Over the last several years Manulife Financial has had an exclusive arrangement with York to market its term life insurance to York alumni through the York Alumni Association. In this so-called "affinity" partnership, York provides Manulife with a list of alumni and york stationery, together with an insurance product marketing letter signed by the Alumni Association executive director, to be addressed personally to each alum. Manulife does the mass mailing using the York envelopes and stationery and including the personal Alumni Association letter, brochures on the term life plan, enrollment forms, and a Manulife return envelope. The alumni receive a letter they think is from York University, in a York envelope, enthusiastically endorsing the plan and urging them to enroll by a specified date. According to Manulife, the response rate to this marketing method is more than double that of a regular Manulife mailing. Neither York nor Manulife have disclosed when this exclusivity agreement expires.

The signatory of the Alumni Association sales pitch is Naguib Gouda, executive director of York's Alumni Association and Advancement. Gouda was appointed to this position in 2004. Gouda is also one of two York officials on the Alumni Association board, which authorized the deal. The other York official on the Alumni Association Board is Lorna Marsden, York's president.

Gouda was formerly a Manulife Vice President for marketing and project management, and probably retains some equity interest from that position. Marsden has been a member of the Manulife Board of Directors since 1995. As of March 15, 2006 she owned 19,332 common shares of Manulife stock and 5,179 deferred shares, with a combined market value of $1,824,599. In addition she owned 20,000 non-cumulative class A shares, Series 1, of the company. As a member of the Board of Directors she receives an annual retainer of $110,000, plus $1500 per Board meeting (8) and $1200 per meeting of the management resources and compensation committee (6), plus an additional $3000 for being on the committee. She also receives travel allowances, and is eligible for pension benefits and, you guessed it, life insurance. In 2005 Manulife paid Marsden direct compensation of $128,700. (source: Manulife Financial proxy statement)

The exclusive affinity agreement between York University and Manulife Financial was, in effect, signed by Marsden on both sides of the table, as president of the university, on the one side, and a director of the company, on the other. Marsden, as steward of a public institution, authorized that public body to sell the product of a private firm of which she is a director and in which she holds significant personal financial interest. It appears, in short, that she is using a public institution for private gain. In a recent Ontario Appeals Court decision (Daniel Freeman-Maloy vs. York University) the court ruled that Marsden is a public official subject to the regime of civil law. Civil law includes provincial conflict of interest regulations for public officials, which prohibits even the appearance of conflict of interest (see provincial Regulation and Directive on conflict of interest). For copies and info contact Melissa Nixon at Cabinet at 416-326-0390. The Ontario Conflict of Interest Commissioner is retired judge Lloyd Holdren, who can be reached at 416-362-8555.

Dave Noble

P.S. Marsden on May 4 became a member of the Board of Directors of SNC-Lavalin Group, the engineering and construction conglomerate (and part-owner of Highway 407). In this job she will receive an additional $55,000 annual retainer plus Board and committee meeting fees at $1500 a pop. (she sits on two Board committees). She is also on the Board of Directors of the Gore Mutual Insurance Company. The compensation for that job appears not to be available through public sources: Gore is probably not publicly traded.

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Ontario's Ombudsman regularly uncovers injustice, cruelty and stupidity in the delivery of government services and he wants sweeping new powers to expose more wrongdoing.

André Marin says municipalities, hospitals, school boards, children's aid societies — any public or private body that gets provincial money to deliver services — should be subject to his oversight.

But does this make Marin a publicity-seeking empire-builder — as critics suggest — or should the ombudsman have more power?

Marin is more willing to splash government misdeeds on the front pages of newspapers than most of his predecessors, but he is not the first to ask for greater power.

In 1975, Ontario's first ombudsman, Arthur Maloney, also wanted to oversee school boards, universities, hospitals and municipalities.

"Because these bodies have important decision-making powers and take actions which affect the lives of all of us ... it is my intention to recommend to the Legislature that I be given the requisite jurisdiction to investigate complaints respecting these institutions," he said.

