Coun. Brian Skakun says he'll spend the next couple of weeks mulling his options following a B.C. Supreme Court Justice's dismissal of a lower court ruling that found him guilty of violating provincial privacy legislation.
"If this goes anywhere it will be on one point and that is how can a city councillor be both an elected official and an officer at the same time," Skakun said. "The other issues will not be appealed and it's time to move on as there will be no new trial."
In a decision issued Tuesday, Justice Selwyn Romilly found provincial court judge Ken Ball did not err in law in finding Skakun was an officer of a public body who did not have the so-called "whistleblower" defence available to him under the Charter or common law. Romilly also found Ball did conduct the trial in a fair manner and his findings of credibility against Skakun were reasonable.
Ball fined Skakun $750 for violating the legislation after Skakun admitted near the end of a 10-day trial that he leaked a report by labour lawyer Kitty Heller on the conduct of Ann Bailey the top civilian manager at the Prince George RCMP detachment to a local media outlet.
Heller found no wrongdoing on Bailey's part in terms of her treatment of two civilian employees at the detachment and, in part, found some of the complaints to be "too trivial" to constitute harassment.
But Heller also found Bailey was in a conflict of interest because she was then Prince George RCMP Supt. Dahl Chambers' common law spouse. In a report to city council, city administration said they disagreed with the last finding because, contrary to Heller's belief, she reported to Chambers. Bailey actually reported to administrative services director Rob Whitwham because she's a civilian employee.
Bailey and Chambers no longer live in Prince George.
