Canadian Heritage is under the gun after quietly removing one of its own amid allegations of a conflict of interest.

Patricia Neri was last month removed from her post as director general of copyright policy. The Ottawa newspaper The Hill Times reports that she was shuffled out of her post to become an advisor to another Heritage official, with ‘duties still to be determined.’

Neri, one of the government officials behind recently passed legislation that criminalized camcording in movie theaters, is reported to be romantically involved with copyright lobbyist Doug Frith, president of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, and critics are complaining that the connection is too close for comfort.

‘While Neri’s personal life is no one’s business but her own, this does raise troubling questions about the quick passage of Bill C-59, the anti-camcording legislation [which passed in June],’ writes copyright expert and commentator Michael Geist in his blog, ‘since Neri appeared as a witness before a Senate hearing on the bill with the lobbyist in the room.’

It should be noted that Geist is not a friend of U.S.-style copyright reform in this country. His style has been referred to in certain circles as ‘the copyleft.’

Certainly this comes at a particularly ticklish time for the Conservatives. They have promised that long-overdue copyright reform is in the offing, and stakeholders in the music, film and television, publishing and new media industries are calling for conflicting changes.

A Heritage spokesperson has confirmed the move, but declined to elaborate.

‘I do not have any information about a conflict of interest in this matter,’ said Heritage’s Charles Drouin. ‘The only thing we do know is that she has been appointed special advisor to the assistant deputy minister of cultural affairs.’

A call to Frith’s office was returned by the MPAA. ‘We have looked thoroughly at this situation,’ says Seth Oster, the MPAA’s EVP of corporate communications. ‘We do not believe anything inappropriate took place.’