Mario Dion (born c. 1956[1]) is a Canadian public servant who served as the second conflict of interest and ethics commissioner of Canada.
[6] On December 11, 2017, Bardish Chagger, the leader of the Government in the House of Commons, announced the nomination of Dion as ethics commissioner, succeeding Mary Dawson.
On February 11, 2019,[15] Dion's office announced that it would investigate allegations of political interference and obstruction of justice by personnel in the Prime Minister's Office (dubbed the "SNC-Lavalin affair"), who allegedly attempted to pressure Jody Wilson-Raybould, the then minister of justice and attorney general, to intervene in an ongoing criminal prosecution case against construction firm SNC-Lavalin by granting them a deferred prosecution agreement.
[16] In a letter to opposition New Democratic members of Parliament Charlie Angus and Nathan Cullen, Dion stated that he believed section 9 of the Conflict of Interest Act, which he stated "prohibits a public office holder from seeking to influence a decision of another person so as to improperly further another person’s private interests,"[17] had been breached, granting him the authority to investigate the matter.
On March 12, 2019, Dion announced that he will take a "prolonged" absence from his role as the government's conflict of interest watchdog, due to "medical reasons.