Minister Jeremy Harrison fired Crown corp board chair who blew the whistle on apparent conflicts of interest

As Dennis Fitzpatrick sat in an airport lounge in Calgary on Nov. 7, 2021, he received a surprising email. 

Little did he know, it would help him uncover a web of troubling relationships inside an influential Crown corporation — and place him in the crosshairs of one of Saskatchewan's most powerful politicians. 

"I mean, when was the last time someone was fired, rehired and fired again?" said Fitzpatrick. 

The email was from Mike Crabtree, the president and CEO of the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) — a Crown corporation.

SRC is a research and technology organization that supports innovation and industrial commercialization on behalf of the Saskatchewan government. It handles critical files like Saskatchewan's nuclear power program and water quality testing.

Fitzpatrick, as board chair of the SRC since 2014, would receive updates from Crabtree as a matter of routine.

But this one jumped out.

Crabtree told Fitzpatrick he was hiring Erin Herman as project manager and operations director for the SRC's high-profile rare earth elements (REE) project.

Rare earths are 17 elements that are key components of many emerging technologies, from robotics to electric vehicles to consumer electronics like phones and hard drives. 

At the time, the SRC was planning to build a groundbreaking REE processing facility in partnership with the private sector. The province is positioning itself to become one of the world's few large-scale REE processors. Since that email was sent, SRC went on to build a wholly government-owned $100-million REE processing facility in Saskatoon. It began production in the summer. 

Fitzpatrick was surprised he was finding out about Herman's new job after the hiring was complete. Herman was a director on the SRC board that Fitzpatrick chaired and would have to resign to accept this new role.

"I knew that Erin Herman was an engineer," Fitzpatrick told CBC. "But my understanding of his experience was not in mining and minerals."

Herman is a businessman, mechanical engineer and inventor of industrial equipment with multiple U.S. and Canadian patents.

Fitzpatrick, a former VP of research at the Universities of Regina and Lethbridge, wondered why Crabtree had selected Herman and why such a senior position had not been publicly advertised.

Something seemed off.

"It was a shiny light sitting there saying, 'Take a look at rare earths. There's something going on there,'" Fitzpatrick said.

He would go on to discover what he would later describe in an email to colleagues as a "Pandora's box" — a "web of business relations" between Crabtree, Herman and another SRC board member, that Fitzpatrick believed put the organization at risk.

But after Fitzpatrick blew the whistle on those apparent conflicts of interest, he says he was the one targeted. He was fired by then-government House leader and minister responsible for the SRC Jeremy Harrison.

"The conclusion I draw from that was that the whole system was a little bit more bent than I really thought it was going to be," said Fitzpatrick, calling Harrison "a bully."

"He was basically saying that he was in control," said Fitzpatrick. "He was going to put in board members that were going to be supportive of anything that came out of the minister's office." 

Harrison ordered a review of Fitzpatrick's concerns by the Ministry of Justice. It concluded his allegations "were not substantiated."

But Fitzpatrick says that review, which he has not been allowed to see, appears to have ignored the facts. 

"This is a cancer growing within [SRC]," he said.

"Somebody has to go in and audit the whole organization and figure out what's going on, where the conflicts are and why those conflicts are allowed to exist."

After the story was published Monday, the Saskatchewan NDP issued a news release that quoted Regina Elphinstone candidate Meara Conway as saying, "it is more clear than ever that the Sask. Party aren't in this for you — they're in it to help out their friends and insiders."

The Quickthree connection

When he got that surprise email about Herman's new job, Fitzpatrick was getting set to jump on a plane and fly to Saskatoon to visit SRC's head office — part of his role overseeing the Crown corporation. He had recently become concerned that SRC was drifting from its mandate and becoming too closely tied to the government's agenda. 

He was going on a fact-finding mission.

He started Googling Erin Herman and almost immediately came across Quickthree Solutions, a company Herman had co-owned. On its website, Quickthree said it designs and builds "unique, portable industrial equipment."

What he found next stunned him. Mike Crabtree had been a partner in Quickthree. So had Michael Meekins, another SRC board member. 

"That caught my attention, because I had not made that connection before," Fitzpatrick said.

