A Court of King’s Bench judge has ordered former Alberta Health Services (AHS) chief executive Athana Mentzelopoulos to return dozens of records she wanted to use in her wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the Alberta government. In a ruling issued early Thursday, Justice Michael Lema found 46 documents in her possession were legally privileged and an unspecified number of other records were confidential.

Lema said the records at issue represented about 90 per cent of the material that AHS and the government argued was privileged or confidential. They include legal advice, communications between legal counsel, an internal AHS memo, photographs of computer screens taken by Mentzelopoulos and other records containing information obtained during her employment.

“Ms. Mentzelopoulos is required to return any original AHS or (government) privileged or confidential records in her possession or control, destroy any hard copies, delete any electronic copies, and not disclose or otherwise make use of any of those records unless expressly permitted by the court,” Lema wrote in his ruling.

He also ordered that records already filed in court and now deemed privileged or confidential be sealed. At the request of government lawyers, Lema directed one of the law firms representing Mentzelopoulos to submit an affidavit by Oct. 9. It must describe who reviewed the records, how extensively they were reviewed, what measures were taken to restrict access and whether they were shared beyond the firm.

The government’s lawyers also sought “leave to seek further relief, including the potential disqualification of that lawyer’s firm.” The affidavit order came as the court considered the handling of records that Mentzelopoulos had sought to rely on in her case.

Mentzelopoulos is seeking $1.7 million from the Alberta government. She alleges she was improperly terminated by someone without authority to dismiss her and that her firing was retaliation for investigating political interference in procurement and contracting. The government and AHS deny wrongdoing and say she was dismissed because she failed to deliver on the government’s health-care reform plan.

Thursday also brought the end of a separate two-day hearing between the parties over document disclosure. Mentzelopoulos’s lawyers accused the government and AHS of withholding key records. The two defendants disputed that allegation and said she was “fishing” for documents that might not exist.

Neither side provided an immediate comment on Thursday’s ruling. The ruling did not resolve the separate dispute over whether additional records should be disclosed.

Based on reporting by Edmonton Journal.