Good morning, everyone.

On Monday, Joseph Schow, House Leader for the governing United Conservative Party, stood up in the legislature and responded to a motion calling for the ouster of provincial Justice Minister Mickey Amery.

A week earlier, The Globe and Mail had reported that Amery had rewritten election rules last year while Sam Mraiche – his friend and relative – was under investigation by Elections Alberta. The Opposition New Democrats demanded accountability.

If you’ve been following The Globe’s reporting on the continuing health procurement controversy, you’ll know that Mraiche is an Edmonton businessman whose companies have been awarded hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts by Premier Danielle Smith’s government. And you’ll also know that Amery and Mraiche are lifelong friends and related through marriage, a connection first revealed by The Globe last May. Amery, at the time, said his relationship with Mraiche did not conflict with his job as Justice Minister.

Mraiche has consistently denied wrongdoing, while the Premier and her other ministers have also maintained they did nothing wrong.

But back to the legislature on Monday and the NDP’s demand for the Justice Minister’s head.

Schow brushed off the request.

Standing in the legislature, he ripped the motion paper in half, set it on his desk and said: “Yeah, don’t think so.”

But then he continued.

“It is also interesting that the members opposite are relying upon an article in The Globe and Mail from Carrie Tait,” he said.

“Listen, Mr. Speaker, I will take Carrie Tait’s writings as seriously as I take dietary advice from Jabba the Hutt,” he finished, referring to the rather rotund gangster from the Star Wars films.

Poor sci-fi references aside, Schow decided to attack Tait by name in the legislature. She is The Globe’s lead reporter on the procurement controversy and has written the bulk of the newspaper’s stories on the continuing saga.

Her reporting has been ruffling feathers in Alberta for years, and since the summer of 2024, Tait’s stories have revealed numerous connections between the Smith government and Mraiche.

It was Tait who first revealed allegations made by former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos, who has since sued the government for wrongful dismissal. In court documents, she alleges the government fired her for investigating potential conflicts of interest in the health agency’s procurement process, and that senior political officials put pressure on her to award surgical contracts with inflated fees to private businesses – including two partly owned by Mraiche.

Mraiche has said he acted properly and denies wrongdoing. The government has also denied the allegations, which have not been tested in court.

However, it was those allegations that have since prompted investigations by the RCMP – which executed search warrants last month, including at Mraiche’s company MH Care Medical Corp. – as well as by the Alberta Auditor General.

So, while Schow said he doesn’t take Tait’s writing seriously, the body of work speaks for itself.

This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.