Dr Anny Sauvageau, a medical examiner and asphyxiation specialist, served as the county chief medical examiner from mid-2011 until her contract was renewed in 2015. Her statement against the Alberta government alleges that her decision not to renew her contract “was in direct retaliation and retaliation” for questions she had raised about political interference in her office. He is seeking, among other legal means, $ 7.6 million in damages for lost income and benefits. The government’s defense statement in 2018 states that the decision not to renew its contract was taken in the public interest and that Sauvageau was “either reluctant or unable to function properly as chief medical examiner” and that it failed to demonstrate sound, logical qualities. decision making and responsible leadership. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Body transfer disagreement
In his opening remarks on Friday, Sauvageau’s lawyer, Allan Garber, said his client had received excellent performance reviews by the brief period leading up to her departure. She said four factors contributed to her losing her job. One was her attempt to standardize payments to contractors transporting corpses from rural locations. According to her statement, Sauvageau had advised the prime minister in 2014 to maintain the current timetable for body transfers, instead of spending an additional $ 3 million to meet requests from the Alberta Funeral Services Association (AFSA). Garber said representatives from the procurement, finance and legal services departments met to discuss the issue and recommended that compensation not be changed, but that the government increase their remuneration. Garber also said that despite public statements by the government at the time assuring the Albertans that the chief medical examiner’s office was independent and within walking distance, Deputy Secretary Tim Grant told Sauvageau that her office was “part of the department and can not work manually. length from it “. Department members also manipulated Sauvageau’s signature to approve documents he had not approved, Garber said. He said that because of what was happening at work, Sauvageau began to suffer from insomnia and anxiety.
“Inflated and absurd view”
In his inaugural statement, government lawyer Craig Neuman described the plaintiff’s claims as “a changing landscape of claims” and said she had a “bloated and irrational view” of her job independence. She said she took the allegations of independence “out of context”, beyond the limits of her recognized authority. Savageau had the power to conduct autopsies, process cases and determine the causes and methods of death, but not for every department decision, Neuman said. He said the body transport contract that was created successfully addressed concerns, including some that he had expressed. Neuman said that by August 2014, there had been a breakdown of trust and respect between Sauvageau and Maryann Everett, the assistant secretary of state.
Leaked documents
In September 2014, the same month that Sauvageau learned that her contract was not going to be renewed, CBC reporters Charles Rusnell and Jennie Russell published a leaked document describing the chief medical examiner’s allegations and a policy. bureaucratic intervention in independence. of her office. The story does not name the source of the leaked documents. Neuman said after the story was published, Sauvageau also told Everett in a letter to then-Prime Minister Jim Prentice that he was not the source of the leak and that he did not know who it was. Neumann said the government learned through lawsuits that these statements were not true and that Sovatzo had violated the Alberta Code of Conduct and Ethics.
Sauvageau believed that work was for a lifetime
Speaking in court Friday afternoon, Sauvageau said she and her husband would not have uprooted their lives to move from Quebec to Alberta so she could get a temporary job. She said the chief medical examiner at the time, Dr. Graeme Dowling, had assured her that although she would have a three-year contract, it was just a formal procedure and she could continue working in the office for the rest of her career. She said her pay was mainly based on a grid from the Alberta Medical Association, not that of civil servants, and that Dowling had called the contract, “this paper that allows them to pay us more.” Sauvageau said she asked Dowling if she should consult a lawyer about the contract, but he advised her not to waste money on it. “When he said it was just a formality, I believed him,” he said. Sauvageau said she was hired as an assistant chief medical examiner, but she and Dowling discussed moving up to the position of deputy chief after a year and replacing him at the top after his retirement. This ended up happening earlier than planned, in June 2011, after he resigned after a massive resignation of the Calgary medical examiners. “He did not have the energy or stamina to rebuild the office,” he told the court. Queen’s Bench Judge Doreen Sulyma is presiding over the civil trial, which is set to resume on Monday and is scheduled to last another 37 days.
