1 week Ago By Ricky Leong
Lawyers for the Alberta government accused ex-Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos of hiding from questions and showing a “Trumpian” disregard for rules as the case that has rocked provincial politics landed in court for the first time. Her lawyers fired back, saying the government is trying to sneak a peek at what Mentzelopoulos has told investigators probing allegations of corruption in health-care procurement. Court of King’s Bench Justice Debra Yungwirth heard arguments in the case Friday after lawyers for AHS and the Alberta government sought an injunction preventing Mentzelopoulos from sharing emails she forwarded to her personal account the day before her Jan.
8 firing. They are also seeking to cross-examine Mentzelopoulos to find out who — if anyone — she has shown the emails, which AHS says contain confidential and legally privileged information. Mentzelopoulos’s lawyer Dan Scott portrayed his client as a whistleblower who had done nothing improper with the emails.
He said the former CEO — who was not in court Friday — has deleted the emails and has agreed only share information about their contents with the auditor general and the RCMP, who are probing Mentzelopoulos’s allegations. Mentzelopoulos filed a $1.7-million wrongful dismissal suit earlier this year, claiming she launched an investigation into AHS contracting and was fired shortly after sharing information with the auditor general.
In court Friday, Alberta government lawyer Munaf Mohamed, a partner at national law firm Bennett Jones, accused Mentzelopoulos of portraying herself as a “martyr” and feeding a “false narrative” to the press. He asked the court for an order requiring Mentzelopoulos to delete the emails, refrain from sharing their contents and submit herself for questioning by government lawyers. Munaf called Mentzelopoulos’s decision to send herself the confidential emails came when she knew full well she would be fired — contradicting her claims she was unexpectedly terminated by Zoom.
He compared her justification for sending the emails to Trump, saying she adopted an attitude of “I was CEO so it’s all OK.” Mohamed said he needs to cross-examine Mentzelopoulos to “contain the damage” by finding out who else she shared confidential and solicitor-client materials with. He portrayed her as an ineffective executive who failed to get on board with the government’s policy splitting of AHS into four separate units.
“Ms. Mentzelopoulos’s job as CEO was to make sure she carried out that mandate,” he said. Instead, she became “mesmerized” by her investigation — potentially jeopardizing “thousands” of surgeries at chartered surgical facilities whose contracts were expiring, he claimed.
Munaf also accused Mentzelopoulos’s of being “studious” in avoiding cross-examination, including by being “conveniently out of the country on a medical issue.” Scott objected to the cross-examination, saying Mentzelopoulos answered questions during discovery in June. He called the government’s bid a “fishing expedition,” adding that as soon as they were served with the injunction application, they agreed not to use any of the materials outside of litigation.
Mentzelopoulos has told him she deleted all the emails, Scott said. “There’s no evidence of any misuse here.” Scott went on to accuse the government of looking for a “back door” into the investigations into its conduct.
“Their attempt to question her ...
is really their attempt to find out what she has told the auditor general, what documents she has given them, what she has told the RCMP, if anything,” he told Yungwirth. “When you’re exercising your discretion to grant or not grant an injunction order ..
. that should be a very important consideration for you.” He also argued AHS appears to have waived privilege on the information by sharing it with the government, noting an assistant deputy minister filed an affidavit indicating she was aware of the emails’ contents.
Yungwirth questioned the lawyers throughout the hearing, asking why they couldn’t wait until the discovery process to question Mentzelopoulos, and whether a separate process is needed to decide which emails contain privileged information. She said she would deliver a decision in writing “as quickly as I can.” jwakefield@postmedia.
com x.com/jonnywakefield @jonnywakefield.bsky.
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