He became concerned about Crabtree hiring such a close business associate without advertising the position.

CBC asked Crabtree by email why he hired Herman without advertising the position. An official, replying on his behalf, did not answer the question, but noted Herman is "highly qualified and respected."

As board chair, it was Fitzpatrick's job to ensure SRC was managing its money and staff according to policy, including conflict of interest rules. 

He said these business relationships had never been brought to his attention. 

"They absolutely should have been," he said, noting that all SRC board minutes say "members are required to declare any conflict of interest or apparent conflict of interest related to issues that may be discussed during the meeting."

By email, a Crabtree spokesperson said "there have been no conflicts of interest related to Mike during his tenure as president and CEO." They added "he has disclosed all potential and perceived conflicts of interest in accordance with the appropriate processes."

In early November 2021, Fitzpatrick began digging deeper into the connections between Crabtree, Meekins and Herman.

'The holy shit moment'

In early December 2021, he received an email from Craig Murray seemingly out of the blue. Murray, who at the time was VP of mining and minerals for SRC, had been doing his own digging.

"Hi Dennis - I really am out of my element in this cloak and dagger world I've found myself in," Murray wrote on Dec. 10, 2021. "But did you know Mike [Crabtree] is a Trustee of Meekins' Westbridge Capital? Apparently nobody at SRC did as he did not disclose this obvious conflict of interest."

For decades, Meekins had been president and CEO of Westbridge Capital, a private equity firm based in Saskatoon. Murray had discovered in a public document online that Crabtree was an independent trustee with Westbridge Capital Partners Income Trust, the fund managed by Westbridge. Westbridge had also been a major funder of Quickthree. 

The document indicated Crabtree owned Westbridge shares and was set to be paid $12,000 annually as an independent advisor.

"That was the holy shit moment," said Fitzpatrick. "It was the first time I could actually put a quantification to it."

Meekins, Herman become board members

Mike Crabtree was hired as president and CEO of SRC in April 2019.

A few months later, in October 2019, Michael Meekins and Erin Herman were appointed to the SRC board at the recommendation of Jeremy Harrison.

Fitzpatrick told CBC he believes the two men were selected and vetted by Crabtree. CBC asked Crabtree what role, if any, he played in Meekins and Herman's appointment to the SRC board, but he didn't reply.

After vetting, they were reviewed and approved by Harrison's chief of staff.

Fitzpatrick said he doesn't recall anyone disclosing the business relationships between Crabtree and the two new board members.

"Mike Crabtree brings in two of his friends to be his boss," he said, referring to Meekins and Herman's oversight role on the board. "I think that's a pretty big problem." 

Fitzpatrick said he tried unsuccessfully for months to track down the paperwork related to those appointments and conflict of interest disclosures in order to see what information was provided. He was told the electronic documents were inaccessible because of a recent computer security breach and the paper records couldn't be located because of a recent move. 

CBC has asked Crabtree, Meekins, Herman and SRC for these documents, but they have not answered.

Meekins and Herman have not replied to any of CBC's questions, instead forwarding CBCs emails to SRC spokesperson Rebecca Gotto. 

In an email, she said government policy prohibits the two men from responding to media inquiries because of the ongoing provincial election campaign.

A directive from the Premier's office says, "In responding to requests from the media, ministries or officials who act as spokespersons for the government will provide only technical or factual information." 

"Happy to touch base once the election is over," said Gotto.

'Pandora's box is wide open'

Herman and Meekins were key players in Quickthree from its founding in 2011. 

Crabtree came along as a director and shareholder two years later. In 2014, he was appointed chair of Quickthree's board. At the same time, he was also serving as the SRC's VP of energy.

In June 2018, Quickthree was bought out by U.S.-based Smart Sand, a producer of specialized sand for the fracking industry, for $42.75 million.

Of Quickthree's 11.6 million shares, Crabtree held 303,000, Herman held 1,250,000 and Meekins held more than two million (through a separate company).

In an email on Dec. 14, 2021, Fitzpatrick outlined some of what he had found to SRC's VP responsible for human resources and two board members.

"There appears to be a web of business relations," he wrote. "That is a significant issue. Pandora's box is wide open."

