Ex-Alberta justice minister Madu reprimanded by law society, to pay $39K in costs after call with Edmonton police chief
"Your conduct has been found markedly wanting and this reprimand is intended to convey the strongest possible message to you"

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A Law Society of Alberta tribunal has formally reprimanded ex-Alberta justice minister Kaycee Madu, as well as imposing nearly $39,000 in costs, as sanction for unprofessional conduct.
Monday’s sanction ruling followed a tribunal hearing last summer where Madu was ruled to have “undermined respect for the administration of justice” when he called Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee in 2021 shortly after receiving a distracted driving traffic ticket.
The chair of the three-person panel, Tamela Coates, issued the reprimand at the end of Monday’s hearing, calling it a matter of “utmost seriousness.”
“You have failed in your commitment and obligations as a lawyer. That failure is even more egregious given the unique role you were vested with at the time of the events, one in which the public was entitled to regard your conduct as that which ought to have set an example,” Coates said, noting Madu was among the highest-profile lawyers in Canada at the time.
“These are not simply words. Your conduct has been found markedly wanting and this reprimand is intended to convey the strongest possible message to you.”
The tribunal ordered Madu to pay $38,810.42 in costs.
Monday’s hearing was conducted virtually, with a bearded Madu watching on without expression from an office.
He issued a statement on social media indicating he was appealing the initial ruling that found his conduct was worthy of sanction.
“I continue to maintain my innocence,” he stated before going on to defend his call with McFee. “I only raised a reasonable concern about two issues — racial profiling and police surveillance.”
Madu denies being on his phone while driving, citing his phone records, and also that he asked McFee to cancel the ticket.
The tribunal stayed the payment of costs pending the outcome of Madu’s appeal.
‘Perpetual punishment of the internet’
The sanctions announced Monday were the result of a joint submission by lawyers representing Madu and the law society, though they disagreed on the nature of the reprimand.
Madu’s lawyer, Perry Mack, argued Monday that the case was unique, and that Madu had already paid for his actions by being stripped of his cabinet position and being a continued subject of media coverage.
As proof of the publicity, he referenced a Postmedia article reporting that Madu’s wife had been one of three new judges appointed last month that also referenced Monday’s hearing.
Mack sought to have a less formal reprimand imposed, arguing that the “perpetual punishment of the internet” had already taken a toll on the former minister.
“You have to decide whether continual repeating of your words at some point becomes more than required,” he said to the tribunal.
“Isn’t the reprimand embedded in your decision enough to satisfy the law society?”
Law society lawyer Ken McEwan argued that Madu deserved no such special treatment.
“The panel should reject any argument to do something which may not only be beyond its jurisdiction, but somehow seen as something remarkable or different or less than what any other member had and would receive.”
‘Simply not believable’
At his tribunal hearing last June, Madu’s lawyer argued the then-justice minister had been seeking assurances from the police chief that he had not been unfairly singled out.
The law society argued Madu had bent the ear of the ticketing officer’s boss by abusing his position as justice minister.
In a ruling last October, the tribunal sided with the law society, stating it found parts of Madu’s testimony about the traffic stop to be “simply not believable.”
It questioned what assurances Madu was hoping to get from the vacationing McFee so soon after receiving the ticket, and, ruled that his conduct created the appearance of impropriety regardless of the minister’s intentions in the call.
Eight-minute call
In 2019, Madu was the lone United Conservative Party candidate elected in Edmonton, winning in Edmonton-South West.
He was appointed minister of justice by then-premier Jason Kenney in the summer of 2020, making him the first Black person to hold the portfolio in Canadian history.
On March 10, 2021, he was pulled over near two schools on Windermere Road in Edmonton and issued a distracted driving ticket after an officer observed a cellphone in his hand on the steering wheel.
After being ticketed, Madu used his personal mobile phone to call McFee who has testified that Madu did not ask for the ticket to be cancelled during their eight-minute conversation.
CBC reported on the stop and the call in early 2022, prompting Madu’s removal from cabinet and an investigation by a retired judge.
The report from that investigation found that while Madu ultimately did not interfere in the administration of justice, he had attempted to do so, and also created a “reasonable perception” of interference.
Madu was readmitted to cabinet as minister of labour and immigration and later elevated to deputy premier by Premier Danielle Smith, but was defeated in the 2023 election and cited by the law society six weeks later.
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