Michael Wernick

Michael Wernick (born September 1957) is a Canadian public servant and currently the Clerk of the Privy Council of Canada. Wernick was previously the deputy minister for the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development from May 2006 to July 11, 2014. Before being the clerk for the Privy Council office, Wernick was the deputy clerk under predecessor Janice Charette. He has held several other positions in the Privy Council office and as Associate Deputy Minister for the Department of Canadian Heritage.
On October 1, 2014 the Public Policy Forum held a reception to recognize Wernick's eight year tenure at Aboriginal and Northern Affairs. (Link to PPF web page needed)
As Clerk of the Privy Council he is a member of the Advisory Council to the Order of Canada

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Wernick attended Nelson High School in Burlington, Ontario, graduating in 1975. Wernick graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1979 and a Master of Arts in economics in 1980 from the University of Toronto. He is a member of the board of governors for Carleton University in Ottawa. He is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. On leaving Aboriginal and Northern Affairs he was presented with an eagle feather and a medicine pouch.

Controversy

Wernick was criticized for his comments made in an email among Carleton University board of Governors members regarding a university student tuition protest that disrupted and prevented the March 30, 2015 meeting of the Board from continuing. In the email exhange Wernick deplored the tactics as authoritarian, similar to those used by brown shirts and Maoists to intimidate their political opponents by disrupting gatherings. This was reported in social media as labelling the protesting students as Nazis. The New Democratic Party called for Wernick to apologize for the comments, and the school's graduate student association called for Wernick to resign. Wernick was later elected to serve as Vice Chair of the Board of Governors for the 2016-17 term and the Board of Governors defeated a motion tabled in September 2016 to revisit the controversy.