Former Alberta justice minister Jonathan Denis was reprimanded and fined by a Law Society of Alberta disciplinary panel Thursday for two instances of professional misconduct.
The opposing counsels brought forward a joint submission that Denis be reprimanded and fined $5,000 ($2,500 for each citation), which he has to pay by the end of February 2025.
Shanna Hunka, the counsel for the Law Society of Alberta, said Denis’s misconduct falls within the “lower range of seriousness.”
The panel accepted the joint submission. It reprimanded Denis for undermining people who believed they were his clients and, in a separate instance, improperly using his position to benefit his client.
The panel chair said that while Denis has no prior record, he has persisted in his denial of wrongdoing.
Conflicting outlook on costs
Hunka argued that Denis should pay $26,000 in costs, on top of the fine. That opinion is where the two lawyers differed.
Defence counsel Alain Hepner said Thursday’s ruling to pay $5,000 is already a significant financial penalty to Denis and additional costs would be unnecessary.
The two counsellors referred to past cases, including arguing over the significance of a recent case considered by the College of Dental Surgeons of Alberta.
It brought a citation against the dentist involved for unprofessional conduct for interfering in a complaint process. The ruling initially ordered her to pay $50,000 in costs. After appeals, it concluded with no costs levied against the dentist involved.
Hepner argued the case is applicable to various professions, including law. Hunka disagreed.
The panel chose to reserve its decision on whether Denis will be required to pay costs and how much.
Root of the charges
Denis served under a Progressive Conservative government as the justice minister for three years, ending in 2015, when he lost his seat in the provincial election. In 2016, Denis founded Guardian Law Group.
The sanctions stem from two separate incidents that happened in 2020 and 2021. Denis was found guilty in both incidents in September.
In November 2021, a woman (C.M.) learned that her boyfriend (C.K.) of four months was still with his wife, despite having told her the two had split.
C.M. contacted the boyfriend’s wife to confess their affair. At the time, C.M. was on leave from her job as a peace officer with Alberta Health Services.
A couple days later, she received a cease and desist letter in an email from Denis. It accused C.M. of contacting the boyfriend’s children.
C.M. testified that Denis threatened to report her behaviour to AHS, stating it was against the organization’s code of conduct.
The Law Society of Alberta found Denis’s two emails to the woman “contain clear evidence that Mr. Denis twice made a threat.”
Conflict of interest breach
The law society also found that a year earlier, in August 2020, Denis was acting in a conflict of interest.
On Aug. 12, an 18-year-old (S.L.) had been driving with her 17-year-old friend (R.M.) in the passenger seat. The two were hit by a Canadian Pacific Railway truck.
After the crash, S.L. gave a statement to Denis and her father sent him photos of the crash. The two girls, and S.L.’s father, met with Denis with a plan to jointly sue Canadian Pacific.
Instead, months after the meeting and subsequent email exchanges, Denis served S.L.’s father with a lawsuit on behalf of R.M. and her mother.
Denis admitted there had been a “technical” breach of the law society’s code of conduct, but the committee ruled the breach was “substantial” and risked a “potential misuse of confidential information.”