Law Times

PAGE 2 NEWS April 26, 2010 • lAw Times Law firm payments part of 'war' by rights agency: MP O BY TIM NAUMETZ For Law Times TTAWA — A federal human rights agen- cy spent more than $200,000 for investigative work by two major law firms in the wake of a governance crisis this year. Testimony at parliamentary hearings into the problems at Rights & Democracy re- veal former interim president Jacques Gauthier paid about $37,000 to Ogilvy Renault LLP and $200,000 to Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. The move came after the entire staff of 47 at the agen- cy reportedly signed a letter calling for the resignation of board chairman Aurel Braun and two directors following former president Rémy Beau- regard's death. Soon after that, the centre's office in Montreal was burgled and computer files were stolen. Gauthier went on to hire the legal assistance, in addition to a further $144,000 for a private investigation company as well as work by accounting firm Deloitte & Touche and a communications firm, in response. BLG conducted an investi- gation into the actions of three managers at the Montreal of- fice and their role in the letter demanding the resignation of Braun and other members of the board. BLG retained Ogil- vys for further interviews and a second opinion on its own findings. Following revelations of the spending, NDP MP Paul Dewar accused Gauthier of "declaring a war" on the centre's staff and using public money to wage it. The controversy comes as Gauthier, a prominent Toron- to human rights lawyer, con- tinues to find himself at the centre of the bitter and highly politicized internal strife at Rights & Democracy. Gauthier, who established his Bloor Street law firm of Gauthier & Associates more than 25 years ago, has come under severe criticism from former members of the Rights & Democracy board for his role in the controversy that be- gan over three $10,000 grants the agency awarded to two Pal- estinian human rights groups and an Israeli organization fol- lowing deadly violence in the Gaza Strip last year. In an interview about the law firm payments, Gauthier says the governance dispute grew over the past few months as he and other members of the board attempted to get detailed information about spending on human rights projects around the world. Although the board has imposed a moratorium on funding for Palestinian human rights organizations, he says the objections to the three grants were based on contracts that showed the groups proposed O E S Y OUR D QU ANTUM Y OU IMMEDIA TE ANSWERS? SER VICE GIVE ONLY WESTLAW® CANADA OFFERS A TRUE QUANTUM SERVICE Estimate the value of your claim in minutes with Westlaw® Canada Litigator Quantum service. Results include award amounts ranked from highest to lowest so you can immediately estimate the value of your claim. You won't have to read a mountain of digests to find the answers. Get Better Results Faster with Westlaw® Canada www.westlawcanada.com Untitled-4 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 4/20/10 2:29:10 PM to investigate only alleged war crimes by Israel. Braun, with support from a majority of board members, named Gauthier acting presi- dent following Beauregard's sudden death in early January. Beauregard suffered a heart at- tack following months of con- frontation at the agency and two tumultuous meetings involving confrontations with Braun and several new directors. Although the government insisted the confrontations centred on questionable spend- ing by the centre, a former board member who resigned in protest during the tumult tells Law Times he and other former members believe it stemmed from $30,000 in grants Beau- regard had approved for the three human rights groups. The money went to the Is- raeli human rights organiza- tion B'Tselem and two Pales- tinian groups — Al-Haq in Ramallah, West Bank, and the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, according to an investigative report on the events by Maclean's magazine writer Paul Wells. The former board member tells Law Times the three groups work together and are respected for their at- tempts to independently mon- itor rights abuses in Israel and work toward compromise. He says there's a belief among former members of the board that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government decided to take over direction of the agency and put Beaure- gard's reputation and work in question as part of its recent moves to woo support from conservative elements in the Jewish community in Canada and also because of its over- all pro-Israel approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wider issue of Middle East politics. A McGill University law professor who resigned from the board in protest during the leadership change says Gau- thier and other new directors opted to confront the previous board members rather than seek a compromise. "None of this was necessary had there been compromise instead of confrontation," says McGill associate professor Payam Akhavan, who special- izes in human rights problems in Iran. "The problem is not that there are disputes," he adds. "Whether it's Israel, Palestine, whatever, people can have disputes. But the way certain board members solved disputes was through smear and through very hostile, unethical actions. It was clearly a takeover, and they wanted to eliminate any- one who stood in their way." Akhavan didn't want to dis- cuss the internal battle, refer- ring a reporter instead to the testimony he gave at the Com- mons foreign affairs commit- tee. Testimony at Commons committees is protected by the immunity of parliamentary privilege. At the committee, Akhavan criticized Gauthier for com- ments he made in an inter- nal report on Beauregard that questioned the legality of dis- cussions the deceased Rights & Democracy president had with representatives of Hamas and Hezbollah during a 2008 conference in Cairo. Akhavan says Gauthier later told board members he was referring to Criminal Code provisions that make it illegal to contribute, directly or indirectly, to the activity of a terrorist group. "Without a shred of evi- dence, a distinguished bureau- crat with a spotless record was accused of being a criminal," Akhavan told the committee. "In his response to the board, Mr. Beauregard had said this accusation was patently false and he considered it an attack on his reputation." LT

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