Deputy minister breached conflict of interest rules by intervening in hiring decision, says ethics watchdog

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A Citizenship and Immigration office in Vancouver in April, 2025. Ms. Fox helped a man she knew land a project management job at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in 2023, the federal ethics watchdog alleges.Isabella Falsetti/The Globe and Mail

A senior public servant breached conflict of interest rules by influencing the hiring of a man she knew from when they were both student athletes, the federal ethics watchdog said in a report released Tuesday.

The report from Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein says the public servant, Christiane Fox, helped the man, who was working as a gym manager, land a project management job at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in 2023. Ms. Fox was the department’s deputy minister at the time.

Ms. Fox later was later appointed deputy clerk of the Privy Council and associate secretary to the cabinet, one of the most senior civil service roles in Canada, but has since left that role. She was appointed deputy minister of National Defence at the end of January.

An investigation by the commissioner concluded that she had ensured the man, Björn Charles, met departmental officials quickly. The report says she gave him an IRCC briefing document that had been prepared for the immigration minister’s new acting chief of staff, to help him prepare for an interview.

The internal IRCC document gave a snapshot of the department’s core responsibilities. Most of the information was in the public domain.

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Mr. Charles was given a project management job even though departmental officials had advised that he was underqualified for the role, the report says.

Ms. Fox and Mr. Charles had known each other for more than two decades, dating back to when they were both student athletes at Carleton University, according to the report. Ms. Fox’s spouse – whom Mr. Charles told the inquiry is a third or first cousin of his father – is a basketball coach at Carleton University and used to coach Mr. Charles.

He had given Mr. Charles his wife’s cellphone number, and Mr. Charles had called her about the possibility of working at IRCC, the inquiry found.

After Ms. Fox spoke to Mr. Charles, including about his job as a manager at a Goodlife Fitness gym, Ms. Fox identified him as a possible candidate for a job at IRCC as a project manager dealing with access to information, the report says.

The investigation found that Ms. Fox had forwarded Mr. Charles’ resume to IRCC’s chief human resources officer, indicating that she knew Mr. Charles from basketball and saying he was very interested in immigration because his parents are first-generation immigrants from the Caribbean. But she told investigators she did not instruct or exert pressure on the head of human resources to appoint him to a specific level or job.

The report says the acting director-general in the access to information division had told the head of human resources that, as Mr. Charles had no French skills or experience in government, he could only be offered an entry-level position.

Concerns were expressed by IRCC staff about offering him a more senior role.

“Evidence showed they felt pressured to hire him at a level for which he was not qualified,” the report says.

Ms. Fox told the commissioner that she wanted to ensure that Mr. Charles was not automatically appointed to an entry-level position, “as is the case with many racialized individuals entering the federal public service whose experience and skills are not recognized due to racism.”

She said she had been unaware that staff had proposed offering Mr. Charles a less senior job.

Mr. Charles was first hired for a casual position, and then for a one-year contract. He was then offered a job as an access to information analyst in the Privy Council Office with top-secret clearance. The report does not say whether he remains in that job.

Ms. Fox told the commissioner that her involvement in the hiring process was appropriate and that it advanced objectives to further anti-racism, equity, and inclusion in the public service, claims the ethics watchdog did not find credible.

Mr. von Finckenstein concluded Ms. Fox had “used her position as Deputy Minister to give Mr. Charles preferential treatment, by ensuring he met with departmental officials quickly, seeking updates about his hiring, giving him internal information and pushing for a higher job classification.”

“As the Commissioner’s Office has noted in previous examination reports, giving someone preferential treatment is, in itself, improper,” he added.

The commissioner’s report has been provided to the Prime Minister. The Privy Council Office said in a statement that it is reviewing the findings.

Ms. Fox was deputy minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada from July, 2022, to January, 2024. She was responsible for overseeing 13,685 employees.

Mr. von Finckenstein’s report followed an internal IRCC investigation and a referral by Harriet Solloway, the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, in May last year.

The commissioner found Ms. Fox had breached Section 9 of the Conflict of Interest Act.

“This report reminds appointed federal officials at all levels to keep the Conflict of Interest Act in mind whenever there’s a possibility of influencing a decision,” he says in the report. “They’re not allowed to use their position to try to influence a decision to further their private interests or those of their relatives or friends, or to improperly further another person’s private interests.”

However, in the course of his investigation, Mr. von Finckenstein determined that Ms. Fox and Mr. Charles were not, as alleged when the case was referred to him, friends.

“While Ms. Fox and Mr. Charles have known each other for more than two decades, their relationship does not appear to have changed over the years in that any gatherings or social interactions have been through larger social circles connected to their ties to university basketball,” the report says.