I viewed Bruce Strachan's defense of a city councillor's motions regarding strengthening the Community Charter to prevent disclosure of confidential and personal information with interest. Bruce referred to me as a Charles Bronson Death Wish vigilante and a lose cannon on council that just does not get it.
Bruce also goes on say "With one guilty conviction and two eight-to-one votes on council in an attempt to rein in Brian Skakun's one-man-war on confidential information, one has to ask, is everyone out of step but our Brian"?
I will tell you Bruce that this is not the only recent vote where I was the only councillor to oppose motions at council including the giving of councilors a 33 per cent raise and more recently the borrowing of three million dollars to build an office at the city owned public yard but yet Bruce figures I'm out of step.
The notion that I need to vote with the group of councillors or I am branded a vigilante is a joke. It is no wonder the party system of politics is turning out to be the most undemocratic system of government going because you have to vote as told along the party lines and not how you feel and how you can best represent the interests of those that voted you into government.
Fortunately in civic politics we can still make independent decisions.
Bruce goes on to talk about my trial and conviction which he attended on a number of days when crown presented their case but was mysteriously absent when the defense presented our case.
If Bruce wanted to really know what was going on he would have attended both parts of the trial instead of giving his opinion as if he is an expert on the topics of privacy and confidentiality.
His editorial went on to say Skakun said, "What kind of checks and balances will be in place to ensure government transparency? There has to be a balance - council has to be able to disclose things when it is the public interest."
Bruce did not expand on that at all. In fact he stayed right away from the issue of public interest and the need to disclose information about wrongdoing and cover-ups!
I will ask Bruce Strachan if the press cannot report of what is going with the inner workings of government, who will report what is going on?
If elected officials keep passing laws that restrict the flow of information and create these laws that will insulate themselves from public scrutiny and embarrassment, the image and trust of government is only going to roll further downhill.
If certain information had not been disclosed to the media do you think the people of this community would have known that several municipal employees at the local RCMP detachment were getting harassed by the Officer in Charge and he was charged and convicted under the RCMP Act with several charges?
They also would not have known that the people that were harassed in this case all lost their jobs? Of course not! Who would want to make that public?
I was elected to represent not only the City of Prince George but to also represent the interests of the people of Prince George.
The Supreme Court of Canada says that city councillors have divided duties and often have to make tough decisions and I will continue to try and balance those duties regardless of what people like Bruce Strachan say.
Brian Skakun
Prince George
