Michael Wernick
Michael Wernick is a retired Canadian public servant who served as the 23rd Clerk of the Privy Council of Canada from 2016 to 2019. Wernick was previously the deputy minister for the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development from May 2006 to July 11, 2014. Before being the clerk for the Privy Council office, Wernick was the deputy clerk under predecessor Janice Charette. He has held several other positions in the Privy Council office and as Associate Deputy Minister for the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Wernick worked at the constitutional affairs unit of the Federal Provincial Relations Office from 1991 to 1993 and in its successor unit when the Office was merged into the Privy Council Office in 1993, leaving in the summer of 1996. Wernick was deeply involved in the process leading up the Charlottetown Accord of August 1992, supporting the Cabinet Committee chaired by the Right Honourable Joe Clark and chairing the multi-jurisdiction committee that drafted the political accord. He was the Assistant Secretary, Constitutional Affairs at Privy Council Office in the period leading to and including the Quebec referendum on secession in October 1995.
From 1996 to 2002 Wernick held Assistant Deputy Minister positions at the Department of Canadian Heritage. He worked on cultural policy issues including film policy, copyright, the entry of Amazon into the Canadian book market, music policy as the internet disrupted traditional industry practices, and the trade dispute with the United States regarding split run magazines. In 2002 his first appointment at the Deputy Minister level was as Associate Deputy Minister at Canadian Heritage.
In 2003 he moved back to Privy Council Office as Deputy Secretary - Plans and Consultations where he supported the transition from Prime Minister Chrétien to Martin and later from Martin to Harper in 2006. Wernick attended the last meeting of the Chrétien Cabinet, the first and last meetings of the Martin Cabinet and the first meeting of the Harper Cabinet.
In May 2006 Wernick appointed Deputy Minister at the then Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, where he remained for eight years, serving Ministers Jim Prentice, Chuck Strahl, John Duncan and Bernard Valcourt.
On October 1, 2014, the Public Policy Forum held a reception to recognize Wernick's eight-year tenure at Aboriginal and Northern Affairs.
As Clerk of the Privy Council he was automatically a member of the Advisory Council to the Order of Canada.
On March 18, 2019, Wernick announced that he would be retiring from his position as the Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to Cabinet and unable to serve during the upcoming election. The SNC-Lavalin affair influenced his early retirement and he had informed Prime Minister Trudeau of his decision on Monday morning. Wernick retired from the federal public service on April 18, 2019.
Personal life
Born in Montreal, Quebec, Wernick attended Nelson High School in Burlington, Ontario, graduating in 1975. Wernick graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1979 and a Master of Arts in economics in 1980 from the University of Toronto. He has been a member of the board of governors for Carleton University in Ottawa. He is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.Wernick is a cancer survivor, overcoming a September 1988 diagnosis of Ewing's sarcoma followed by surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy over a nine-month medical leave.
Wernick's parents immigrated from the United Kingdom in August 1956, landing in Montreal and moving on to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in 1959. Wernick attended Queen Elizabeth Public School and Alexander Muir Public School in Sault Ste.Marie in the 1960s and John T. Tuck Public School and Nelson High School in Burlington in the 1970s.
University tuition protest email exchange
Wernick was criticized for his comments made in an email among Carleton University board of Governors members regarding a university student tuition protest that disrupted and prevented the March 30, 2015 meeting of the Board from continuing. In the private email exchange which was leaked to the media by one of the Board members, he deplored the tactics as authoritarian, similar to those used by brown shirts and Maoists to intimidate their political opponents by disrupting gatherings and physically preventing the meeting from proceeding. This was reported in social media as labelling the protesting students as Nazis. The New Democratic Party called for Wernick to apologize for the comments, and the school's graduate student association called for Wernick to resign. Wernick was later elected to serve as Vice Chair of the Board of Governors for the 2016-17 term and the Board of Governors defeated a motion tabled in September 2016 to revisit the controversy.SNC-Lavalin Affair
On February 7, 2019, The Globe and Mail published an article that spurred investigation into the SNC-Lavalin Affair. The article claimed that the Prime Minister's Office had pressured Jody Wilson-Raybould while she was Attorney General of Canada into pursuing a deferred prosecution agreement for SNC Lavalin. The article also claimed that Wernick had rebuked Wilson-Raybould for having suggested that politicians had engaged in doublespeak on Indigenous issues. Wilson-Raybould resigned her current post as Minister of Veterans Affairs on February 12, 2019.On February 21, 2019, Wernick appeared before the House of Commons Justice Committee. He disputed the allegations of undue pressure on Wilson-Raybould and stated that The Globe and Mail article contained errors and unfounded speculation.
On February 27, 2019, Wilson-Raybould testified that Wernick was among those who had placed undue pressure on her and that Wernick had made "veiled threats" to her. This led to calls by opposition parties for Wernick's resignation.
On March 6, 2019 Wernick appeared at the Justice Committee for a second time and stated in his testimony that he had made no threats and had raised public interest considerations. He also stated that the Minister was always able to take new context into account as public interest considerations evolve over time.
On March 18, 2019 Wernick announced his retirement in a letter to the Prime Minister. On March 29, a secretly recorded telephone call between Wernick and Wilson-Raybould was released wherein Wernick told Wilson-Raybould that Prime Minister Trudeau wanted a deferred prosecution agreement for SNC-Lavalin "one way or another".. Wernick retired on April 19, 2019 and was succeeded by Ian Shugart, Deputy Minister of Global Affairs Canada, who became the 24th Clerk of the Privy Council.
On March 10, 2020 the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Commissioner, Mario Dion, released his report on an allegation of conflict of interest against Wernick that had been referred to his office by the Public Sector integrity Commissioner. In the report Dion concluded "I do not have any reason to believe Mr. Wernick may have contravened section of the Act on the basis of the alleged facts. I will, therefore, not initiate an examination under section 45 of the Act and consider the matter closed."
Post Retirement
Wernick gave a lengthy interview on public service issues to the UK based Global Government Forum in June, 2019, as a follow up to one he gave the same publication in 2016. In November, 2019 he gave a speech to Canada 2020's Indigenous Economic Forum and was interviewed by the CBC. In January, 2020 he was the featured guest at an event hosted by the Institute of Public Administration's Nova Scotia chapter - the 90 minute interview is available on the IPAC Nova Scotia website. On April 2, 2020 Carleton University"s School of Public Policy and Administration posted on its website the audiofile of a 90 minute online meeting bringing together Wernick and its Masters of Public Administration students. On July 26, 2020 the CBC radio program "The House" aired a short interview with Wernick on the subject of cyberthreats and violence in political life.Wernick is sole proprietor of Kanada Advisory Services. In May 2020 he became a Senior Strategic Advisor Associate on retainer to MNP Ltd, a Western Canada based national accounting, tax and business consulting firm.