'Disgraceful and unethical': Court dismisses former Winnipeg CAO's appeal of bribery ruling

A panel of appeal justices described the behaviour of Winnipeg’s former chief administrative officer as 'disgraceful and unethical,' and dismissed his appeal of a past decision that found he accepted a bribe.

The panel of justices in Manitoba's Court of Appeal did not mince words in describing how they felt about the actions of former Winnipeg CAO Phil Sheegl, saying in their decision released Friday that his derelictions of duty, "can only be described as disgraceful, unethical behaviour by a public servant."

"Counsel for Sheegl defendants, to his credit, did not waste the Court's time on the lost cause of Sheegl's ethics," the decision from Manitoba's Court of Appeal reads.

In a March 2022 summary judgment, Chief Justice Glenn Joyal ruled Sheegl accepted a $327,000 bribe from the contractor involved with the construction of the city’s police headquarters.

Joyal rejected Sheegl’s primary defence that the $327,000 was related to a real estate land deal in Arizona and had nothing to do with the construction project.

As a result, Joyal ordered Sheegl to pay the city $1.1 million, which included legal costs, severance paid to Sheegl, and punitive costs.

Sheegl, along with his two companies FSS and 2686814 Manitoba Ltd., launched an appeal of the decision, arguing three points: that the case was not appropriate for summary judgment, that the judge relied on hearsay evidence, and challenged the order to pay punitive damages and lawyer and client costs.

On Friday, the court of appeal dismissed the arguments.

"The appeal by the Sheegl defendants raises no point of substance and has little merit," the Manitoba Court of Appeal decision reads.

Further to the dismissal, the court of appeal ordered costs on a lawyer and client basis.

"Such an exceptional costs order is reserved for cases where there is some basis to say that a party's conduct has been reprehensible, scandalous or outrageous," the decision reads.

"I am persuaded that this is an exceptional case where it is in the interests of justice to make such an order as to costs in this court."

In a statement, Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said he was pleased to hear the decision in favour of the City of Winnipeg.

"I've consistently said we need to pursue all options to resolve this matter," he said. "Between this judgment and the settlement agreement with other parties, the City is poised to recover a significant sum of money, and that’s a victory for the people of Winnipeg."

CTV News has reached out to Phil Sheegl's lawyer for comment.

-with files from CTV's Jeff Keele