Deputy minister found to have broken conflict-of-interest rules

A senior federal public servant has been found to have violated Canada’s Conflict of Interest Act by using her position to secure a job for an acquaintance at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

In a report released under section 68 of the Conflict of Interest Act, the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner concluded that former IRCC deputy minister Christiane Fox “used the weight of her position as Deputy Minister to advance Mr. Charles’s private interests” by championing his candidacy, pushing for a higher classification and monitoring his progress through the hiring process.

The examination was triggered by a referral from Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Harriet Solloway on April 2, 2025, concerning Fox’s conduct while she served as Deputy Minister of IRCC between July 2022 and January 2024. The disclosure alleged that Fox “exerted undue influence on senior management in her department to hire her friend from school and a manager of the gym her family attends and have him appointed at a level for which he was not qualified,” according to the referral summary.

Questionable promotion to IRCC

The case centres on the hiring of Björn Charles, a former GoodLife gym manager who knew Fox from their time as university varsity athletes. In early March 2023, Charles contacted Fox “about possibly working for IRCC.” At Fox’s invitation, Fox forwarded that résumé on March 15, 2023 to her newly appointed assistant deputy minister for corporate services and human resources, Marie‑Flore Baptiste.

Fox described Charles as “someone she knew from basketball” who was “not bilingual but had extensive experience in client services at GoodLife.” She asked Baptiste to “let her know if Mr. Charles was a good fit,” according to the report.

At the time, Fox and Baptiste were grappling with serious performance and culture issues in IRCC’s Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) division. Both testified that ATIP suffered from high turnover, chronic backlogs and poor client service. Fox told investigators she had been given “a clear mandate to lead cultural and organizational change” and that the division required a “major transition,” including recruiting people from outside the public service to bring “a different mindset and change the culture.”

Baptiste testified that Charles was identified with Fox as the candidate who could fill a project manager role to modernize ATIP’s client experience. She said she initially felt compelled to interview him personally “because his résumé had come from Ms. Fox” and wanted to verify his competencies.

Internal HR concerns about candidate

From there, the Commissioner found, Fox’s involvement went far beyond merely passing along a résumé.

She asked Charles to keep her updated and “sought updates from departmental officials about his hiring.” In one April 24, 2023 email to Baptiste, she wrote: “I wanted to touch base on BJ Charles – he has met with your team and is very excited. I had understood the PM4 was an option for him which I think makes sense. I think he is being offered a PM2 which may make it tough to leave current position…. any flex on this to recognize his experience outside the federal system? Sorry to bug you on this in the middle of the strike!”

Baptiste replied that they would proceed with a PM‑04 level, despite internal HR concerns that Charles did not meet the statement of merit criteria for that supervisory role in ATIP. Senior officials testified that a PM‑04 normally requires knowledge of access-to-information and privacy law, experience with specialized software and, typically, bilingualism—none of which Charles possessed.

The Commissioner found departmental staff felt pressured. In instant messages, one manager complained, “Holy geez, tell her to lay off with this guy already…” and staff referred to Charles as “the DM’s best friend.”

Another message from an ATIP executive to Baptiste on April 24 read: “Please let the DM know we are working as hard as possible, especially with the limited staff we have right now, to make this a reality as quickly as possible.”

Charles given special treatment

Fox also gave Charles an advantage other candidates did not receive. On April 3, 2023, she emailed him an internal IRCC briefing document prepared for the minister’s chief of staff, saying it “might be useful in providing him with an overview of the department” ahead of his meeting with ATIP officials and that “they could chat afterward.” While much of the content overlapped with publicly available material, the Commissioner emphasized that it was “nonetheless internal to IRCC.”

An April 12 “DM Weekly” briefing note prepared for Fox included a status line on the anticipated hiring of a PM‑04 in ATIP, explicitly tailored to Charles’s profile: “The prospective PM‑04 will provide advice and ensure a client focus is provided to the project… The potential candidate has over 12 years experience in the client service industry and will bring a unique perspective.” Fox added a handwritten comment on the note: “PM 04 would be great. Allows him to integrate.”

The Commissioner wrote that this annotation, combined with subsequent follow‑ups from Fox’s office on how quickly Charles could be brought in, reinforced to staff that hiring him—and at PM‑04—was a priority for the deputy minister.

Morale suffers with inexperience

By late April, IRCC offered Charles a three‑month casual PM‑04 position, which he accepted. According to internal emails, his letter of offer, security clearance and access to equipment were expedited. In August 2023, he was offered an external, non‑advertised one‑year PM‑04 term, after the statement of merit criteria were adjusted so he would meet them “despite his minimal experience.”

Evidence from ATIP managers indicated Charles struggled with the work and had to be moved to different tasks, yet still received the PM‑04 term. Morale in the division suffered.

One senior official told investigators that the hiring “caused a multitude of challenges” and that staff were dismayed to see “an individual with no French language skills and without any government experience or knowledge” appointed to a supervisory position above long‑serving employees.

