OTTAWA – CRTC commissioner Dr. Linda Vennard broke the Conflict of Interest Act by accepting flowers and chocolates on her birthday from a radio broadcaster, says the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.
According to a report by Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson, Vennard, then the newly appointed commissioner for Alberta and the Northwest Territories, received the gifts from representatives of Multicultural Broadcasting Corporation Inc. and Asia Broadcasting Corporation Inc., CRTC-licensed companies operating two radio stations commercially branded as RED FM, including one in Calgary. The gifts had been sent to her at the CRTC's Calgary office for her birthday in July 2015.
“I found that the flowers and chocolates given to Dr. Vennard by RED FM might reasonably be seen to have been given to influence her as the company is a stakeholder of the CRTC”, wrote Dawson in the report. “I further found that those gifts did not come under the exception to the Act’s acceptability test for gifts that are received as a normal expression of courtesy or protocol or are within the customary standards that normally accompany the public office holder’s position.”
The report adds that Vennard's only connection with the RED FM representatives who gave her the gifts was as stakeholders of the CRTC, and noted that she had met them only once since her CRTC appointment two months earlier.
The examination resulted from a referral from the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner under the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act. The Commissioner is required by section 68 of the Conflict of Interest Act to issue a report after any referral received from the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner.
The Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner administers the Conflict of Interest Act for public office holders and the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons.
