B.C.’s premier is backing Speaker Darryl Plecas, despite an attempt by the B.C. Liberals to oust him over what they’re calling a “witch hunt” against senior legislative staff, which includes cloning hard drives.
Plecas defended his actions on Thursday, saying he’s trying to safeguard data and ensure it’s available for unspecified future investigations.
“I have responsibility for security — I’m making sure we have proper security with respect to data,” Plecas told reporters. Plecas would not say how many hard drives he has copied and insisted any data gathering is entirely voluntary.
Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson said Plecas is taking a “chaotic, aggressive approach” to overseeing legislative staff and is carrying out a “witch hunt” against the building’s security staff.
“We have a Speaker who believes he’s police, prosecutor, judge and jury,” Wilkinson said.
“We cannot have a legislature where senior women are leaving the Speaker’s office in tears, where hard drives are being seized in the dead of night.”
On Wednesday night, acting clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd was seen leaving Plecas’s office in tears. Acting sergeant-at-arms Randy Ennis unexpectedly announced his retirement, effective today. He did not give a reason for his departure.
Ryan-Lloyd and Ennis stepped in to replace former clerk Craig James and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz, who were suspended in November after Plecas wrote a report alleging that the senior legislative officers billed taxpayers for luxury trips, expensive suits and other personal items.
Former Supreme Court of Canada chief justice Beverley McLachlin looked into those allegations and released a report this month that found James engaged in misconduct but Lenz did not. James has retired as part of a “non-financial settlement” and Lenz remains suspended with pay. An RCMP investigation into the spending allegations is ongoing.
Liberal house leader Mary Polak released her notes from Wednesday’s three-hour emergency meeting with Plecas, held after the Liberals learned about the data cloning. She wrote that the Speaker called McLachlin’s investigation “pathetic” and “ridiculously incomplete.” Plecas raised his voice and pounded on the table, said Polak, who described his behaviour as “bullying.”
Green house leader Sonia Furstenau and NDP MLA Gary Begg were also at the meeting.
Plecas also said: “I can walk into offices and request hard drives all over the legislature,” according to Polak’s notes.
On Wednesday night, Wilkinson said, he saw Plecas, his chief of staff Alan Mullen and an unknown third party carry a computer hard drive into the Speaker’s office.
That led one Liberal staffer to sleep overnight in the Opposition office to prevent anyone from entering to gather data.
Wilkinson said he took sensitive documents home with him, adding the Liberal caucus is “gravely concerned about the security of our documents.”
Plecas said it’s “absurd” that a staffer felt the need to sleep in the office. He also denied criticizing McLachlin.
Asked if he called the investigation “garbage,” he said: “Are you kidding me? I called her an eminent jurist. I said that her terms of reference were very narrow. They didn’t include everything that needed to be considered.”
He said he wished McLachlin had the opportunity to interview witnesses and follow up on issues that he thought were important.
“Is there more to do? Absolutely and you know there’s other investigations going on,” Plecas said. He would not specify what those investigations are.
“We have ongoing investigations — we do not want an instance where we have data not available to investigators.”
Late Thursday afternoon, about 30 Liberal MLAs lodged a point-of-privilege complaint against Plecas, in an unprecedented procedural display of contempt for the Speaker.
While Wilkinson did not outright call on Plecas to resign, he said the Opposition is willing to put forward a Liberal MLA to serve as Speaker. Wilkinson said his offer would restore order in the legislature, even if it would strengthen the minority NDP government.
The move would mean the Liberals would sacrifice one of their 42 voting MLAs to be Speaker. That would create a tie with the 41 NDP MLAs. The Greens, who are supporting the NDP, have three MLAs and Plecas is an independent MLA.
Premier John Horgan turned down that idea.
“We have a Speaker, and it’s not the responsibility of the Opposition to say we want a new one,” he said. “Darryl Plecas is the Speaker of the legislature and he will be so until such time as he decides not to be. That’s the way the place functions.”
Furstenau, who represented the Green caucus at the emergency meeting, said the Green Party has confidence in the Speaker.
She said she was deeply disappointed that Polak released her notes from the private meeting.
“There are political agendas in play today. There was no expectation that notes from that meeting would be released publicly and I don’t think it’s appropriate for any of us to discuss what happened in a private meeting.”
She said Plecas has raised important issues and data needs to backed up and protected.
MLAs voted Thursday to form an all-party committee to find a permanent clerk to replace James. Ryan-Lloyd has been the acting clerk since James’s suspension and, with more than 20 years of experience as a legislative staffer, is considered a top candidate for the position.
