André Marin

Ontario's sixth Ombudsman, André Marin

André Marin (born January 12, 1965) is a Canadian lawyer and Ombudsman. He was appointed as Ombudsman of Ontario by the Ontario Legislative Assembly on April 1, 2005 and was reappointed on June 1, 2010 to a second five-year term. Before 2005, he was the first Ombudsman for the Canadian Armed Forces and Director of the Ontario Special Investigations Unit. In the 2009 book Provincial and Territorial Ombudsman Offices in Canada, academics Stewart Hyson and Gary Munro describe him as “the model for Ombudsmanship in Canada."

Early career

After graduating with civil and common law degrees from the University of Ottawa's National Program, Marin worked as an assistant Crown attorney and part-time professor of law in Ottawa, Canada until 1996. From September 1996 to June 1998, he was Director of Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Canada’s only independent civilian agency for investigating incidents in which police officers have caused serious injury or death.

In June 1998, Marin became Canada’s first military Ombudsman, responsible for the investigation of complaints from members of the Canadian forces. He created the “Special Ombudsman Response Team” (SORT) for investigating broad systemic issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder among soldiers, compensation for the families of soldiers who are killed or wounded, and chemical agent testing during World War II.

Ontario Ombudsman

Marin is the sixth Ontario Ombudsman since 1975 and the first to be reappointed. He reorganized the office to handle some 27,000 individual public complaints and inquiries as well as about half a dozen major systemic investigations each year. His "Special Ombudsman Response Team" (SORT) — a team of investigators who conduct large-scale field investigations into high-profile, complex issues — has raised the public profile of the Toronto-based Office of the Ombudsman and led to government reforms affecting millions of Ontarians. SORT investigations have prompted major overhauls of, among other things, the province’s procedures for newborn screening, its property tax assessment system, funding for the disabled and special-needs children, out-of-country medical treatment, crime victim compensation, legal aid and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

Marin’s direct language, his investigation model and his promotion of technology and transparency have “reinvigorated the Ombudsman idea in Canada” and “set a standard for the rest of the country,” authors Hyson and Munro state in Provincial and Territorial Ombudsman Offices in Canada. They note that since Marin’s appointment, “the Ontario Ombudsman has had a very high public profile that has generated considerable news coverage because the office has fulfilled its role expectations like never before. Marin has often been sharply critical of government; even so, the government has generally accepted his recommendations.” Marin coined the term “rulitis” to describe a government bureaucracy’s slavish adherence to rules at the expense of common sense.

Marin has also advocated for greater openness and transparency in government, and made his office the first in Canada to introduce social media and a web app as tools for communicating with the public.

In May 2007, Marin was elected to a two-year term as President of the Forum of Canadian Ombudsman, representing public and private ombudsmen across the country. He has also served as North American Regional Vice-President of the International Ombudsman Institute since July 2006, and he is a member of the board of directors of the Association des Ombudsmans et Médiateurs de la francophonie (francophone ombudsman association).

Marin also shares his office’s expertise with other oversight agencies across Canada and around the world. Since 2007, he has conducted an annual training course in Toronto called “Sharpening Your Teeth: Advanced Training for Administrative Watchdogs”, which has been attended by several hundred administrative investigators and ombudsmen from Canadian federal and provincial agencies, U.S. states and federal departments, as well as from across Europe, the Caribbean, Australia, South America and Asia. The course has also been delivered at the International Ombudsman Institute headquarters in Vienna, Austria and by invitation in many other countries, always on a complete cost-recovery basis.

Ontario Ombudsman mandate

Like all of his predecessors since 1975, Marin has advocated to have the Ombudsman’s mandate extended to key areas of the public sector that are outside his jurisdiction, although they are funded by provincial tax dollars: This is the so-called MUSH sector, comprising Municipalities, Universities, School Boards and Hospitals, as well as long-term care facilities, children’s aid societies and police. For years, Ontario has lagged behind all other provinces in Canada in Ombudsman oversight of these areas; as mentioned in Hyson and Munro's text, "...the Ontario Ombudsman stands out as having the most limited range of activities among Canadian Ombudsmen… This has been a constant source of frustration for office holders over the years." In his annual reports, Marin summarizes the hundreds of complaints that his office turns away every year from people who have had serious problems with these institutions.

However, in December 2014, the provincial legislature passed a law giving the Office of the Ontario Ombudsman oversight of municipalities, universities, and school boards (Bill 8, Public Sector and MPP Accountability and Transparency Act, 2014). The law passed royal assent but no date was given for the enforcement of this oversight. Marin noted in a press release that the expansion "will double the agencies his office oversees by adding some 548 bodies (443 municipalities, 22 universities, 83 school boards) to the 500-plus provincial ministries, agencies, boards, corporations, commissions and tribunals already within his mandate."

