NDP calls on ethics boss to investigate Raitt

The official Opposition will call on the ethics commissioner to investigate an possible conflict of interest involving federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt over an alleged free seat upgrade from an Air Canada top executive, NDP labour critic Yvon Godin said.

The call comes after a document released to the media indicated Air Canada's CEO and executive vice-president Duncan Dee apparently upgraded Raitt's flight from economy to business class — almost a $550 value — for free on Sept. 25.

Godin said he now has possession of another electronic ticket suggesting Dee also authorized an upgrade for Raitt's chief of staff, Douglas Smith, on Oct. 10.

A spokesman from Raitt's office said neither the minister — who this week blocked the airlines' flight attendants from striking — nor her chief of staff ever accepted or requested a complimentary upgrade from Air Canada.

The spokesman gave documents to QMI Agency indicating Raitt and Smith used their own points for the upgrade.

But Godin still questions why Dee's name is on the ticket, insisting the documents are proof the minister and her staff received free upgrades.

Godin called Raitt's alleged involvement in the upgrades unethical and a conflict of interest.

"Air Canada is providing upgrading to her at the same time she is legislating workers back to work," he said in a telephone interview from New Brunswick.

"We have to stop ... those things. That's why we have a commissioner of ethics."

The upgrades come days and weeks before the minister moved to stop a walkout by the airline's flight attendants, who have been in long and tense negotiations with Air Canada and twice rejected tentative deals with the airline.

The airline's 6,800 flight attendants planned to strike on Thursday, but Raitt made the strike illegal earlier in the week, suggesting it could jeopardize the economic health and safety of the country, and referring the dispute to the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB).

When the CIRB reviews a dispute, strikes and lockouts are prohibited.

When contacted by QMI Agency, a spokesman for the ethics commissioner's office said it could not comment on individual cases.

The office did say that, under the conflict of interest code for members of the House of Commons, MPs must declare free upgrades from an airline as sponsored travel.

A free upgrade is considered a gift or a benefit under the Conflict of Interest Act and subject to a conflict of interest test.

This is not the first time Raitt has tangled with an ethics issue. In 2009, Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson investigated but cleared Raitt after political watchdog, Democracy Watch, filed a complaint against the then-minister of natural resources.

Democracy Watch took issue with lobbyists' involvement in a Toronto fundraiser organized for Raitt.

Commissioner of Lobbying Karen Shepherd later found lobbyists Michael McSweeny and Will Stewart were selling tickets for the $250-a-head event, breaching the lobbyists' code of conduct.

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Source: Ottawa Sun