Konrad Winrich von Finckenstein, a former chair of Canada’s broadcasting regulator, has been named interim federal conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, after the government’s previous pick for the role resigned amid concern about the appropriateness of the appointment.
The commissioner’s office announced Mr. von Finckenstein’s six-month appointment on Thursday. The ethics commissioner administers the federal Conflict of Interest Act and helps elected and appointed officials avoid conflicts between their public duties and private interests.
Mr. von Finckenstein, who is also a former Federal Court justice, is the second interim commissioner named since the position’s last permanent occupant, Mario Dion, stepped down in February, citing “persistent health issues.”
The first to be named was Martine Richard, who is the sister-in-law of Dominic LeBlanc, a federal cabinet minister. (He was intergovernmental affairs minister at the time, and is now Minister of Public Safety.) The government appointed her in March, for a six-month period. Critics, including opposition politicians, raised concerns that Ms. Richard was too close to the Liberal government to perform a job that involves holding politicians to account for ethical failings.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended the appointment, noting that Ms. Richard had worked in the commissioner’s office for more than a decade before being promoted to the top job, most of that time as general counsel. She resigned in April, giving no specific reason for her departure.
Mr. von Finckenstein’s public-service career began in 1973, when he served as a legal adviser in the federal Justice Department, before moving on to senior roles in that department and others.
He later served as an adviser to Simon Reisman, the lead Canadian negotiator in the 1980s Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement. Mr. von Finckenstein, now 78, was also head of the federal Competition Bureau from 1997 to 2003; a justice of the Federal Court from 2003 to 2007; and chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which regulates broadcasting and telecommunications, from 2007 to 2012.
Mr. Dion, who was appointed ethics commissioner in 2018, said the vacancy in his former office has put investigations on hold. The federal Conservatives have also raised concerns about the absence of an ethics commissioner. During Mr. Dion’s term in the office, he found that Mr. Trudeau and several cabinet ministers had broken ethics rules.
Asked for comment on the new appointment, Mr. Dion said he had played no role in the selection process. But he praised the government’s choice. “Having had the opportunity to see him in action in the ‘90s at the Department of Justice, I am confident that Konrad will be able to prioritize the backlog and take appropriate actions during the fall,” he said in a statement. He added that Mr. von Finckenstein was analytical and not afraid of original solutions.
Mr. von Finckenstein could not be reached for comment. He will not have a role in the search for a future, permanent commissioner, according to a statement from the commissioner’s office.
He was appointed last year to the Order of Canada for “his distinguished and multifaceted career in law and federal public service,” according to text from the office of the Governor-General.
Ian Bailey