Athana Mentzelopoulos, the former chief executive officer of Alberta Health Services, alleged in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit that the government fired her for investigating ties between procurement officials at her agency and companies they had contracted.Jennifer Gauthier/The Globe and Mail
The former head of Alberta Health Services says she has been subject to a campaign of intimidation since she launched a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit against the provincial government last year, and she alleges the same individuals accused of harassing a potential witness in the case have been targeting her.
Speaking publicly about the alleged harassment campaign for the first time, former AHS chief executive officer Athana Mentzelopoulos said David Wallace – a self-described former political fixer who hosts a podcast called The Political Dark Arts Report – has repeatedly attacked her reputation, called her “disgusting names” and said people “were coming to my house.”
“It appears to be designed to harass and intimidate, and it is based on distortions,” Ms. Mentzelopoulos said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
“It has been concerning to me to see, in several respects, a similarity between what elected representatives, including the Premier, have said publicly, and what has been communicated through this proxy campaign.”
The alleged intimidation has come into view over the past two weeks since Sandy Edmonstone, a former AHS board member, obtained a rare court order to seize evidence from the homes of Mr. Wallace and James Di Fiore, a fellow podcaster who has hosted Mr. Wallace on his show.
Mr. Edmonstone, a former Alberta-based investment banker, alleges Mr. Wallace spread false rumours about him on the podcast and threatened to dig into his personal life – efforts he alleges were intended to intimidate him as a potential witness in Ms. Mentzelopoulous’s lawsuit.
Court records made public on Tuesday revealed Mr. Wallace had told solicitors that he was retained by an Edmonton-based lawyer, Bryan Ward, for “unspecified work.”
That lawyer has acted many times for Sam Mraiche, the Edmonton medical equipment entrepreneur whose companies are central to the procurement controversy that has caused turmoil in Premier Danielle Smith’s government.
The two podcasters have also targeted Globe journalists Carrie Tait and Tom Cardoso, who have written about the probe.
Scott Hutchison, a lawyer for Mr. Mraiche, did not respond to a request for comment. Craig Alcock, who represents Mr. Wallace and Mr. Di Fiore, also did not respond. Neither did Mr. Ward.
Justin Brattinga, spokesperson for Ms. Smith, pointed to comments made by the Premier last week about Mr. Edmonstone’s allegations: “I know nothing about it. So that’ll be a question for the courts.”
Ms. Mentzelopoulous’s lawsuit against the United Conservative Party government has roiled Alberta politics for the past year. She alleged she was fired because she refused to shut down an internal investigation into the health agency’s procurement staff and their relationships with companies owned by Mr. Mraiche. The province has said Ms. Mentzelopoulos was fired for incompetence.
The allegations have not been tested in court.
The matter is being investigated by the RCMP and Alberta’s Auditor-General.
RCMP spokesperson Christina Zoernig said the investigation is continuing and the force has no further information to share.
Cheryl Schneider, spokesperson for Auditor-General Doug Wylie – who is also named several times in Mr. Wallace’s videos – said the office’s investigation is an “evolving and dynamic examination” and it is working as “quickly as possible” to complete it.
Ms. Mentzelopoulos told The Globe she was disturbed that the Premier had previously used a talking point later featured on Mr. Wallace’s podcast.
At a committee meeting in March of last year, Ms. Smith said Ms. Mentzelopoulos, in 2012, had made “false allegations of staff” when she was a government official in British Columbia.
Ms. Mentzelopoulos said the podcasters have homed in on her past. In several instances, they have referenced a scandal in which B.C. announced at a press conference that it had dismissed eight health researchers over allegations that they had mishandled sensitive health data.
As deputy minister for government communications, Ms. Mentzelopoulos signed off on a press release that incorrectly said that the RCMP was investigating the matter. One of those dismissed, Roderick MacIsaac, later killed himself.
The B.C. government apologized and admitted it had overreacted. B.C. Ombudsperson Jay Chalke, who reviewed the case, detailed in a lengthy report how the investigation was biased and shoddily conducted. “No individual decision and no single person is responsible for what occurred,” the report said, pointing to systemic failures.
Mr. Wallace has referred to Ms. Mentzelopoulos as a “criminal” and called her “bloody-hands Mentzelopoulos.”
“I have nothing to worry about in terms of people trying to dig up information on me,” Ms. Mentzelopoulos said. “But you look at this, you look at the sustained nature of it, the progressively more intimidating – it’s been more and more aggressive.”
She said she still has faith in the Auditor-General and RCMP investigations.
Ms. Mentzelopoulos said her family has been shaken by threats that people are potentially visiting her house.
“It has made me question again and again how I ended up in this position. I’ve had to ask myself frequently if I did the right thing. I keep concluding that I did, but it has had an incredible impact,” she said.
Peter Guthrie, who defected from Ms. Smith’s cabinet in response to how the government handled the procurement controversy, and is now leader of the Progressive Tory Party, has also been attacked by the podcasters. In November, he raised a point of order that during Question Period Ms. Smith had responded to one of his queries by repeating an insult used against him by Mr. Wallace.
In several broadcasts, Mr. Wallace referenced Mr. Guthrie drinking “specialty drinks” and his wife getting “tomahawk steaks.”
During Question Period on Nov. 19, in response to a question by an NDP member about Ms. Mentzelopoulos’s allegations, Ms. Smith said: “The member from Airdrie-Cochrane had way too many tomahawk steaks and specialty drinks.”
At Speaker Ric McIver’s request, Dan Williams, the government’s deputy House leader, withdrew the remarks and apologized on behalf of the Premier.
Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said in a statement that the revelation that Mr. Wallace had apparently been retained by a lawyer who had acted for Mr. Mraiche was “one of the most troubling” aspects of the health procurement controversy.
Mr. Nenshi said the allegations are “shocking to the core and must be fully investigated.”
With a report from Tu Thanh Ha