The UCP can't even get a coverup right

I love great political maneuvers; this is not one of those.

The cover up continues

BlueSky

With the Justice Minister fielding all questions from the opposition on the investigations into the AHS scandal in time-honoured legalese, there hasn’t been much new information. That changed when an internal memo from a “senior ADM (Assistant Deputy Minister)” in Alberta Health suggested staff forward requests for interviews from the Auditor General to a lawyer appointed by Alberta Health.

It’s important to note that the leaked memo did not suggest staff do the same if former Manitoba Justice Wyant, who is leading the UCP’s own investigation, requests an interview.

On her somewhat weekly spin-off, Your Province Your Premier on 770, Danielle Smith claimed her office is just trying to “facilitate” the Auditor General’s requests. As if paying someone hundreds of dollars an hour to act as scheduling assistant is a thing. Or asking staff to add another middleman to the request reduces barriers. No one ever said Danielle Smith isn’t a seasoned liar.

In politics, it’s always recommended to get ahead of problems. The UCP attempted to do that with their commission of a judge-led side-investigation. To recap:

• former Deputy Secretary of Executive Council Christopher McPherson was tasked with commissioning an investigation for the UCP;

• during the great staffing shuffle of 2024, McPherson was moved to Jobs, Economy, and Trade where he now serves as Deputy Minister and is one of two “government liaisons” to the investigation, the other being Stephanie Clarke, Deputy Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction;

• this investigation will deliver a draft report to the Premier before the end of May, and the final report is due June 30. That will supposedly be made public sometime in July, probably around 5:00pm on a long weekend.

Because Doug Wylie, Alberta’s Auditor General, had already received a request to investigate AHS procurement deals with MHCare Medical — and had already been in contact with former AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopolous, who was, by that time, conducting her own investigation — he formally launched his own investigation after Ms. Mentzelopolous’ sudden dismissal and that of the entire AHS Board, notifying the affected departments on January 31.

For weeks, both the Premier and the Health Minister, and through Justice Minister Mickey Amery, claimed they “are cooperating with each of the investigations” — that is one each by the Auditor General, RCMP, as well as a side-investigation commissioned by the UCP that will alert them to potential issues that may arise out of the other investigations sooner — and that “the member’s opposite should take ‘yes’ for an answer” in response to repeated questions of whether the UCP could be trusted to cooperate with said investigations.

“Yes” is subjective, it seems.

The Auditor General’s office didn’t hear Danielle Smith’s excuse before issuing their statement; though I do wonder if they would have bought it.

“This came as a surprise to the auditor general, and our office will be seeking clarity on why that communication (the memo) was sent.”

“We were not aware of, nor did we endorse, that proposed action. That is not a standard practice our office typically encounters in the course of its work.”

“We want Albertans to understand that the Auditor General will do everything necessary within his power to ensure he has access to the information and the individuals required for his work,” the statement from his office said.

Don Braid, Calgary Herald, April 11, 2025

Meanwhile, according to the CBC, the UCP filed for an injunction against former AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopolous to compel her to delete nine emails she forwarded to a personal account the day before she was fired, and to face cross-examination over who has seen them. Government lawyers claim two of the emails contain confidential information belonging to AHS.

The article also mentions MHCare Medical sent copies of a statement they had sent to Christopher McPherson, government liaison to former Justice Raymond Wyant who is leading the investigation for the UCP.

It’s a bit of a head-scratcher why MHCare would send a statement to the liaison rather than the investigation lead, and then forward it on to media.

Plot twist

Mr. Staples posted more of the statement contents from MHCare.

In a statement, MHCare fired back at the Alberta NDP. Mraiche said he and Notley were on friendly terms and saw each other occasionally. “More than once Mr. Mraiche hosted Ms. Notley, her staff and ministers at his home, sometimes with others including members of her caucus and her husband. Mr. Mraiche frequently exchanged messages with NDP MLAs and her leadership staff — they often sent personal messages of support and encouragement, including posting public mentions of his philanthropic work. It is important to note that Mr. Mraiche had no business dealings with the government of Ms. Notley.”

