City council member Brian Skakun is attempting to appeal his conviction for violating provincial privacy legislation by leaking confidential documents to a local media outlet.
A notice was submitted Monday by Skakun's lawyer, Jon Duncan, to the Prince George courthouse claiming Judge Ken Ball erred in law in finding Skakun was an officer of a public body and in finding a charter or common law "whistleblower" defence was not available to Skakun as a municipal councillor.
Ball also "materially misapprehended" evidence given at the trial "and as a result made unreasonable findings of credibility against Skakun and thereby unreasonably rejected his evidence in convicting him," Duncan said in the submission.
In the notice, Duncan also claimed Ball "conducted the trial in a manner that gave rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias."
Duncan said the next step will be to set a date for the hearing, expected to take two days and be held in Supreme Court. A meeting to fix a date and determine steps for handling the matter is set for July 4.
Skakun was fined $750 on May 24 after Ball found him guilty of violating the B.C. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act by giving confidential documents regarding personnel matters at the Prince George RCMP detachment to CBC Radio in Prince George.
One of those documents, a report by labour lawyer Kitty Heller into the conduct of Ann Bailey, then the top civilian employee at the detachment, was posted on the CBC website for a brief period on Aug. 19, 2008.
City Hall had hired Heller to look into allegations of misconduct levelled by two civilian employees against her and then Prince George RCMP Supt. Dahl Chambers.
Heller found no wrongdoing by Bailey but did comment that she was in a conflict of interest due to her romantic relationship with Chambers, a finding city administrators dismissed as only perceived and beyond the mandate of her investigation.
The RCMP ordered Chambers to apologize to the two employees and one other following a separate investigation by the Mounties.
Skakun, who became the first politician in B.C. to be prosecuted and convicted under the legislation, said the appeal is being carried out at no cost. The court case, which took up a dozen days of court time, cost Skakun more than $30,000.
Mayor Dan Rogers said Skakun's appeal shouldn't have a significant legal cost for the city. The city's cost in legal fees and lost time was, "in the tens of thousands of dollars," during Skakun's initial trial, Rogers said previously.
"What Coun. Skakun does is up to him," Rogers said. "The appeal process doesn't reopen the proceedings... it's based on a point of law."
The city will continue to operate based on the guilty verdict unless the B.C. Court of Appeal overturns the ruling, he said.
- with file from Arthur Williams
