N.W.T. premier's conflict hearing resumes

An inquiry into whether N.W.T. Premier Floyd Roland's affair with a former legislative clerk put him in a conflict of interest resumed Tuesday with MLAs focusing on whether the clerk was in a conflict of interest herself.

Adjudicator Ted Hughes is holding hearings in Yellowknife this week as he determines whether Patricia Russell, who was then a deputy clerk of the legislative assembly, had shared information with Roland from the confidential meetings of MLAs' committees.

Both Russell and Roland are expected to testify on Wednesday.

During the first round of hearings in September, Roland — who was married with six children — admitted that he had kept his intimate relationship with Russell secret for months.

During that time, Russell was still working at the assembly and was attending confidential meetings of assembly committees.

"The impartiality of the clerk had been compromised, and that, for me, was a definite no-no," Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro said at Tuesday's hearing.

Bisaro testified that legislative assembly clerks need to be impartial, as they represent MLAs and they provide parliamentary advice to members and the Speaker.

Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen testified that she was surprised when Russell suddenly resigned.

"We lost our clerk. I mean, it's a very unique kind of work that clerks and the researchers do for the legislative assembly, and it takes a while to get up," Groenewegen said.

While most of the witnesses who testified Tuesday could not say for sure whether Russell had passed confidential information on to Roland, Bisaro said there is still the appearance of a conflict of interest.

"A person who should have been impartial and should have been seen to be impartial was not, or was not seen to be impartial," she told the inquiry. "There was a potential for a breach of confidentiality."