil … (Cruella de Vil? – Ed. )
I won, I can do what I want and you can’t stop me.
Mandate letters? Marching orders? Case in point:
Global news/5days ago
Alberta’s tech minister to ‘explore feasibility’ of health spending accounts …..DS …outlining what she would like to see his ministry produce for Albertans.
…..the mandate letter addressing new Health Minister Adriana Lagrange has yet to be issued.
Next up will be Betsy de Voss being invited to help set up new education programs, and Harper Jr will be in charge of the Bitcoin currency— another topic that almost everyone seems to be ignoring.
Just like d’rump, she kept telling you what she wanted to do and now she has the “voter” mandate to move forward, with no accountability.
IMHO, the 3 ministers getting a slap on the wrist, after the fact, is the least of our worries; not just for Alberta, but for the rest of Canada ,because this is testing the waters for “how far can we go”. And if anyone has doubts, look south.
Follow up on bitcoin/crypto mining: Western standard: July 5-’23
Bitcoin supporters say Alberta best province at producing asset because of receptiveness.
“What I can say is that the Alberta government is very interested in the space said AT&I Minister Nate Glubish.”
“Glubish said the Alberta government wants to attract more Bitcoin investment because it sees value. ”
Also present at the Bitcoin rodeo– Ben Harper…..
(Ed- personally I thought La devil was quite apropos, but that’s just my opinion, lol)
PS…at this rate ,we’re going to have to send you on a retreat ,I’m thinking the good folk of NL would be a great tonic, and if nothing else you could write a interesting synopsis on the wonderfully named places, ie: Come by Chance etc.
Hello DJC,
As you indicate, the Jamie Sarkonak column indicates the level of reasoning that the National Post accepts as commentary. My intuition is that, if an MLA of another party had done this, the National Post would demand that the Law Society take immediate action.
I can’t believe and therefore I post music. https://youtu.be/vlvA0sMvnqo
A minor quibble as to form, if I may: the initials KC, like QC prior to September 2022, stand for King’s Counsel, just as QC stood for Queen’s Counsel — King’s or Queen’s in the possessive, & Counsel, not ‘Council’.
In the British legal system, traditionally only a barrister could be a QC or KC, & it is a merit-based appointment. However, since 1994, solicitors have also been able to be named QC or KC.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Counsel. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrister & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solicitor for the distinction between a barrister & a solicitor, which is no longer active in Canada but remains so in the UK.
Jerry: Now that’s embarrassing, doubtless the result of posting a column in the wee hours. It’s been fixed. DJC
I always enjoyed Rusnell’s exposes while he was at the CBC and felt we (Albertans/Canadians) need 1000 more of him doing the same service for us all. I have no idea why he and the Ceeb parted ways but it was a sad day for modern journalism. He does good work as a freelance writer but The Tyee seems like minor league by comparison.
That said, is it just me or has anyone else noticed that Smith stories from the CBC seem to have dropped off drastically? And comments for AB political stories are now mostly disabled? Would that have something to do with the fact our national broadcaster had to admit they had no smoking gun against Queen Dani and the corresponding legal threats that followed? If I was a betting man I’d say that news media (or at least one specific outlet) has been successfully muzzled by the most extreme executive branch this province has ever seen. Doesn’t bode well for the future, my friends…
Can you imagine the reaction of the corporate press, if the NDP had broken the law, just once, during Notely’s tenure in office? There would have been howls of Bolsheviks in office. But the UCP? crickets, crickets.