Despite hiring two nephews of embattled MHCare CEO Sam Mraiche as "policy advisors", the Alberta government is unable to locate any record of policy work.
Part 2 of 3
The story so far…
Despite hiring two nephews of embattled MHCare CEO Sam Mraiche as "policy advisors", the government of Alberta is unable to locate any policy advice or briefing notes that either of the two nephews have been involved in developing.
As reported in Part 1 of this series, in August of 2023, Danielle Smith's former Chief of staff, Marshall Smith hired a man named named Ahmad Jebara into a role as a policy advisor for the Minister of Energy & Minerals Brian Jean.
Ahmad Jebara has been identified as a nephew of Sam Mraiche in public media reports.
A LinkedIn account that was attributed to Ahmad Jebara identified him as an employee of MHCare as an account assistant at the time that he was hired into his policy advisor role with Energy & Minerals. That same LinkedIn identifies his education as being in Banking and Finance.
Later in 2024, another nephew of Sam Mraiche, Mahmoud Jebara, was hired (again by Danielle Smith's Chief of Staff Marshall Smith) into a role as policy advisor in Rebecca Schulz's Ministry of Environment and Parks. The Breakdown was able to locate a LinkedIn that documented Mahmoud's background as being a petroleum engineer with oil & gas project management experience.
It's noteworthy that as a nephew of Sam Mraiche, both Mahmoud & Ahmad Jebara are also relatives of Justice Minister Mickey Amery, who has also been established to be a relative and friend of Sam Mraiche through marriage.
In a striking coincidence, both Mahmoud and Ahmad were hired by Danielle Smith’s former Chief of Staff, Marshall Smith who moved into a luxury home that was owned by Sam Mraiche’s sister shortly after hiring the first nephew and he remained in that home until mid 2024, subleasing to two other employees.
In a further coincidence, While Sam Mraiche’s sister took possession of that home on August 11, 2024 as per the Globe, Marshall Smith hired Ahmad Jebara on the exact same day.
The work FOI requests
In an effort to better understand the role that the two newly minted policy advisors had played in Government, The Breakdown filed two (then) Freedom Of Information requests to obtain any policy advice or briefing that had been produced by either of these policy advisors.
On May 15th, 2025 The Breakdown filed a FOIA request to Environment and Parks requesting any emails, briefing notes, and/or memos relating to any policy advice that has been provided by Mahmoud Jebara as well as a complete list of all projects/areas he had provided policy advice on.
Not only was the government unable to provide any records responsive to that request, an additional two revisions to the inquiry were also unable to locate or provide any records.
Similarly, a June 2, 2025 FOIA request to Energy and Minerals asking for records of any any emails, briefing notes, and/or memos relating to any policy advice that has been provided by Ahmad Jebara did not yield any results.
It is important to note that in both of the results, no information was withheld or redacted. As per the governments own search, no records were found.
This is a significant distinction.
There are many exemptions that the Government of Alberta can use to not release information, but historically the fact that the information is not being released and the justifying exemption has been cited in every other FOIP/ATIA result that The Breakdown has ever received if redactions have occurred or records withheld.
As noted in Part 1 of this series, recently Ahmad Jebara appears to have been moved to the position of policy advisor for the ministry of Jobs, Economy, Trade & Immigration under Joseph Schow and Mahmoud Jebara has also been moved to the same ministry but under Associate Minister of Multiculturalism Muhammad Yaseen.
Of note it was Muhammad Yaseen who awarded Sam Mraiche the Queens Jubilee Medal on January 31, 2023, roughly two months after MHCare was awarded a contract for $70 million worth of children's medication that remains the source of significant controversy due to a large portion that went undelivered despite full payment for the order being provided to MHCare.
The Breakdown requested comment about the relationship between MHCare and the two nephews, MHCare declined to comment, citing their ongoing litigation against The Breakdown and Nate Pike.
The Breakdown also sent questions to the Premiers Office and the press secretaries for Jospeh Schow, Brian Jean, Rebecca Schulz & Mickey Amery.
We received no response.
In the Alberta government, there are two categories of employees: those employed in the Public Service and those employed politically. Those hired into the Public Service are hired pursuant to the rules and policies of Alberta Corporate Human Resources (HR), and report up the chain to the Deputy Minister. Political appointments are pursuant to personal service contracts, are contracted with and report to the Minister (through his or her Chief of Staff). The role of political appointments is to provide political advice to their Minister, and they are not considered to be a part of the Public Service of Alberta.
Appointments by Order-in-Council are typically made for very senior officials, such as Officers of the Legislature, Chairs of Agencies, Boards, and Commissions, and the Board Members or Commissioners, and Deputy Ministers. If I recall correctly, the Chiefs of Staff of Ministers are also made by Order-in-Council.
Based on what I've seen posted so far, it is not clear whether these two individuals were appointed as staff of the Public Service or as political staff, although the fact that their appointment was by Order-in-Council suggests they were appointed as political staff. And if I'm correct in that inference, then a FOIP (or successor legislation) request must be directed to the Office of the Minister. There wouldn't be any records in the Ministry, because they don't work for the Ministry; they work for the Minister.
Oh the web they haved turned...smells corrupt to me.