Was Wasyliw’s ouster a case of optics or ethics?

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/09/2024 (357 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Earlier today I informed Mark Wasyliw, MLA for Fort Garry, that he has been removed from the NDP Caucus effective immediately. The decision came after our caucus learned that MLA Wasyliw’s business partner is acting as Peter Nygard’s criminal defence lawyer.”

—NDP caucus chair Mike Moyes in a media release.

The strange saga of Fort Garry MLA Mark Wasyliw continued Monday after NDP caucus chair Mike Moyes revealed that Wasyliw had been booted out of caucus.

The reason given was that practising lawyer Wasyliw’s business partner has joined convicted sexual predator Peter Nygard’s defence team.

For those unaware of the backstory, Wasyliw has continued to practise law after he was first elected to the legislature in 2019.

Even before the 2019 election, he was the target of attacks from the then-governing Progressive Conservatives for acting as the lawyer for people accused of impaired driving.

The Tories dragged out a similar argument in March 2023, though that time they also criticized Wasyliw for moonlighting as a lawyer while also being on the public payroll.

Later in 2023, during the election campaign, the Tories placed a controversial ad in several papers, including this one, suggesting that the NDP would deal the province a bad hand if elected.

The full-page ad featured NDP Leader Wab Kinew as the “joker” and several NDP candidates as “wild cards.” Each card had a line explaining the supposed failing of each person.

Wasyliw’s card said he “defends sex offenders and drug dealers in court.”

Ultimately, the NDP won the election and Wasyliw was denied a cabinet role. Kinew had this to say on the matter: “I think everyone who has been elected by the people of Manitoba should focus on serving the people of Manitoba.”

Clearly, the issue was his split attention. Wasyliw seemed unwilling to mend his ways after the snub, refusing to shake Kinew’s hand at a swearing-in ceremony and telling the Winnipeg Free Press that he intended to ramp his law work back up with extra time on his hands.

It’s interesting, then, that Wasyliw’s ouster wasn’t due to his continued legal practice, but a question of ethics.

Both the NDP and the Manitoba Bar Association had previously defended Wasyliw’s legal defence of people accused of serious crimes.

In response to the playing cards ad, bar association past-president Jason Gisser said: “Everyone charged with a criminal offence has the right to legal representation. These attacks must stop.”

Admittedly, some of Wasyliw’s law ads talking about how it’s not technically illegal to drink and drive might have been factually correct but were in poor taste.

However, for our legal system to work properly, everyone, even someone convicted of the crimes Nygard has been, is owed a fair trial and competent representation. Lawyers are bound to act in their client’s best interest, no matter who they are.

If a lawyer acts unethically in their duties, then there is room for concern, but it doesn’t seem to have been a part of the conversation around Wasyliw.

To our minds, it’s unseemly for a provincial government to take a position suggesting that it believes Canadians accused of horrific crimes do not have the right to legal counsel. Based on the quote from Moyes above, the Kinew government appears to be suggesting exactly that by punishing Wasyliw for an action taken by a partner in his legal firm.

The arguments against Wasyliw’s divided attentions are a far more compelling argument against his abilities as a politician. Even as a backbencher, there are plenty of duties to take care of both in the legislature as an MLA, let alone one part of a sitting government. There is never a shortage of constituents with problems they want to discuss.

Given the NDP’s previous defence of Wasyliw’s conduct as a lawyer, it appears that his dismissal from caucus was not really spurred by ethics, but rather optics instead.

That seems to be Wasyliw’s own perspective on the situation, judging by comments he made to the Free Press.

Wasyliw alleged that Kinew was upset over negative coverage of the government pausing a rent top-up program last week and took out his anger on him. He also called the premier a “bully.”

“He saw a news story involving my former law partner, and that triggered him and … now I’m gone,” Wasyliw said in the piece.

We can understand that a sitting government would not want to be tied in any way to a man already set to spend more than a decade in prison for sex crimes, with more charges in both Canada and the United States yet to be tried.

But Wasyliw’s dismissal would be far more convincing if it were for his reluctance to serve the public rather than who he is tangentially connected to.