In his own statement, Mraiche said that Notley has scrubbed her social media accounts of their relationship. On Facebook in 2020, after Mraiche organized with three NGOs to send five cargo shipments of relief supplies to Beirut, Lebanon, after a terrible port explosion there, Notley posted, “I know Sam personally. He has a huge heart. This is an awesome initiative.”

Said Mraiche, a self-described proud Canadian Lebanese Muslim, “It was disappointing to see the former premier attempt to cleanse away any previous mention of me. Just as it is disappointing to see the NDP in the legislature repeatedly making misleading and, often, downright false assertions about the work my company has done for AHS.”

Notley could not be reached for comment, but Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi responded.

“To the best of my knowledge, I have never met Mr. Mraiche. While some of my caucus members have met him briefly at events, none have a relationship with him. He has donated to Alberta’s New Democrats in the past, like thousands of other Albertans. These are a matter of public record. I am not aware of any government business with Alberta’s New Democrats and certainly not of any kickbacks while the party was in government.”

David Staples, Edmonton Journal, April 2, 2025

It’s odd that this would have shown up in an opinion column. Stranger still that Mr. Staples, an opinion columnist, would withhold an opinion on something he wrote about, instead stating “I’ll wait to hear from them before making up my mind on the crucial matter.”

Almost as if, it was neither news, nor something Mr. Staples wanted to have an opinion about, but something someone else really wanted published.

I don’t have any inside information about why Ms. Notley would scrub her social media of Mr. Mraiche’s name, but I do have a take, based on the 90’s classic, Can’t Buy Me Love.

Ronnie, an earnest, yet nerdy high school student, bribes Cindy, the most popular girl in school, to pretend to be his girlfriend for a month because he believes it will make him popular. She agrees. To her surprise, it works. They stage a public breakup, but still travel in the same circles.

When her old boyfriend comes home from college for Christmas break, he shows up at the party where they and many of their classmates are. Bobby pulls some 90’s “why would you date that other guy” stuff and walks out. Cindy, having had a few too many cocktails, tells everyone that Ronnie paid her, they never really dated, and berates them for “falling for it”. His date pretends she doesn’t know him, and no one else will meet his eyes as he slinks towards the door.

Now, they all thought Ronnie was great until they found out that he had bought his way into their circle. No one was willing to stand up and say, “but before we knew about that, we thought he was an alright dude."

No; after if looked like Ronnie had just been trying to scam his way into being popular, no one wanted to admit they knew him at all.

It was also the movie that made Cabriolet Convertibles really popular. But I digress.

It doesn’t seem as if the investigation lead requested this statement, and it really only serves as fodder for tongue-wagging by those looking for a silver lining that may take some heat off of a government they stump for far too much.

It’s a distraction

We already know that Ministers of Danielle Smith’s cabinet, as well as Smith herself, enjoyed time with Mr. Mraiche at playoff games. What we didn’t know was that Mr. Mraiche also had “relationships” with the NDP.

Again, nothing wrong with that from the perspective of a business networking with potential clients. It’s how they get new business.

And there’s nothing wrong with politicians being on good terms with people the government is doing business with.

Remember, the only reason anyone outside of AHS began asking any questions is because so many Ministers, and then the Premier a province away, ended up in Skyboxes with Mr. Mraiche. And the only reason they were in those Skyboxes is because the UCP decided they were being unfairly restrained from accepting gifts by the ethics rules that were currently in place.

It’s possible a few of them have since realized that ethics rules aren’t actually about infringing upon their freedoms but are in place to maintain the integrity of the governing party. Though I suppose no one could credibly accuse a leader who happily betrayed Albertans once already of having much integrity to lose.

No one questioned why then-Premier Rachel Notley sent a shoutout to a local person for their philanthropic actions (because I’m guessing she didn’t claim he had “a big heart” for being paid by her government to do it).

Based on all of the information that’s been made available, there were heads that needed to roll in the Government of Alberta. Since all of that information became available to the elected officials, which I’m confident happened in early October, they have done nothing but lie and try to cover it up.

The time for a mea culpa was October. The next best time would have been February, when it became public.

At this point, I can only hope they’re just really trying to nail down the comedic timing.

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