Former Selinger adviser Grant-Jury pleads guilty to fraud

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This article was published 26/01/2018 (2790 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A former union director and adviser to then-premier Greg Selinger has pleaded guilty to fraud for charging personal expenses to a company credit card.

Heather Grant-Jury admitted this week she claimed fraudulent expenses in her position as the director of education for the United Food and Commercial Workers training centre for union local 832. Using a credit card meant for union educational business, Grant-Jury incurred thousands in charges and lied to the union’s accountant to expense them to the union, provincial court Judge Ryan Rolston heard Wednesday when Grant-Jury pleaded guilty to fraud.

Before she is sentenced, the court will have to decide how much money was fraudulently expensed. Crown prosecutors say it’s about $160,000 in total, but defence lawyer Richard Wolson told the judge “we will be alleging a much lesser amount.”

A two-day hearing has been set for August so lawyers can argue over the financial details. The Crown is expected to seek jail time for Grant-Jury, 55, while Wolson indicated he’ll ask the judge not to send Grant-Jury to jail.

She admitted the fraud took place between May 2011 and December 2015, when the union became aware of it.

Grant-Jury was a key ally to Selinger during the cabinet revolt in November 2014. She was seconded, on an emergency basis, from her union position to serve as Selinger’s principal secretary after five cabinet ministers resigned and he needed a loyal adviser.

Grant-Jury remained on the payroll until after the March 8, 2015, leadership vote and returned to the union April 2, 2015.

She also played a key role in the NDP re-election effort until the party cut ties with her in December 2015.

During the 2016 provincial election campaign, the Free Press learned Selinger knew, prior to hiring Grant-Jury, that she had been charged with theft under $5,000 in 2003 when she worked at the former Zellers store on McPhillips Street. The charges were later stayed.

She was terminated from her union position following an initial investigation. During this period, she resigned from her position on the board of Manitoba Public Insurance and from the NDP’s election operations subcommittee as well as all other party positions.

In February 2016, Selinger and UFCW announced they had cut ties with her.

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The union told the Free Press at the time an internal investigation had been launched, but offered no details.

A forensic audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP at the union’s request was completed that spring and turned over to Winnipeg police.