Mary Dawson, Canada’s first conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, dies

Former conflict of interest and ethics commissioner Mary Dawson has died.

The commissioner’s office posted a statement on its website today announcing it was saddened to learn of Dawson’s death on Dec. 24.

“Her leadership and commitment to precise legal standards laid the foundations for the way the conflict of interest regimes are administered,” the office said in its statement.

“Dawson implemented many of the practices used by the office today.”

Dawson was nominated to the role in 2007 by former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper and she served until 2018.

Before that, she had a lengthy career as a federal bureaucrat, including as the associate deputy minister of the Justice Department.

Dawson helped draft major legislation

She first joined the federal bureaucracy as a researcher in 1967 and moved to the Justice Department the following year.

During her tenure at that department she helped draft major pieces of legislation, including the Access to Information Act, the Privacy Act, the Canada Health Act and the Official Languages Act.

Dawson was the first federal conflict of interest and ethics commissioner. Harper’s government created the new office after passing the Conflict of Interest Act, part of its Federal Accountability Act.

Dawson made many rulings during her time as ethics commissioner. Among her last was her explosive report that found Prime Minister Justin Trudeau violated conflict of interest rules by accepting a vacation on the Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas in 2016.

Speaking to the Globe and Mail before her retirement in 2018, Dawson acknowledged as much. “I kind of went out with a bang,” she said.