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Conflict of interest taints NHLPA investigation

September 30, 2009 10:12 PM | Posted by   Elliotte Friedman  

The battle between Paul Kelly and the NHLPA just got even uglier.

The Toronto Star reported Wednesday that the union hired former Ontario Chief Justice Roy McMurtry to investigate whether or not it was correct to fire Kelly for looking at confidential documents.

According to the newspaper, McMurtry found that Kelly committed "a serious breach of trust" and that there was "legal cause to terminate him."

But the NHLPA should never have hired McMurtry to investigate Kelly.

And McMurtry should never have accepted.

He is a close friend of disgraced former executive director Alan Eagleson.

In Game Misconduct, Russ Conway's seminal work about abuses within the NHLPA, there are a couple of references about their relationship.

For example, Eagleson billed the NHLPA $1,000 US for Wimbledon tickets in 1987, and two of them were given to McMurtry.

And McMurtry received a $5,000 campaign contribution from an Eagleson company during his time as an Ontario Conservative politician.

In a previous life, Kelly served as the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Eagleson for mail fraud in the United States.

It is a blatant conflict of interest.

"The NHLPA retained the Honourable R. Roy McMurtry on the basis that he is one of the most highly regarded members of the legal community," read a statement released by the union on Wednesday night.

"The NHLPA and our outside counsel were unaware of his past interaction with Alan Eagleson. Accordingly, we will now seek the NHLPA executive board's direction regarding the preparation of a second legal opinion."

It's a brutal misstep by the organization.

At best, it's sloppy.

At worst, it's going to make people think, "These guys can't do anything right."

Even if what McMurtry found is accurate, it can't be taken seriously because of bias.

Question for McMurtry: Why on earth would he accept the opportunity to investigate Kelly?

He had to know this conflict would be discovered. Why jeopardize his reputation and brilliant legacy?

(Attempts to reach McMurtry were unsuccessful, but I do confess I tried to reach him after regular office hours.)

Kelly's lawyer, H. James Hartley, also released a statement:

"Paul Kelly's rights should be decided by a court or an arbitrator, not by a document leaked to the media. The people who ousted Paul seem not to understand basic notions of due process.With due respect to former Justice McMurtry, he never spoke to me or to my client and does not know Paul Kelly's side of the story."

Interesting that Kelly declined to address the conflict, but it only makes McMurtry look worse for not trying to contact him directly.

Clearly, someone at the NHLPA concerned that the union is taking too much of a beating for its handling of this situation, leaked the memo to improve public perception.

It backfired, big time.

And it will be interesting to see how that figures into Sunday's conference call, when the players and advisory board are scheduled to discuss Kelly's contract.

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