The government didn't listen to Maloney (he, too, was called an empire-builder), and the calls for expanded powers quieted down until Marin, Ontario's sixth ombudsman, was appointed a year ago.

"There's nothing I have put on the plate which they don't do in other provinces," Marin said. "It's catch-up, not empire building."

British Columbia's ombudsman can investigate municipalities, child protection services, school boards, universities and hospitals. Ombudsmen in Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Yukon also have most of these powers.

Marin is limited to investigating complaints about provincial departments.

"For 30 years there have been holes in the (ombudsman's) mandate big enough to run Mack trucks through," Marin said.

The ombudsman, appointed by the Legislature and independent of all political parities, helps citizens who think the government has mistreated them. His staff fielded 23,000 complaints last year.

But many doors are shut to Marin because services have been privatized and downloaded, which he complains has shrunken his office's ability for oversight.

Today, some 80 per cent of provincial tax revenues are turned over to bodies like hospitals and school boards.

And Marin notes the government has expanded powers for the Auditor General, who investigates whether government money is properly spent.

"It puts us in a ridiculous position where the Auditor General can audit whether the Children's Aid Society bought a certain photocopier and got proper value for money ... but no one can come in and say, `Listen CAS ... you've neglected this situation,'" Marin said.

Many Liberals, particularly cabinet ministers who have borne the brunt of bad publicity because of Marin's investigations, aren't keen to give him more power.

"His table is quite full at this time so it is interesting that he would want to look to expansion. I'd like to see the responses for my constituents come a little bit quicker (from his office)," said Education Minister Sandra Pupatello, who was community and social services minister when Marin began his investigation into disability support payments.

This week, Marin released a scathing report saying the government had unjustly and cruelly withheld millions of dollars of support payments from thousands of disabled Ontarians.

Many MPPs quietly call Marin a publicity hound but few are willing to say anything critical, on the record.

It's not just what Marin uncovers, but how he publicizes his findings that has ministers hoping to stay off his radar.

In March, he said the government corporation that determines property tax assessments has a "superiority complex" and engages in "cutthroat manoeuvring around property owners."

Last September, after investigating why the government refused to pay for an expensive life-saving drug for a Barrie teen, Marin said: "The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care should be both embarrassed and thankful that it is not too late. (The teen's) family is not yet bankrupt and he is not yet dead."

Marin fills his reports with heart-wrenching stories, putting a human face to the numbers — something rarely seen in government circles. That makes it all the harder for government to ignore him, which also rankles some.

"Elected governments are being dictated to or highly pressured by people who are in independent positions who at the end of the day do not have to pay the bill," said one MPP.

Government is not just here to "serve those who complain, but those who pay the bill to quiet the complainant," he said.

Even the opposition — which benefits when Marin exposes government mistakes — shies away from dramatically expanding the ombudsman's powers.

Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory says it's worth looking at, but adds that he doesn't want the ombudsman to duplicate oversight that already exists for some bodies.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton supports Marin being given oversight of children's aid societies but not the other bodies he wants, like school boards and hospitals.

"You raise questions of resources, you raise questions of having such an expanded mandate you start to lose expertise because you're spread too thin," Hampton said.

Marin doesn't know how much more money he would need — his budget is more than $9 million now — to oversee new areas, but says the benefit would outweigh the cost.

He points to one investigation that resulted in the dramatic expansion of Ontario's program to screen newborns for severe genetic diseases.

The investigation cost $45,000, but the new screening program will save 25 lives a year, and save another 25 babies from being severely disabled and costing the health care system millions of dollars in specialized care, Marin said.

"There's no doubt that an ombudsman's office is tough love. We're a hard pill to swallow in the short term but I like to look at the bigger picture," Marin says.

"We're here to strengthen government. For $9.3 million a year ... it's a phenomenal deal."