Utility Hires PI to Spy - Eavesdrops on Lawyer

Canada - No one with the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board will be disciplined "at this time" for hiring private investigators to spy on opponents of a proposed north-south power line, a spokesman for Energy Minister Mel Knight said Thursday.

The AEUB hired four undercover investigators who pretended to be landowners to monitor the crowd. One investigator, Don MacDonald of Fort Saskatchewan, was subsequently invited to join in conference calls that linked landowners and environmentalists discussing their concerns about power-line development. In at least one of those calls, the landowners and a lawyer discussed legal strategy for an upcoming challenge before the Alberta Court of Appeal.

One of the lawyers for the landowners said Thursday that eavesdropping on solicitor-client telephone conversations will be raised with the courts in an effort to bring the AEUB hearings to a halt.