Taman, a prosecutor with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC), confirmed she had received a long-expected termination notice last week — a month after she handed over her files and took a leave to run for the NDP nomination despite the objections of the watchdog overseeing the neutrality of the public service.
Taman said she plans to file a grievance to fight her dismissal. The Association of Justice Counsel, which represents federal lawyers, had earlier promised to fight any attempts to discipline or fire Taman.
Taman has been braced for a firing or suspension since she openly defied a Public Service Commission ruling that denied her permission to seek the nomination. She made several pleas to the commission since that ruling to reconsider her case or at least let her go on unpaid leave until the Federal Court rules on her challenge of the PSC’s ruling.
The PSC, which has the exclusive authority to decide whether public servants can seek election, refused last December to give Taman leave to run in the Oct. 19 election.
But Taman asked the Federal Court for a judicial review to set aside the PSC decision as “unreasonable” because it failed to balance her obligations to be a loyal and impartial public servant with her constitutional right to seek public office. That case won’t be heard until Sept. 1.
The union is backing Taman’s case because it fears the commission’s decision sets the stage for a “blanket prohibition” on federal prosecutors ever running for office.
Taman didn’t formally resign when she announced her intention to seek the hotly contested NDP nomination in Ottawa-Vanier, a Liberal stronghold. She told bosses she was taking a leave, cleaned out her desk, surrendered her Blackberry and security pass, and turned over her files to colleagues.
She said the termination letter said she was fired for willfully abandoning her position after the PPSC asked her to return to work.
She said the PSC has also launched a new and separate investigation into her “unauthorized political activity” since leaving her job, including a confidential report into those activities.
Taman’s grievance, which will take months to wind its way through the system, could help keep her case alive for the Federal Court to rule on whether or not the PSC made a reasonable call in refusing her leave to run.
Another public prosecutor, Maureen Harquail, was in a similar situation as Taman when the PSC refused to grant her leave to run in 2004 federal election. By the time the court heard her case, the election was over and a judge dismissed the challenge as moot.
The judge did, however, say that the PSC’s decision was “unreasonable”, particularly because the then deputy minister of justice recommended it approve Harquail’s request. Harquail has since left the public service and is running as the Conservative candidate in Don Valley East.
Taman argues she has been open and above-board in her actions. She feels she had no choice but to take an authorized leave because she wouldn’t have a court ruling on her case before the scheduled Aug. 25 nomination meeting. With the early election call, that nomination meeting could be bumped up.
“I have been transparent from the beginning,” she said. “I think they are being rather heavy-handed.”
The PSC won’t comment on cases before the courts.
Taman’s battle for public servants’ political rights has become a cause célèbre. She has won the support of former NDP leader Ed Broadbent for her nomination along with that of other NDP MPs. Her mother, former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour, also endorsed her while acknowledging her support “could give rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias.”
Taman joins another federal lawyer, Claude Provencher, general counsel and regional director in Quebec, who is also taking the PSC to court for refusing him leave to seek the Liberal nomination in the new Quebec riding of Vimy.
Provencher’s lawyers have asked the Federal Court to consider their cases back-to-back on Sept. 1.
Provencher’s arguments are similar to Taman’s but he is going a step further and challenging the constitutionality of the Public Service Employment Act.
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com/
Author: Kathryn May
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