SPEAKER UNDER FIRE
Fallout continues over suspension of officers
Lawyers for two senior officers of the B.C. legislature caught up in a scandal have written a letter saying their clients should get their jobs back while police investigate.
Clerk of the legislature Craig James and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz have been suspended with pay pending an RCMP investigation regarding their administrative duties.
In the letter Friday, law firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin said neither of their clients were provided with any advance notice before they were ejected from the legislature on Tuesday “in what appears to have been a deliberately public and humiliating manner, on the basis of secret allegations.”
They also argued that Speaker Darryl Plecas had no authority to launch an investigation of the men, nor to hire a person to carry it out. And they said the men should not have been suspended pending the police investigation.
The letter stated that James and Lenz deny having committed any wrongdoing and are entitled to be treated as innocent.
“They are the most senior and long-serving and loyal servants of the legislative assembly whose reputations are in the process of being destroyed by these events,” the lawyers wrote. “As a matter of basic fairness, they deserved to be told what it is alleged that they have done and to be given an opportunity to respond to those allegations.”
The lawyers asked the legislature to allow James and Lenz to return to work. They said their removal was not at the request of the RCMP or the special prosecutors monitoring the RCMP work, so their removal was not necessary for the integrity of the investigation.
“To be clear: our clients are not asking for the investigation to be stopped. They will cooperate with the investigation and any reasonable terms connected therewith, and wish it to proceed with dispatch. They will obviously recuse themselves from any matters relating to the investigation.”
The letter, sent to the house leaders of the three parties in the legislature, asked for a response by the end of the day Friday.
It is still not known publicly what James or Lenz are accused of. No charges have been laid or tested in court, and neither man has been arrested.
House leaders for the New Democrats, Liberals and Greens met with Plecas on Monday to discuss a motion to put the men on administrative leave.
The motion passed unanimously on Tuesday. James and Lenz were simultaneously called into Plecas’ office and told their suspensions were effective immediately.
Former B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal, who was appointed as a second adviser to Plecas Thursday, described the investigation as an alleged “complex criminal matter,” but he wouldn’t elaborate.
“I can understand the public being concerned about this, but time will tell, and it will take some time before all this comes out,” Oppal said Friday after meeting with Plecas and Mullen. “Those things take time. There’s a very complex criminal matter going on.”
Neither the RCMP nor the B.C. Prosecution Service have commented on the nature of the investigation and have not described it as a criminal matter.
On Friday, Liberal house leader Mary Polak called for Plecas to convene an emergency meeting of the legislature management committee to address the Speaker situation “as soon as possible.” In a statement, government house leader Farnworth reiterated that the motion was approved “by every member of the legislature.”
“The RCMP are conducting an active investigation with the assistance of two special prosecutors appointed by the independent B.C. Prosecution Service. This is a serious matter and the appropriate course of action for all is to refrain from speculation and allow the police to do their job.”
The Green house leader could not be reached for comment before deadline.