Previously, in January 2008, the office’s mandate was narrowly extended to include responsibility for enforcing the provincial law requiring municipal meetings to be open to the public. The Municipal Act designates the Ombudsman as the investigator for public complaints about closed meetings in all municipalities that have not appointed their own investigators – approximately 200 of Ontario’s 445 municipalities. To meet this responsibility, Marin created a team in the Ombudsman’s Office in called OMLET – the Open Meeting Law Enforcement Team.

In October 2008, Marin published The Sunshine Law Handbook: Open Municipal Meetings in Ontario to assist municipal officials and the public in their awareness and interpretation of the requirements. The Handbook is distributed to every municipal councillor and clerk in the province and is also available to the public. (Subsequent editions were published in 2009 and 2015.) Results of OMLET investigations are made public by the relevant municipalities and on the Ombudsman's website.

Controversies Under Marin's Mandate

David Paciocco Contracts

In June and July 2010, the Toronto Star published two articles reporting that that over his 12 years as the Ontario Ombudsman and Ombudsman for the Canadian Military, Marin awarded consulting contracts worth almost a quarter of a million dollars to Ottawa law professor David Paciocco.At the time, Marin’s salary was at $215,000. The articles cited federal documents showing $84,000 was paid to Paciocco between 2001 and 2005 and $141,000 after 2005. The Star described Paciocco as Marin's "friend" and "mentor" (although Marin's office said they had no personal relationship) and cited unnamed sources alleging that Paciocco was hired to "spice up" Marin's reports (while Marin's office said he was hired for his legal expertise, for which tendering is not required).

The Star articles were the subject of complaints to the Ontario Press Council by Paciocco and Marin, who disputed many of the allegations from the Star's unnamed sources and argued that the articles were unbalanced. In its January 2011 decision, the Press Council noted that it was not in a position to determine whether or not the facts in the articles were correct, but it upheld Paciocco's complaint and aspects of Marin's, stating that the articles gave "greater prominence to the allegations against Mr. Marin than to his denials," and that "the vague assertions by an anonymous source, the excerpts from a speech given by Mr. Paciocco and the results of the Star’s subsequent investigation into the fees paid to Mr. Paciocco do not justify the derogatory inferences that the two stories contain." The Council also noted "the strong and uncontradicted response from both Marin and Paciocco that the relationship was professional only and that it was quite appropriate for Mr. Marin to retain Mr. Paciocco for his acknowledged expertise."

Awards

In 2009, Marin was awarded the Ontario Bar Association’s Tom Marshall Award of Excellence, which, according to the Ontario Bar Association’s website, was “established to recognize, honour, and celebrate the outstanding achievement of lawyers practising in the province of Ontario in the public interest”.

In 2011, he was awarded the Order of Merit by the Civil Law Section of the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law. The University of Ottawa’s website states that the award is the Civil Law Section’s highest alumni distinction, recognizing alumni who have made remarkable contributions to the legal profession. Also in 2011, he received the highest alumni honour of the Carleton University Alumni Association, the A.D. Dunton Alumni Award of Distinction.

In 2012, Marin was awarded the Canadian Bar Association's John Tait Award of Excellence, a national award which recognized that his “unwavering commitment to public service, his advocacy skills and legal acumen distinguish him as an outstanding legal professional,” according to CBA President Trinda L. Ernst. He was also named as an inductee for the 2012 class of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law’s Common Law Honour Society. As well, he was given the Ontario Bar Association's Award for Distinguished Service in early 2012. The Ontario Bar Association said in a statement, "In a vocation like law, there are countless members of the bar whose contributions to justice are exceptional and worthy of recognition. Each year, the OBA asks lawyers to nominate colleagues for the OBA Award for Distinguished Service whose deserve recognition for their career contributions and achievements to the legal profession, jurisprudence, development of the law or a significant law-related benefit to the residents of Ontario." In October 2012, Marin also received an award for achievement in oversight by the U.S.-based National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE).

In 2013, Marin was named one of Canadian Lawyer magazine's top 25 most influential Canadian lawyers. The magazine stated “Many Ontarians have come to see Marin as an honest and tenacious advocate who has been effective in pushing the boundaries to ensure they are treated fairly and their tax dollars are not wasted." He was also named one of Toronto Life magazine's top 50 most influential Torontonians as "a tireless advocate for transparent, effective government and a champion of the so-called little guy". He was named to the list again in 2014, as a “highly reputable and responsive” official who “listens to the people” and takes action against “unfair policies” by Ontario government agencies.

External links

• Ombudsman Ontario