Privacy Commissioner Michael Harvey has stepped away from further involvement in his office’s investigation into the 2021 cyber attack on the health care system.

Revelations about government seeking a court ruling on a potential conflict of interest with Harvey was a topic during question period in the House of Assembly yesterday.

Harvey is a former assistant deputy minister of health and was on the board of the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information before being appointed as Privacy Commissioner.

Because of that history, Justice Minister John Hogan says government looked to the courts to seek an opinion on if Harvey could have a conflict of interest in the investigation.

Hogan says government wants the investigation to go ahead, but they want the issue clarified in the courts before proceeding further.

However, mere hours after the topic was raised in the House, Harvey released a statement saying he would be recusing himself from the investigation moving forward so that the report can be completed in a timely matter, without delay.

Harvey rejects the claims of apprehension bias against him, noting that he is surprised to find the matter raised at this juncture—more than one year into the investigation, considering his former roles were “well known” to all parties from the start.

He attests that “it is in the greater public interest that the report gets out, than for [him] to be the one to issue it.”

As such, he has named Sean Murray, Director of Research and Quality Assurance, to be the one conclude the investigation.