An internal IRCC staffing investigation, completed in January 2025, concluded that Charles “had no experience related to the proposed position,” that HR had concerns he did not meet merit criteria, and that he was granted both the casual and term PM‑04 positions “because of his relationship with Ms. Fox,” amounting to significant preferential treatment.

Section 9 of Conflict of Interest Act

The Commissioner’s report applies section 9 of the Conflict of Interest Act, which states: “No public office holder shall use his or her position as a public office holder to seek to influence a decision of another person so as to further the public office holder’s private interests or those of the public office holder’s relatives or friends or to improperly further another person’s private interests.”

While the Commissioner agreed with Fox that Charles did not qualify as a “friend” under the Act—describing their relationship as one of long‑standing acquaintances tied to university basketball—the report stresses that section 9 also covers the improper furthering of “another person’s private interests,” even absent friendship.

The Commissioner concluded that Charles’s employment at IRCC was plainly a private interest, given “the remuneration and benefits attached to the position.”

‘Giving of preferential treatment’

In analysing Fox’s conduct, the report points to previous precedents, including the 2015 Finley Report, where then‑commissioner Mary Dawson found that “the giving of preferential treatment could, in and of itself, be sufficient to find an impropriety,” even without a formal rule breach.

Here, the Commissioner determined that Fox’s “level of involvement and continued interest” in Charles’s candidacy went well beyond standard practice, noting that in ordinary circumstances, a deputy minister might forward a résumé but “would not typically get involved any further, especially where the said opportunities are far removed from their level of seniority.”

Rather than simply passing on Charles’s résumé, the Commissioner wrote, Fox “continued to communicate privately with him in respect of a process she was able to influence and followed up several times in her capacity as Deputy Minister with the person whose decisions would be determinative of Mr. Charles’s employment.”

This conduct, the report concludes, “resulted in the giving of preferential treatment to Mr. Charles, which in my view amounts to an impropriety.”

Denial of wrongdoing by Fox

Fox has consistently denied wrongdoing. In a written attestation dated July 2, 2025, she stated that Mr. Charles “is not a friend” and that she “did not exert undue influence or pressure on public servants to hire Mr. Charles or otherwise seek to improperly further his private interests.”

She told the Commissioner that as a senior public servant, she has “a deep respect for, and an understanding of, her obligations under the Act” and that she “consistently discharged her duty as a public office holder appropriately and with a view to furthering the Government of Canada’s interests.”

Fox argued that her actions were driven by urgent operational needs in ATIP and by her mandate to implement the Call to Action on Anti‑Racism, Equity and Inclusion in the Federal Public Service. She said she was working to address “challenges faced by Black employees in getting hired” and barriers to recognizing skills acquired outside government, and that she supported “diverse hiring practices” and candidates who could bring “fresh perspectives.”

She maintained that her role in Charles’s recruitment was limited to bringing his interest to her ADM’s attention and encouraging the newcomer ADM to assert her judgment on his potential rank. Any suggestion that she pressured staff, she argued, confused legitimate mentoring with improper interference. She also suggested that Baptiste “may have lacked confidence in her authority” and might have invoked the deputy minister’s name to manage difficult staff.

Hiring of Charles ‘not appropriate’

The Commissioner rejected those explanations. On the ATIP justification, the report states: “I conclude that Mr. Charles’s hiring could not reasonably be foreseen to respond appropriately to a general need to hire qualified staff to address the specific and pressing challenges faced by IRCC’s ATIP division. Rather, in my view, the task at hand was to create a position to fit the profile and desired salary range of a specific individual referred by the Deputy Minister.”

On the Call to Action rationale, the Commissioner noted that there was “no mention of the Call to Action in any of the documentation prepared by departmental staff relating to Mr. Charles’s hiring” and that neither Charles nor the department identified him as belonging to an employment equity group in the appointment decision. “In this specific case,” the Commissioner wrote, “I am unable to conclude that the Call to Action motivated Mr. Charles’s hiring or Ms. Fox’s conduct in the matter.”

Ultimately, the Commissioner found that Fox’s “sustained interest and involvement” in the hiring of Charles—an individual with “no government or ATIP experience” appointed “at a management level for which departmental officials had advised he was not qualified”—breached section 9 of the Conflict of Interest Act.

“Clearly, the true intent behind her interventions was to help Mr. Charles find new employment,” the Commissioner concluded, “and this occurred under her watch through the creation of a position in her department to fit Mr. Charles’ needs.”

Long history with government

Fox started working for the government back in 2002 as director of public affairs and ministerial services. She went on to work for the Privy Council Office for 11 years, then took the role of assistant secretary to the cabinet in communications and consultations for eight years.

Fox spent the next five years as deputy minister of Indigenous Services Canada and then deputy minister and federal youth network champion at the IRCC.

In January 2024, she became deputy clerk and associate secretary to cabinet at the Privy Council Office.