Former top NDP staffer faces fraud charge, union says

Heather Grant-Jury, who once worked as a top aide to former premier Greg Selinger, has been arrested and faces a fraud charge, according to the union she once worked for. 

Grant-Jury was Selinger's principal secretary for a period of time at the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015. In order to take the job she took a leave of absence from her position as director of the training centre for the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 832.

When Grant-Jury returned to her job for the UFCW, the union discovered irregularities in expense claims at the training centre and suspended her in December 2015. A forensic audit was completed last spring and the results were turned over to the Winnipeg Police to complete their own investigation.

When the union informed then-premier Greg Selinger of the concerns at the training centre late last year, Selinger's chief-of-staff immediately demanded Grant-Jury's resignation from the NDP's re-election planning committee and her seat on the board of Manitoba Public Insurance.

In a written statement a spokesperson for the UFCW says "it will be seeking full restitution of all money that was inappropriately expensed to the Education Training and Trust Fund."

A spokesperson for the Winnipeg Police Service could not confirm charges against Grant-Jury have formally been laid.

The union says she has been arrested and faces a charge for fraud over $5,000.

CBC News attempted to contact Grant-Jury but was unable to reach her for comment.