'Just inexcusable'

Fitzpatrick also came across an email that he describes, in retrospect, as stunning.

On March 8, 2021, Crabtree sent Fitzpatrick an email about a meeting he had just concluded with Jeremy Harrison.

Crabtree said he told the minister about a company called Westbridge that was interested in investing in SRC's REE project. SRC was planning to partially fund the construction of an REE processing facility in partnership with a private-sector investor. 

"[Harrison] was 'very excited' by the prospect and gave me the go-ahead to enter and progress into a detailed DD (due diligence) with Westbridge," Crabtree wrote in that 2021 email. "The objective being to bring a Cabinet Decision Item (CDI) forward as soon as practicable based on an agreed LOI (letter of intent) between Westbridge and SRC."   

"I was so naive, I wrote back with something like 'Whoopee, this sounds good,'" Fitzpatrick told CBC, noting that at the time he didn't know Crabtree and Meekins were directly connected to Westbridge.

He said this email is "just inexcusable" in hindsight.

"Not one mention that Westbridge Capital is Mike Meekins's company," said Fitzpatrick, also noting that Crabtree failed to mention his own connection to Westbridge. 

"Single-sourcing a contract to one of your board members. I can't think of a deeper pile of stuff to step in."

CBC asked Crabtree by email why he proposed a Westbridge investment in SRC, given his ties to both organizations.

An SRC official replying on his behalf wrote, "Mike Crabtree complied with the appropriate conflict of interest procedures when disclosing his relationship with Westbridge. The potential investment option from Westbridge never moved past the due diligence stage and, as such, never became a conflict."  

CBC also asked Harrison whether Crabtree revealed to him that he was personally involved with Westbridge in their March 2021 conversation.

Harrison didn't answer the question.

Fitzpatrick said whether Harrison knew about Crabtree's Westbridge connection or not, he has questions to answer.

"I don't know which is worse — not knowing, not doing any due diligence, or knowing and letting it occur," Fitzpatrick said.

To recuse, or not to recuse

The plans to sole-source the REE investment opportunity to Westbridge appear to have ended rather abruptly.

A March 25, 2021, email from Michael Meekins shows SRC was planning to put that investment opportunity to requests for proposal (RFP) and Meekins was trying to figure out how Westbridge could qualify to put in a bid.

In that email, Meekins asked an SRC official for "some guidance on the desire [from SRC] for Westbridge itself to participate in the upcoming [rare earths] RFP and if that is desired, how to best manage my SRC board responsibilities."

The board decided Westbridge could bid, provided Meekins recused himself from all meetings related to the project. It also decided he should not be provided any internal SRC documentation related to the REE project.

Crabtree worked with Fitzpatrick to make sure Meekins followed the rules.

In an April 29, 2021, email to Fitzpatrick, Crabtree discussed how to manage Meekins's presence in an upcoming board meeting.

"Mike will recuse himself and then we will go into a short additional section on REE for the remaining Board," Crabtree wrote. "The board pack for Mike will not have information related to the final REE section and the subsequent minutes he receives will have the REE discussion redacted."

In an interview with CBC, Fitzpatrick noted Crabtree was silent about his own connection to Westbridge in that email.

Furthermore, he said, Crabtree himself attended meetings where the REE project was discussed and received board material about it despite his connection to Westbridge. 

For example, the REE project was discussed in a July 22, 2021, board meeting attended by Crabtree. The board reviewed a report produced by a "Private Investment Team" working on the project. Crabtree was one of the members of that team.

Relating to conflicts of interest, the board minutes say "none of the members had anything to declare."

"At three board meetings in which rare earth was discussed, Crabtree [said] nothing," Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick reports to the board

Fitzpatrick decided it was time to alert the board. He called a meeting for Dec. 20, 2021. He told Crabtree not to attend because his conduct would be the focus.

According to Fitzpatrick's written summary, he told the board about the business relationships between Crabtree, Meekins and Herman involving Quickthree and Westbridge. Meekins attended that meeting.

After that meeting, Kelly Bode, a lawyer and board member, wrote to Fitzpatrick saying "no matter what way I look at this, I think Mike Crabtree's relationship with Westbridge should have been disclosed."

