Christiane Fox pushed to hire a man officials said wasn't qualified

Christiane Fox became Deputy Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship in July 2022. She oversaw 13,685 employees.

In early 2023, a gym manager she knew from the varsity basketball community at Carleton got her cellphone number from her spouse, who had been his assistant coach. They spoke on Saturday, 4 March 2023. He told the Commissioner she asked about his job, his responsibilities and his salary; she said she did not recall asking about his salary.

On 6 March, after the call of 4 March, she appointed Marie-Flore Baptiste as assistant deputy minister for corporate services and chief human resources officer. On 15 March she forwarded his résumé to Baptiste, saying she knew him from basketball. Fox testified that she sent it "because she had asked for résumés of individuals from outside the federal public service". Neither of them could recall Fox sending any other outside résumé for the division. Officials in the access to information division were told to meet him. On 30 March an acting director wrote: "Holy geez, tell her to lay off with this guy already…" On 3 April he wrote that he was meeting the "DM's best friend" the next day. The same day, Fox emailed the man an internal IRCC briefing prepared for the minister's office, to help him prepare.

The division's acting director general told Baptiste that, with no French and no government experience, he could only be offered an entry-level job. In her account, the reply was that Fox expected him to get a salary equal to what he earned in the private sector, which meant a PM-04. Fox testified that she did not instruct or pressure Baptiste to appoint him "to any specific level or position".

When the hiring went into the deputy minister's weekly note, a staffer said the note could not say he was her referral, "so as to avoid a paper trail". Fox wrote on it by hand: "PM-04 would be great. Allows him to integrate." Her officials' emails show he did not meet the merit criteria for a PM-04, a management-level post, because he had no government or access to information experience. On 24 April Fox wrote to Baptiste: "any flex on this to recognize his experience outside the federal system?"

By Baptiste's account, at one of their meetings Fox told her he had just had a baby, which Baptiste testified made her uncomfortable about offering him a lower position. Fox did not think she would have done so. The Commissioner accepted Baptiste's version and called it "an attempt to influence Ms. Baptiste’s decision on [his] level and salary". Baptiste's office manager testified that, in her view, Baptiste felt obligated to hire him because Fox had hired her.

On 27 April 2023 he was offered a casual PM-04 job, and staff expedited his letter of offer, security clearance and ID card. On 22 June the acting director general wrote that Baptiste had asked whether the paperwork had begun for "a two-year term at the PM-04 level", and that this was at Fox's request. Questioned later, the acting director general could not recall Fox weighing in on the term, and Fox testified that she never discussed his term length. Senior staff recorded that he struggled with the work. On 14 August he was offered "an external, non-advertised one-year term at the PM-04 level" anyway, with the statement of merit criteria modified. The acting director general later testified that without what she called a dedicated campaign of pressure from Fox and her office, neither PM-04 job would have been offered. That fall an internal disclosure of wrongdoing was investigated. The official running it wrote that Fox told her there was no reason to widen it to Baptiste. Fox told the Commissioner she was clarifying that he was not a relative, as had been assumed, and that she was the one who had referred him. The investigation was widened to his appointment anyway.

In January 2024 Fox moved to the Privy Council Office as Deputy Clerk. In June 2024 she met him at her office there, told him about jobs at the PCO, and walked him down to an assistant deputy minister's office for an introduction. She did not tell the official that she had referred him at IRCC. His IRCC term was not renewed at that level. On 22 October 2024 he accepted a demotion at IRCC, to start when his PM-04 extension ran out. On 25 October he signed a PCO offer at PM-04, and he started there on 7 November 2024, before the demotion took effect.

In December 2024, before IRCC's investigation reported in January 2025, the Privy Council Office's list of deputy minister committees named Fox a vice-chair of the Committee of Senior Officials. The list describes it as the human resources committee for the public service's senior executives. Under PCO's rules for deputy ministers' performance pay, the same committee meets each year to advise the Clerk on their performance. No public word from her on the seat was found in Parliament since 8 April (searched on openparliament.ca for "Christiane Fox", 15 October 2026) or in CBC's reports of 8 and 10 April.

IRCC's report, completed in January 2025, found he had been given the PM-04 jobs because of his relationship with Fox, and that the preferential treatment was significant. The matter reached the Ethics Commissioner, who opened an examination on 10 June 2025.

On 19 December 2025, the Prime Minister announced that Fox would become Deputy Minister of National Defence. She took the post on 29 January 2026; the Commissioner had interviewed her on 27 January. On 3 March 2026, on the Prime Minister's recommendation, cabinet fixed her pay in the post within a range of $357,600 to $420,600, back to her first day. The order names the range; the salary itself is in a schedule the published order does not show. The Commissioner's report followed on 8 April 2026. No document links the order to his examination.

