Yukon woman questions justice minister's impartiality in civil suits against gov't

A Dawson City woman says Yukon's justice minister could face a conflict of interest when it comes to lawsuits against the territory's department of education.

Elise McCormick referred to several civil lawsuits in recent years against the territory's education department, and says that Justice Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee was also the territory's education minister during some of the period covered by those lawsuits. McPhee was education minister from 2011 and 2016.

One of those lawsuits was given the green light last year to proceed as a class-action by students and parents of Jack Hulland Elementary School in Whitehorse. The parents allege a number of students at the school were subject to holds, restraints and seclusion between January 1, 2007 and June 30, 2022. The Yukon Department of Education is named as the defendant. The allegations have not been tried in court.

McCormick wrote to the premier, outlining her concerns about McPhee's impartiality as the territory's attorney general.

In that letter, she suggests that McPhee may be prioritizing her reputation or political interests in "issuing legal hold notices and of the duty to preserve needed evidence" and other matters.  

"If I am mistaken about the conflict of interest, and Minister McPhee is not required to recuse herself from acting as attorney general ... then I urge you to direct her to waive confidentiality. The public would surely benefit from the legal certainty."

McCormick wants the territory's conflict of interest commissioner to review the issue. According to the territorial government's website, the commissioner assists MLAs in identifying areas of possible conflict, and also investigates any complaints made by MLAs under the territory's conflict of interest legislation.  

"So the purpose of my letter to the premier is to request that Minister McPhee seek that advice and make it public," she said. 

On Wednesday, the opposition Yukon Party brought the matter forward in the legislature. MLA Brad Cathers asked the premier how he intended to respond to McCormick's letter. 

Premier Ranj Pillai said his government would follow procedure.

"We do receive lots of different letters from Yukoners, and we take each and every one of them very seriously. In this particular case we've reviewed the letter that we received and passed [it] on," he said. 

"The undertaking is for any members of the legislative assembly is that they, either on their own accord or if something comes up, they can just refer their interest to David Jones, [who] is our conflicts commissioner."

Pillai did not say whether McPhee had asked for this advice already.

CBC News requested an interview with McPhee at the legislature but only Pillai was made available.