Former adviser to Selinger subject of financial impropriety probe

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This article was published 09/02/2016 (3524 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The woman who became Greg Selinger’s top political adviser in the midst of a cabinet insurrection 15 months ago has resigned a key patronage appointment and has been removed from the NDP’s re-election effort amid an internal review of her role in one of the province’s largest unions.

Sources tell the Free Press that Heather Grant-Jury has dropped off the political radar over concerns of possible financial impropriety as education and training director of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832.

The union told the Free Press Tuesday that it has cut its ties with Grant-Jury, 53, a former United Way of Winnipeg campaign chairwoman (2007).

“Heather Grant-Jury is no longer employed by the UFCW Local 832 Training Centre. We are conducting an internal investigation and have no other details to provide at this time,” union spokesman Blake Crothers said in an email.

Grant-Jury was named Selinger’s principal secretary, a new position, on Nov. 3, 2014, the same day five members of Selinger’s cabinet resigned their portfolios over the premier’s leadership. Ten days later it was learned the premier’s chief of staff, Liam Martin, had been placed on leave. He later received $146,047 in severance.

Grant-Jury, on secondment from UFCW, was hired at a rate of $134,000 a year to work for the premier. She remained on the payroll until after the March 8, 2015, leadership vote, returning to the union on April 2.

However, the Selinger loyalist was rewarded with a patronage appointment and continued influence within the NDP as a member of the party’s election operations committee.

That is, until Dec. 31. The NDP confirmed Tuesday that Jeremy Read, the party’s campaign director, requested and received Grant-Jury’s immediate resignation that day from the NDP’s election operations sub-committee and from all other party positions.

Two months earlier, on Oct. 28, the premier signed a cabinet order appointing Grant-Jury to fill a vacancy on the board of directors of Manitoba Public Insurance. The three-year appointment was to pay the union staffer $7,500 per annum.

But on Jan. 4, Grant-Jury resigned the patronage post, MPI confirmed.

A source close to government said her resignation was “abrupt,” catching the Crown corporation by surprise. “She resigned in a real rush,” the source said.

Sources say the government and the NDP are distancing themselves from Grant-Jury over the alleged misuse of UFCW training funds.

The union has not said whether it has filed a complaint with police.

However, in a cryptic email in response to a question from the Free Press, the Winnipeg Police Service said it has “received a report from UFCW.”

Repeated efforts to reach Grant-Jury for comment using social media were unsuccessful. A message left on her home phone Tuesday was not returned. Neither was a message left on her cellphone.

Asked for comment recently, Selinger confirmed Grant-Jury was no longer part of the NDP’s re-election team, but offered little more.

“It’s a matter with a separate organization (UFCW), and it’s a personnel matter. And I’m not able to comment on that.,” the premier said.

Asked if he had been briefed on the matter, Selinger said: “Just that they’ve got an issue that they’re addressing internally and they plan to look after it within the confines of their organization.”

Late Tuesday, Selinger’s press secretary, Naline Rampersad, issued a statement again refusing comment on the allegations surrounding Grant-Jury but stating that a high-ranking Selinger political staffer received a call from UFCW Local 832 president Jeff Traeger “about a potential internal human resources matter” on Dec. 30.

“When it was confirmed the following day that the UFCW believed there to be a serious matter that would require further steps to be taken, the Chief of Staff (Jeremy Read) informed the Premier and at his direction requested Ms. Grant-Jury’s immediate resignation from the MPI board… Her formal resignation was received by MPI on January 4, 2016,” Rampersad said.

Progressive Conservative House Leader Kelvin Goertzen, the party’s MPI critic, noted he raised Heather-Grant’s MPI appointment in November, not long after it was made.

“I think it’s an example of what happens when you have a premier who puts his party and patronage ahead of the province,” Goertzen said. “He was too busy looking after his friends and those who supported him during the leadership process. And… unfortunately MPI gets dragged into it.”

Goertzen said Manitobans deserve a full statement from the premier on the matter.

“For example, the files that she worked on when she was working with the premier — are those being looked at? Was anything compromised in terms of these particular allegations that are now out there?”

Grant-Jury has been a labour activist for decades. At age 23, she became the Winnipeg Labour Council’s first woman president, according to biographical information supplied at the time of her receiving the 2009 United Way of Canada Partnership Builder Award.

In early January, the Manitoba Federation of Labour withdrew Grant-Jury as one of its three nominees to the steering committee of Workplace Education Manitoba, an organization that offers skills training to workers, a spokeswoman for WEM said Tuesday. She said she did not know why this occurred.

MFL president Kevin Rebeck could not immediately be reached for comment.

A Winnipeg labour activist told the Free Press that he is shocked by the rumoured allegations against Grant-Jury.

“I was dumbstruck when I heard it,” he said. “This surprises me.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca