Five professors at the University of Manitoba’s faculty of law are urging the school and Winnipeg police to pursue legal action against a former dean who a regulatory body found committed misconduct by misspending half a million dollars of university funds.
The professors detailed concerns in a letter to Winnipeg police on Thursday, suggesting U of M administrators “may have documentation and/or additional information that may be relevant to a potential criminal investigation” into the actions of Jonathan Black-Branch while he was dean of the U of M’s law faculty, a position he held from 2016 until his sudden departure in 2020.
“I would certainly hope that the University of Manitoba would pursue Jonathan Black-Branch to the full extent of the law, and I would encourage them to do so,” said Jennifer Schulz, one of the five professors who signed the letter.
“Now we have a finding from the Law Society of Manitoba saying that his conduct ‘amounted to fraud’ on the criminal standard of proof. So it would seem to me to be smart to go after him,” she told CBC.
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