Submitting university degree obtained without having taken courses was dishonest act

Applicant stated she held bachelor’s degree in nursing administration. Following investigation under s. 69 of Public Service Employment Act, public service commission found that applicant committed fraud during call for nomination process aimed at filling position of national coordinator for healthcare professionals program. Investigation revealed that applicant did not take any courses with university, which did not exist. Commission revoked her appointment and imposed three-year restriction related to any new appointments within federal public service. Applicant brought application for judicial review. Application dismissed. There was no violation of procedural fairness in investigation process. Investigator erred in applying test for finding that she had concealed important fact in internal nomination process and that deprivation would have resulted from this concealment. investigator found not only that the applicant showed surprising naïveté and greed, but that she also committed fraud by concealing an important fact when submitting her application, which led to deprivation. It was reasonable for commission to find that actus reus of dishonest act or concealment of important facts was shown. Submitting university degree obtained without having taken courses and only on simple basis of few letters of reference and payment of specified amount was without doubt dishonest act that would be considered as such by reasonable person in same circumstances.

Lemelin c. Canada (Procureur général) (2018), 2018 CarswellNat 1123, 2018 CarswellNat 1283, 2018 FC 286, 2018 CF 286, Jocelyne Gagné J. (F.C.).