An affidavit filed by Nunakput MLA Jackie Jacobson into last month’s public inquiry regarding former Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh MLA Steve Norn takes aim at Clerk Tim Mercer and his involvement in a March 13, 2020 altercation with Environment and Natural Resources Minister Shane Thompson.
The sworn affidavit also questions the Clerk’s overall management of the assembly.
Jacobson, the most senior elected member and a former Speaker himself, alleges that the inquiry was a retaliation by the Clerk’s office in response to the MLA’s effort to challenge Mercer’s behaviour.
Norn had held a news conference at the Legislative Assembly in February 2021 which was later followed by a third-party investigation into the office.
That investigation led to Mercer being put on leave for months. He returned to the job Oct. 14.
“In the present instance, despite the fact that the sole adjudicator is tasked with an alleged breach involving Mr. Norn and quarantine, the real issue driving the complaint is that Mr. Norn has taken issue with the Clerk’s behaviour,” Jacobson states.
Jacobson says that the former MLA was perceived by Mercer as a threat.
“In my view, the entire complaint (the Norn inquiry) is part of the Clerk’s attempt to eliminate the threat that he perceives and Mr. Norn challenging the Clerk’s behaviour.”
The document revives the physical altercation that took place at the Legislative Assembly on March 13, 2020, between Mercer and Thompson, Jacobson says he saw the exchange.
“I have witnessed the clerk physically assault a member and current Cabinet Minister Shane Thompson,” he said, adding that the incident involved Thompson being “elbowed by the Clerk.”
Jacobson said that Mercer shouted profanities at Thompson and put his hands on him.
“I have witnessed the clerk challenge Mr. Thompson by uttering the phrase ‘I will bury you, you fat f–k,’” Jacobson states.
“That any staff of the assembly would speak to a member in that fashion is offensive to me, completely out of line, and unwarranted for any reason.”
‘Clerk’s control’
Jacobson, who was first elected in 2007 and reelected in 2011, served as Speaker between 2011 and 2015 and in that role, was Mercer’s boss.
Jacobson was re-elected in 2019.
“My observations have led me to believe that the Clerk, long ago, forgot if he ever knew, the nature, role and duties of his office as Clerk,” Jacobson said.
“During the entirety of my tenure I have watched the Clerk manipulate the Assembly collectively and through members individually. It is apparent that the assembly is divided between people who the Clerk controls and those that he seeks to control.”
The document calls Mercer “an outright bully running a terror campaign that few will turn a blind eye to.”
Jacobson would not comment on the affidavit, nor would Thompson or Premier Caroline Cochrane when contacted by NNSL Media Dec. 2.
Confidential document?
Jacobson told NNSL Media last month that he had filed the affidavit to the inquiry to support Norn’s defence, however it was his understanding that the document, as sworn testimony, was supposed to be confidential and to be seen only by himself, and the two inquiry lawyers – Steve Cooper and Maurice Laprairie.
He said he found out more people saw the document when he was asked by law clerk Sheila MacPherson and deputy clerk Glen Rutland to declare a conflict of interest in connection with an Oct. 4 board of management meeting as both the meeting and the documents were related to Mercer. NNSL Media is told the meeting was held in-camera.
In direct reference to an Oct. 22 article by NNSL Media raising the question as to how the affidavit reached the Clerk’s office, Justice Ron Barclay during the Norn hearing said the document isn’t confidential.
“There was the newspaper article that was brought to my attention in respect to an allegation that an MLA wants to know how confidential documents made its way to the clerk’s office,” Barclay said on Oct. 28.
“I’ve already made a ruling that the confidentiality doesn’t apply. And more importantly, this arises out of an application before the court and everybody that walks into that courtroom would have access to these documents and in particular, the affidavit.
“It’s clearly a matter for the public and there’s no confidentiality.”
Laprairie said in a Nov. 18 email that Barclay’s Nov. 17 disposition report into Norn (his judgement or ruling, rendered after the inquiry was complete) states that the document isn’t confidential. He refused comment as to whether his office shared the Jacobson document with MacPherson and the Clerk’s office.
“In response to Mr. Cooper’s allegations, I do not consider counsel to the sole Adjudicator to have breached Rule 20 of the Rules of Practice and Procedure (the “Rules”) in the context of this application," Barclay wrote. "Rule 20 pertains to confidential information related to the Inquiry. The information distributed to Ms. MacPherson was limited to Mr. Norn’s application for subpoenas. No confidential information pertaining to the subject matter of the Inquiry has been distributed to Ms. MacPherson.
“Furthermore, s. 109(2) of the (Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act), which allows confidential information to be disclosed for the purposes of an inquiry, overrides the Rules.”
Laprairie added that Barclay would not be making the documents available and would not advise on how to to obtain them.
Mercer’s response
“Mr. Mercer has not seen the affidavit that Mr. Jacobson swore in relation to the MLA Code of Conduct Inquiry,” Mercer’s lawyer Kristan McLeod, wrote in an email to NNSL Media Dec. 2. “Some interactions with Mr. Jacobson and Mr. Mercer were reviewed during the recent investigation by Quintet Consulting, and Mr. Mercer cooperated fully with that investigation and accepted its findings without reservation.”
McLeod said that only one MLA participated in the Quintet report even though “many others were invited to participate but declined.
“It is a concern if the contents of Mr. Jacobson’s affidavit differ from what was reported to Quintet since there has been no opportunity to investigate,” she said.
“If the contents of Mr. Jacobson’s affidavit are defamatory to Mr. Mercer, and considering that any legitimate concern could have been submitted to the Quintet investigators for investigation, we urge caution in printing or publicly repeating any defamatory statements in the affidavit as that may also be defamatory.”
McLeod added that comments by Norn’s counsel, Steven Cooper about there being a connection between the Mercer investigation and the Norn inquiry are not true.
“Mr. Mercer would like to clarify that the matters that were investigated by Quintet Consulting had no relationship to the Code of Conduct complaint or inquiry. Mr. Mercer had no involvement, directly or indirectly, with the events that led to the making of the complaint, the complaint itself, the conduct or recommendations of the inquiry, or the decision of the Legislative Assembly to remove Mr. Norn from his seat,” she said.
