‘I’ve conducted many investigations,’ says Speaker’s assistant
Alan Mullen became friends with Speaker of the House Darryl Plecas while working at Kent Institution, B.C.’s maximum-security federal prison in Agassiz.
A criminology professor at the University of the Fraser Valley at the time, Plecas worked part time as a federal prison judge, according to the recently released book A Matter of Confidence. Mullen was an administrator and prosecutor at Kent.
Before working at Kent, Mullen was a security manager in the casino industry, he confirmed by text to Postmedia News.
Mullen has also worked on several election campaigns, first for the New Democrats, later as an adviser to Plecas when he ran for the B.C. Liberals in 2013 and 2017.
“I assisted on a volunteer basis for both NDP and Liberal campaigns in the past,” he said.
“I assisted the candidate, not the party.”
Now a special adviser to Speaker Plecas, Mullen played a central role in the investigation that saw Craig James, the clerk of the legislature, and Gary Lenz, the sergeant-at-arms, escorted from the legislature by Victoria police.
“I do not have a law degree,” Mullen told reporters at the legislature Wednesday.
“I have been involved in numerous investigations. I was a correctional manager at Kent Institution for over 10 years. I’ve conducted many investigations.”
“I’m not going to get into previous investigations that I’ve conducted,” said Mullen, who came to Canada from Ireland in 1996. “All I can say is that I have been involved in internal investigations for the Correctional Service of Canada, among others.”
Plecas hired Mullen as a special adviser in January of this year with an annual salary of $75,000. The job was filled with no open competition, Mullen said.
“(Plecas) felt he needed an adviser, essentially to assist with constituency issues (and) other things pertaining to his job as Speaker,” said Mullen.
He described Plecas as a friend. “I don’t think it’s fair to say or assume that (the Speaker) selected me for this specific issue,” said Mullen. “There were regular concerns about a lot of different things, including this. At the time, it was a very small part of the bigger job.”