Besides being the one-year anniversary of Laurentian University declaring insolvency, today is also the deadline for LU to comply with rare Speaker’s warrants issued by the Ontario legislature in December.
The warrants are aimed at Laurentian University president Robert Haché and former board chair Claude Lacroix, and require them to provide certain documents to the clerk of the Ontario legislature’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts.
The two men are required to provide the documents listed here (with a couple of exceptions, as per a recent court decision) “on or before Feb. 1, 2022 at 5 p.m. EST.”
The Speaker’s warrants, signed by Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott, the Speaker of the Ontario legislature, contains the line: “IF YOU DISOBEY THIS WARRANT (sic), you may be subject to punishment, including imprisonment.”
You can read the full text of the Speaker’s warrants on pages 59 and 60 of this court document.
The exceptions we mentioned above were the result of a court decision last week by Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz, the judge who has heard most matters related to Laurentian’s insolvency.
Laurentian had applied to the courts for a stay of the Speaker’s warrants.
However, Morawetz said Laurentian must provide most of the requested documents to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, with the exceptions of two categories of documents covered by existing court orders.
Those documents are ones covered by a court-ordered Sealing Order granted Feb. 1, 2021 (exhibits to LU’s supporting affidavit for its initial application under the CCAA), as well as documents related to a court-ordered Mediation Order granted Feb. 5, 2021 (involving the mediation process related to the CCAA with Justice Sean Dunphy).
The reprieve granted to Laurentian regarding these documents “is in effect pending a determination of whether the issuance of the Speaker’s warrants” as related to certain documents covered by court orders “falls within the scope and extent of the Legislative Assembly’s parliamentary privilege,” said Morawetz’s decision.
In a statement released last week following the court decision, Laurentian said it will “comply with all of its legal obligations” regarding the Speaker’s warrants.
The statement also said Laurentian will “continue to co-operate with the Standing Committee’s request” (referring to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts).
"Laurentian University appreciates the clarity provided by the Court’s decision on the preliminary issue of the stay of the Speaker’s Warrants,” said the statement.
“The matters for which the stay was granted will be heard by the Court on a date to be scheduled.
“With respect to those portions for which the stay does not apply, as Laurentian University has previously confirmed, it accepts the Court’s guidance and will comply with all of its legal obligations, subject to any further direction of the Court.”
The issuing of the Speaker’s warrants came about following a long series of events that started last spring when the Standing Committee on Public Accounts charged Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk with a value-for-money audit of Laurentian’s finances.
Laurentian refused to provide Lysyk’s audit team with privileged information.
The Standing Committee on Public Accounts then requested the documents from Laurentian directly, and Laurentian offered to provide some, but not all, of the material, leading to the issuing of the Speaker’s warrants in early December.
Then came the recent related court battles.
In December, Chief Justice Morawetz heard from lawyers from the Ontario auditor general’s office and Laurentian as to whether the university was compelled to hand over documents under provincial legislation.
He released a decision in January that said they are not (Lysyk intends to appeal this ruling).
The matter of Laurentian’s request for a stay of the Speaker’s warrants was heard by Chief Justice Morawetz in January, with a decision on that matter being released just last week.
Lawyers for Laurentian argued that by issuing the Speaker’s warrants, the Ontario legislature was trying to do an “end run” around statutes governing its function and that of Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk.
“It is plain and obvious that the assembly seeks to do here and that is to obtain for the Auditor General documents to which she is not entitled,” said Laurentian lawyer Brian Gover, at the Jan. 18 court hearing.