Board members asked Fitzpatrick to get conflict-of-interest disclosure forms that Meekins, Herman and Crabtree had submitted so they could be reviewed at the next board meeting. 

Fitzpatrick set that meeting for Jan. 27 to review documents and question Crabtree. 

But the documents would never arrive and that meeting would never happen.

Craig Murray is fired 

In early January, Fitzpatrick and the other board members received an email from Crabtree that Fitzpatrick found jarring.

"Please be informed that Craig Murray, Vice-President Mining and Minerals Division, has been released from employment effective January 6, 2022," he wrote. 

Less than a month earlier, Murray had emailed Fitzpatrick, highlighting Crabtree's apparent conflicts of interest. 

Now, Crabtree was firing Murray. 

"This difficult decision follows a lengthy period of discussions and attempts at formal performance management process," wrote Crabtree.

Fitzpatrick wrote to Harrison, protesting the decision.

"The evidence we have, performance summaries presented in previous succession planning documents and his past excellent presentations, attests to his strong standing as a member of the Executive Team," Fitzpatrick wrote. 

Fitzpatrick said Murray's dismissal was "unjustified," arguing "it appears that Craig Murray got fired for being a whistleblower." 

In his email to the board about Murray, Crabtree noted that SRC would negotiate a severance package and confidentiality agreement with him.

Murray declined CBC's request for an interview, but confirmed he was dismissed without cause. He also noted he received a full performance bonus from Crabtree for his final year of service.

In an email, CBC asked Crabtree if Murray's dismissal was related to the conflict of interest concerns he was raising. A spokesperson replied, "SRC confirms the decision to separate with the noted individual was in no way related to any allegations raised."

The official added that SRC, "does not tolerate retaliation against someone for making a good faith report."

Fitzpatrick added Murray's firing to the agenda of the late January board meeting that would never happen. 

Harrison urgently fires Fitzpatrick

At 9 a.m. on Jan. 11, 2022, Dennis Fitzpatrick spoke with SRC Minister Jeremy Harrison by phone to outline his concerns about the apparent conflicts of interest. 

Fitzpatrick said the minister appeared well briefed on the issues and seemed unsurprised by what Fitzpatrick was alleging. He said Harrison also seemed very angry at him and "indicated his displeasure."

"As far as he was concerned, SRC was stronger today than it ever was," said Fitzpatrick. "What I really understood from that was that he was fully prepared to back Mike Crabtree."

Harrison told Fitzpatrick that he was likely going to be off the board at some point, because he doesn't live in the province, Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick had no idea the beginning of the end was mere hours away.

Just three hours after the meeting with Harrison, SRC communications official Rebecca Gotto had drafted an order in council that would boot Fitzpatrick from the board. That same order would appoint a new chair, George Prudat, according to an email obtained through access to information.

Later that same day, Gotto said the change was based on an "urgent OC (order-in-council) request from our Minister's office."

"The minister has requested the attached OC for SRC membership changes be completed by tomorrow in order to go to cabinet on Jan. 19," Gotto wrote.

That's exactly what happened. On Jan. 19, at Harrison's recommendation, provincial cabinet fired Fitzpatrick and appointed a new board chair — George Prudat. The lieutenant-governor signed the order.

But the ink was barely dry before that entire decision was turned upside down.

Fitzpatrick describes what happened next as "a clown show." 

'A clown show'

Two days after Fitzpatrick was fired, the provincial cabinet rehired him at Harrison's recommendation. The lieutenant-governor signed the new order.

This means Fitzpatrick was fired and rehired in a two-day stretch without ever knowing it. 

Documents obtained through access to information reveal how it happened.

"New board OC required ASAP," read the subject line of a Jan. 20 email to Mike Crabtree and his staff, received from Harrison's chief of staff Richard Davis.

He said SRC should immediately restore Fitzpatrick to his role as board chair for a full three-year term and demote George Prudat back to board member. 

"We would like to approve it tomorrow morning," Davis wrote. 

By email, CBC asked Harrison why he made the initial decision to fire Fitzpatrick. 

