Russian bank that hired John Baird’s onetime chief-of-staff removed from list of firms facing sanctions

OTTAWA — A Russian bank hired John Baird’s onetime provincial chief of staff to lobby the federal government to get the bank removed from the list of Russian firms facing sanctions over Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine.

The then-Foreign Affairs Minister subsequently removed the bank from the list, but he and the lobbyist both say they never spoke about the matter. Meanwhile, ExpoBank LLC’s representatives say that it was only added to the list as a result of mistaken identity.

Expobank was added to the list April 28, 2014. A month later, lobbyist Will Stewart registered with the commissioner of lobbying “for the purpose of making an application to remove ExpoBank from the Schedule to the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations.”

Mr. Stewart was chief of staff when Mr. Baird served in the Ontario government. He was media director last year for the campaign of Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, and is a good friend of Mr. Baird’s.

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said he would like a better explanation from the government of how it came to list then delist ExpoBank.

“What we need to find out is how this happened,” he said in an interview. “When we find out that there was a lobbyist who had been working for Minister Baird, representing the company in question — we were under the impression that this was a sanction that was not relevant — but it is interesting and worthy of explanation.”

In an interview last week, Mr. Stewart said he didn’t lobby anyone on the file. His firm, Ensight Canada, was hired by the law firm McCarthy Tétrault to provide “political intelligence.”

“We provide them with who’s who in Canada in terms of politics, how the system works, who the important people are, that type of thing,” he said.

Mr. Stewart said that he and Mr. Baird have been friends since the days when he worked for Mr. Baird in Queen’s Park, so he doesn’t lobby him.

“I don’t lobby Baird, period, full stop,” he said. “For this exact reason. I don’t need anybody suggesting he’s done anything wrong or I’ve done anything wrong based on our past relationship.”

In an emailed statement, Mr. Baird said he didn’t know his friend was on the file.

“In no way, shape or form did I know Mr. Stewart was representing this bank, and no representations were made to me on this file by Mr. Stewart,” he said. “The delisting was recommended by departmental officials after their review, and I accepted that advice.”

A month after Mr. Stewart registered on the file, John Boscariol, a lawyer with McCarthy Tétrault who often works on disputes over sanctions, registered to lobby on the file.

He and Mr. Stewart both say that lawyers guided the formal appeal process, ultimately convincing departmental officials that the firm had been added to the list in error. Mr. Baird delisted ExpoBank in Sept. 18, along with another Russian bank: Rosenergobank.

“The evidence was so clear is this case the government couldn’t sustain keeping ExpoBank on the list,” said Mr. Boscariol in an interview Tuesday.

Original Article
Source: news.nationalpost.com/
Author: Stephen Maher