MICHAEL SMYTH:
‘Corruption watch’ a gaudy symbol of legislature scandal
The watchdog at the legislature has a timepiece in his office that he calls “the corruption watch.”
It’s a British House of Commons watch, purchased on the tab of B.C. taxpayers, and then left on the desk of Speaker Darryl Plecas, ostensibly as a gift.
But this is one gift not appreciated by the crusading Speaker, a sharp-fanged watchdog who sunk his teeth into a shocking legislature spending scandal last week.
“You will never see him wear this watch, that’s for sure ,” said Alan Mullen, P lecas’s chief of staff.
The watch is not an expensive one. Made by British budget watchmaker Sekonda, you can buy one online for around $50.
“That doesn’t make it right,” Mullen said. “This is the people’s money we’re talking about here.”
And the people of B.C. are certainly paying close attention to what Plecas has uncovered.
In the world of B.C. politics, his 76-page report on the spending scandal touched off shock waves that are still reverberating.
The report released Monday outlined jaw-dropping examples of outrageous spending on designer clothing, jewelry, cameras, baseball tickets, limos, booze, thousand-dollar suitcases and more.
The “corruption watch” was purchased at the House of Commons gift shop while Plecas was travelling with Craig James and Gary Lenz, the suspended-with-pay clerk and sergeant-at-arms, who were marched out of the legislature under police escort in November.
Plecas said he found the watch on his desk when he got back to the legislature in Victoria.
“I did not ask for this ‘gift’ nor did I ask, or permit, Mr. James to claim for reimbursement for the expense of this watch, which it appears that he did,” Plecas wrote in his report.
The watch now stands as a gaudy symbol of the spending scandal. So does the famous $13,000 wood-splitter and trailer, purchased at taxpayers’ expense and then delivered to James’s house.
James and Lenz have not been charged and both men say they are innocent. They have hired legal counsel and say they will fight to clear their names.
In the meanwhile, the legislature is preparing for a forensic audit that could uncover even more questionable spending and payouts.
And Mullen said the police continue investigating with the assistance of two independent special prosecutors.
“I do have conversations with the RCMP,” Mullen said. “They’re working around the clock on this. They’re spending a lot of time, a lot of focus, a lot of energy. They’re turning over every rock. Once they’re ready to release some information, that could be a bit of a bomb in itself.”
As the police probe continues, there are more immediate political effects from the Plecas report.
The report lists a long series of trips and private lunch meetings between James and several senior Liberals, including former premier Christy Clark, former cabinet minister Geoff Plant, former speaker Bill Barisoff and former Liberal Party executive Paul Barbeau, now the party president.
These Liberal luncheon dates — expensed to B.C. taxpayers, of course — unleashed withering attacks from the NDP.
“Why were senior B.C. Liberals meeting regularly with Craig James?” asked NDP MLA Katrina Chen. “The information lays bare a deep sense of entitlement that’s long, long overdue to be cleaned up.”
The Liberals, clearly stung by the James connections, tried to fight back late in the week.
Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson called for a ban on foreign travel and expansion of freedom-of-information laws to cover senior legislature officials.
“I’m asking Premier Horgan to join me in a non-political effort to stop the sniping over who said what to whom and clean house around here so people can trust this institution again,” Wilkinson said.
But this is the same Wilkinson who called Plecas a “rogue Speaker” who was “out of control” and “building his own little empire.”
Horgan could barely contain his rage as he rejected Wilkinson’s offer of a political ceasefire.
“Mr. Wilkinson was calling the whole thing a sham not that long ago,” Horgan told CKNW’s Jon McComb. “Literally just a few weeks ago, it was all some kind of conspiracy by the NDP and Darryl Plecas.
“Now he wants us all to lock arms and sing Kumbaya? Mr. Wilkinson, listen to what you said. Maybe a ‘mea culpa’ or two would be a better place for him to start rather than, ‘Why won’t John Horgan dance with me?’”
A couple of things to keep in mind as you listen to this political firefight :
■ Plecas and the Liberals hate each other’s guts. Plecas is a former Liberal MLA who helped lift the NDP into power by agreeing to take the Speaker’s job in the closely divided legislature. The Liberals were so mad, they kicked him out of the party.
■ The other critical context is this Wednesday’s crucial byelection in Nanaimo, which has fallen off the public radar after the spending scandal erupted.
If the Liberals were to steal the Nanaimo seat from the NDP, it would deadlock the legislature in a tie and likely force an early election.
The Liberal connections outlined in the Plecas report could not have been better timed for the New Democrats. It may help them retain the Nanaimo seat and maintain their grip on power.
In the meantime, Plecas shows no sign of slowing down his release of political bombshells.
On Friday, he told his hometown newspaper that then-premier Clark ordered Liberal MLAs to fire any employees in their constituency offices who refused to work on her doomed 2017 re-election campaign.
Plecas told the Abbotsford News he refused the order because it was “immoral and possibly illegal.” The Liberals responded with an angry news release, saying they are “staunch defenders of non-partisan constituency offices.”
Watch for the attacks to get nastier as voting day approaches in a Nanaimo byelection that the New Democrats are now much more confident of winning.