The hearing into Tyler Shandro’s conduct as health minister will continue in June, the Law Society of Alberta (LSA) said Tuesday.
The original hearing took place from Jan. 24 to 26.
“The hearing did not conclude within the allotted hearing days and additional days are required to hear testimony from the remainder of the witnesses and submissions from the parties,” LSA tribunal counsel Nancy Bains said in a statement. “The hearing will resume on June 12 to 14, 2023.”
Those dates are dependent on the schedules of the parties, their counsel and witnesses, and the hearing committee adjudicators.
The dates also come after the provincial election, expected to take place on May 29.
“Like other administrative tribunals, the law society seeks to strike a balance between the efficient conclusion of proceedings and procedural fairness,” Bains said.
At an unrelated press conference on Tuesday, Shandro said he had no comment on the scheduled dates and hearing proceedings.
“I look forward to resolving the matter,” he said.
The justice minister faces a trio of citations from events in a one-month period in early 2020, when Shandro visited the home of a Calgary doctor and “behaved inappropriately,” when the then-health minister obtained the personal cell phone numbers of a pair of Red Deer-area doctors and called them outside of work hours, and when he responded to an email sent to his wife and threatening to refer that person to the authorities if she did not communicate directly to him at his ministerial email.
In the first three days, the tribunal heard from witnesses: the doctors Shandro spoke with, the chief privacy officer and a communications VP from Alberta Health Services, and the woman who emailed Shandro’s wife to raise concerns about an alleged conflict of interest between Shandro’s role as health minister and his wife’s business of third-party health benefits.
Shandro, who was called to the bar in 2005 and elected as MLA for Calgary-Acadian in 2019, also took the stand on days two and three, with more cross-examination expected in the coming hearing days. Shandro’s wife Andrea is also expected to provide testimony.
Following the conclusion of a hearing, the hearing committee will typically reserve its decision and usually produce a written decision within three to four months.
If the tribunal decides to sanction the justice minister, sanctions could range from fines and conditions for practice to suspension or, at the most extreme, disbarment.
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