UCP Placed Mraiche Business Partner on Edmonton Police Commission

Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis appointed to the Edmonton Police Commission a business associate of the multimillionaire at the nexus of the so-called CorruptCare scandal.

Federal incorporation documents show Edmonton cardiac surgeon Dr. Jayan Nagendran was a co-director with wealthy Edmonton businessman Sam Mraiche of a numbered company established on March 9, 2021, and dissolved on March 12, 2024.

Ellis appointed Nagendran to the police commission on May 1, 2023, but his appointment was not announced by the police commission until months after the May 29, 2023, provincial election.

At the time of Nagendran’s police commission appointment and during his business relationship with Mraiche, he was also director of cardiac surgery at the University of Alberta Hospital, an associate professor in surgery and surgical director for Alberta Health Services lung transplantation.

Former Alberta Justice Minister Kaycee Madu posted a photo on his Facebook page of himself with Mraiche and Dr. Nagendran at a Court of King's Bench ceremony in Edmonton on June 2, 2023 at which Madu was granted the KC designation.

In July 2023, Nagendran declined an Edmonton Journal request to explain why he wanted to be a commissioner and why he would be a good candidate.

Neither Ellis nor Nagendran responded to emails and calls from The Tyee seeking comment.

Nagendran’s appointment again widens the scope of the NDP-dubbed CorruptCare scandal, David Shepherd, the party’s public safety critic, said Monday.

“Every day, I think we just have more and more concerns about all of these connections we are hearing about in this CorruptCare scandal,” he said.

The appointment also will rankle some Edmonton city councillors, including Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, who opposed Ellis’s arbitrary decision to usurp council’s decades-long sole authority to appoint police commissioners.

“I think this highlights, now more than ever, why we need transparency, accountability and the depoliticization of all institutions, be it post-secondary institutions or police forces, that are attached to the UCP,” or United Conservative Party, Edmonton city Coun. Michael Janz said.

Allegations in wrongful dismissal suit

Mraiche and his companies have been the subject of increasing public scrutiny since the Globe and Mail first reported in July that Premier Danielle Smith, several of her United Conservative Party cabinet ministers and senior staff, including Smith’s chief of staff, Marshall Smith (no relation), accepted free luxury suite NHL hockey tickets from Mraiche during the Edmonton Oilers playoff run in the spring of 2024.

The scrutiny intensified when Mraiche was mentioned in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit by fired Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos and through stories by the Globe, CBC and other media outlets, including The Tyee.

In her lawsuit, Mentzelopoulos alleges she was fired two days before a meeting with Alberta’s auditor general to discuss the findings of internal investigations into contracts with chartered surgical facilities and a $70-million children’s pain medication contract, facilitated by Mraiche, that wasted tens of millions of dollars.

She also alleged Mraiche’s medical supply company, MHCare Medical, received more than $600 million in contracts.

The Globe also revealed Mraiche owns 25 per cent of the shares in Alberta Surgical Group, a private chartered surgical facility company. Mentzelopoulos has also alleged she was pressured to sign contracts with chartered surgical facilities, including Alberta Surgical Group.

Quick profit on land deal

Last week, The Tyee reported that a numbered company owned by Mraiche made $300,000 in three months on the purchase and sale of an Edmonton industrial commercial property to Alberta Infrastructure.

A spokesperson for Mraiche’s numbered company told the Edmonton Journal it was a “traditional real estate transaction that did not involve any communication with senior levels of government to request or facilitate.”

Infrastructure Minister Peter Guthrie has said he accepted a free hockey ticket from Mraiche but insists he violated no ethics rules. Guthrie said he learned of the property sale only a few days before The Tyee published its story.

In an emailed statement, Guthrie said the building was bought to “address space and parking constraints in the Muriel Stanley Venne building (that houses the Provincial Operations Centre).”

The Provincial Operations Centre falls under the purview of the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Services — the ministry of Mike Ellis, who appointed Mraiche's business associate to the police commission.

Early Tuesday, Guthrie resigned from cabinet. In a publicly released letter, he said his concerns about the government’s procurement practices across all ministries were not shared by a majority of his colleagues.

Denials of wrongdoing

Mraiche is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit by Mentzelopoulos. He has denied any wrongdoing, as have the other owners of Alberta Surgical Group. The allegations contained in the lawsuit are unproven and no statement of defence has been filed.

Premier Smith, Marshall Smith and Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange have all denied any wrongdoing.

Smith and LaGrange have ordered an as-yet undefined investigation by a so-far unknown third party that will report its findings to Smith. The auditor general is also conducting a review related to the Mentzelopoulos allegations.

Nagendran’s police commission appointment drew independent accusations of hypocrisy from both NDP critic Shepherd and Coun. Janz. They pointed out that city council chooses commissioners through an open process that considers hundreds of candidates. Ellis directly appoints candidates with no open competition.

In 2022, the UCP government changed the provincial Police Act to give itself the power to appoint nearly half of the police commission members in Edmonton and Calgary. The government said it needed to rebalance the commissions, citing concerns about crime and civil disorder in the two cities.

Critics called it a power grab by the government that will serve to reduce accountability and transparency.

In January, Ellis ordered an investigation into city council’s appointment of two commissioners who had been publicly critical of the Edmonton Police Service. He ordered the investigation after a complaint of bias from then-chief Dale McFee.

‘A troubling pattern’

“This is part of a really troubling pattern,” Shepherd said, adding later that when Ellis presented his budget to a committee last year, “he said, and I quote, ‘No longer will police be seen as an arm of the state, but rather an extension, a reflection of the community that they serve.’”

“That is absolutely antithetical to the kind of behaviour we're seeing from Minister Ellis,” Shepherd said.

“So it's both hypocritical of the minister to continue to behave in this way, and it's deeply concerning that it seems to be in some way tied to this CorruptCare scandal.”

Janz, like Shepherd, said he had no criticism of Nagendran’s credentials or character, but he said the appointment process needs to be arm’s-length and apolitical.

Albertans, he said, need to be able to trust that people on their police commissions or agencies or boards “are being selected in a way that is not based on political relationships or friendships, but based on knowledge and capacity.”

On Monday, McFee began a new job as Alberta’s top civil servant — the deputy minister to executive council and head of the Alberta Public Service. When announcing McFee’s hiring, Smith said McFee had become a “friend” to her government.

The Tyee reported earlier this month that McFee attended an NHL playoff game and was seen in a luxury suite. But both the Edmonton Police Service and the police commission refused to say if Mraiche hosted him.

The Tyee story also documented the close relationship between McFee, the Edmonton Police Service and MHCare, Mraiche’s company.

The company was a major sponsor of the Edmonton Police Foundation, of which McFee is an ex officio member. It was also one of the sponsors of a foundation fundraiser called Bustin’ for Badges that involved shooting targets with shotguns.

MHCare also was a major sponsor of the Safety of Our Cities conference in Edmonton in September 2023, for which the Edmonton police, the police foundation and McFee were key supporters.

McFee appeared in an MHCare video shot at the conference that was posted on the company’s website. He has declined several interview requests.

If you have any information for this story, or information for another story, please contact Charles Rusnell in confidence via email.