In April 2026 Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein found that she contravened section 9 of the Conflict of Interest Act, which bars a public office holder from using the office to influence a decision that furthers another person's private interests. She said she wanted outside perspectives and was answering a public service call to action on diversity. "I did not find these claims credible," he wrote. He found no mention of the Call to Action in any staff document on the hiring. The task, he wrote, had been to create a position to fit the profile and desired salary of a specific man the deputy minister referred, and the true intent of her interventions was to help him find new work. He found they were not friends within the meaning of the Act, and that the preferential treatment was itself the impropriety.

She issued a statement as Deputy Minister of National Defence. She acknowledged the findings and said she takes the matter seriously. On 13 April she appeared before the Public Accounts committee on Defence business and said: "I respect the role of the commissioner and the office." She remains the Deputy Minister.

Exhibit 4

The Act sets no administrative monetary penalty for what she did. Its penalties, of up to $500, apply only to the reporting duties section 52 lists, such as declaring gifts and offers of outside work; section 9 is not among them. On a referral like this one, the Commissioner's duty ends with a report to the Prime Minister. PCO's rules let cabinet revise a deputy minister's rating and recover performance pay after serious breaches of conduct, following due process. PCO told CBC News on 8 April that it was "thoroughly reviewing the report". By 15 October 2026 no consequence had been announced in Parliament since 8 April (a search of openparliament.ca for "Christiane Fox" on 15 October 2026 found no House debate naming her, and committee transcripts of 13 April, 29 April and 6 May), in the Privy Council Office's statement to CBC News of 8 April, or in CBC's reports of 8 and 10 April. The Privy Council Office publishes performance pay by cycle as totals and counts by level, without names; on 15 October 2026 the latest cycle it showed was 2023-24. That record cannot show a recovery either way.

Her case: she was trying to fix an access to information division that was failing, and deputy ministers are told to bring in outside perspectives. "My approach was motivated by a genuine desire to bring in outside perspectives, strengthen the performance of underperforming teams", she said, calling it "an objective explicitly set for Deputy Ministers". She told the Commissioner the hiring decision "belonged to her ADM and departmental staff", that she "often passes on the résumés" of people who come her way, that she did not pressure Baptiste to appoint him "to any specific level or position", and that the staffer's "paper trail" message did not reflect her motives. The Commissioner found they were not friends under the Act, and she made the point to MPs: "No, the Ethics Commissioner noted in his report that he was not a friend." She has acknowledged the findings: "I recognize how we pursue change is as important as the change itself." Asked by Mr. Bezan for an assurance, she said: "I can assure the committee that I will continue to demonstrate a commitment to public service, building on the strong commitment I've had over my career, and that, yes, I will take my responsibilities seriously, as I always have."

Exhibit 5

Before the Public Accounts committee on 13 April 2026, when Mr. Kuruc said she had not acknowledged any wrongdoing, she said: "I believe I had genuine intentions, but as a leader, I am reflecting heavily on the way I make a change and how this is as important as the change itself." Her account of the referral: "The ADM responsible for the program had asked me to share CVs that came in for this particular unit." And: "I decided to refer the person, as requested." Mr. Deltell asked: "Ms. Fox, do you regret doing that, yes or no?" She answered: "As I mentioned at the outset, I take note of the report's findings." Asked "Do you have any regrets?", she said: "I take responsibility for what was stated, and I take it seriously. In addition, I'm reflecting on my actions and on how those actions affect the system." When he called the man her friend: "I'd like to note that he's not a friend."

In her statement she wrote: "At IRCC, I was given a clear mandate to lead a large-scale cultural and organizational change." In her written answer to the Commissioner she said he "merited consideration in a time of dire need for acute talent" in the division, and that Baptiste "may have invoked her name" to manage difficult staff. She testified that for racialized candidates the department "tended to offer the lowest level possible". The division's trouble was real. IRCC's own report for the year to March 2023, department-wide, shows 184,587 access requests, as the most solicited ATIP program in the Government of Canada, and only 21.1% answered on time, down from 34.0% the year before; 127,104 requests were closed past the legislated timelines. The rate rose to 77.0% in 2023-24 and 80.7% in 2024-25, which IRCC credits to a realigned structure, new processing strategies, technology, and training and retaining staff. IRCC's 2022-2023 report gives the rate for 2021-22 but not its count of late requests.

Outside perspectives are a fair goal, and a deputy minister may push for them. The division was failing, by the department's own count. But the Commissioner found this hire could not reasonably be expected to meet that need, and no staff paper on the hiring mentions the diversity call she cites. This was a man she knew personally, the only outside résumé for the division either of them could recall her sending, with no government or access to information experience, pushed to a level her own officials said he did not qualify for, then helped into the Privy Council Office after she moved. The Commissioner weighed the same reasons and did not find them credible. Her statement says she acknowledges the findings, and at committee she said she takes responsibility "for what was stated". IRCC's report was dated January 2025; she was named to Defence in December 2025. Baptiste testified "that it was during a discussion with Ms. Fox that [he] was identified as the candidate who could fill the position". On the relationship, the report agrees he was not a friend within the meaning of the Act; its own word for him is "an acquaintance of hers from the varsity basketball community".