He said he did it, "after receiving concerns about Dennis Fitzpatrick as chair of the SRC." 

Fitzpatrick says Harrison has never discussed any concerns about his conduct with him. Fitzpatrick believes this was a smokescreen — a pretense for getting rid of him and avoiding further scrutiny about the alleged conflicts of interest.

CBC asked Harrison what his concerns about Fitzpatrick were, but he didn't reply.

We also asked Harrison why he decided to rehire Fitzpatrick the day after the cabinet officially fired him. 

Harrison said that on Jan. 19, the day Harrison's dismissal was official, he received a letter from Fitzpatrick outlining "serious allegations against the CEO of the SRC." 

"Upon receiving this correspondence, Dennis Fitzpatrick was reinstated to the board of SRC while the Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice investigated the allegations," Harrison said.

The minister's statement is difficult to square with some facts.

Fitzpatrick says that letter was merely a summary of the Jan. 11 meeting between the two men. In other words, he was simply reiterating allegations he had already presented directly to the minister.

The only difference was that these allegations were written down.

In an email, CBC asked Harrison, "Why did you suggest that you first learned of the allegations against Mr. Crabtree on January 19 when you in fact learned of them in detail on January 11?"

Harrison didn't answer.

In his statement to CBC, Harrison also suggested that he launched an investigation as soon as he learned of Fitzpatrick's allegations against the CEO.

But that seems inconsistent with the facts.

CBC has documentation to show that immediately after the Jan. 11 meeting where Harrison learned of Fitzpatrick's allegations, he began the process of firing him. CBC has seen no mention of an investigation until after Harrison received Fitzpatrick's allegations in writing on January 19.

In an email, CBC asked Harrison, "Why did you decide to fire [Fitzpatrick] immediately after that January 11 meeting where he outlined the serious concerns?"

Harrison didn't answer.

'Serious concerns' about Fitzpatrick

In a Jan. 21 email, sent two days after receiving Fitzpatrick's letter, Harrison told Fitzpatrick he was ordering a review of the concerns that he raised. Harrison didn't mention he had fired and rehired Fitzpatrick since they last met.

Harrison also turned the tables on the SRC board chair, saying he had "received serious concerns about your conduct as chair of the board of the SRC."

"I do not believe I am in the position to find facts and adjudicate these matters which I feel are imperilling the future of the SRC," Harrison wrote in his Jan. 21, 2022, email.

Harrison said he was asking Cam Swan, deputy minister to the premier, to conduct a review. 

Fitzpatrick said this was the first time Harrison had mentioned concerns about his conduct. 

He said he believes Harrison made this accusation to stop the Jan. 27 board meeting where the alleged conflicts of interest would have been discussed.

In that letter, Harrison said "During the period of the review, I would direct that the Board take no matters of a substantive or significant consequence into consideration." 

Fitzpatrick said some board members echoed the minister's sentiment, saying "we can't do this with this cloud of suspicion over your behaviour."

He said Harrison's unspecified accusations were "the big stick in the spokes" causing him to flip "right over the front handlebar, smashed my face on the ground."

'Not substantiated'

Cam Swan, the man appointed by Harrison to look into Fitzpatrick's allegations, asked a Ministry of Justice official to conduct a review. 

In a March 7 letter to Fitzpatrick, Swan said that the "major allegations between the Board and the corporate leadership of the SRC were not substantiated." He said the review found there had been a "breakdown in communication and other governance issues," which would need to be further reviewed and improved.

Fitzpatrick asked for a copy of the report, but he said it was not provided. CBC has also asked for that document but has not received it. 

"What they did through this process was create this veil of deniability," said Fitzpatrick.

Days later, Harrison called Fitzpatrick to tell him that he would be dismissed as board chair.

"He told me he'd sort of lost confidence in me," said Fitzpatrick. "When I asked him questions, he got really, really upset," he said, adding Harrison became "rude and abrasive."

A year after Fitzpatrick was dismissed, the NDP Opposition began asking about conflicts and controversies involving SRC's board of directors.

Harrison pleaded ignorance.

"I'm not very involved in, kind of, board stuff," he told the legislative assembly during a meeting on April 19, 2023.