Good on ya, Speaker Plecas

And a big thank you to Speaker Darryl Plecas for pursuing the B.C. Legislature scandal through to the completion that is demanded by taxpayers.

That is, that both Lenz and Craig are charged--and found guilty--of fraudulently misusing taxpayer dollars.

...despite Lenz being "cleared of mis-spending" by former Supreme Court of Canada chief justice Beverley McLachlin.

B.C. taxpayers are glad that Speaker Plecas is like a dog with a bone on the issue.

Attaboy, Speaker Plecas!

Today's story in The Province:


"Another investigation into the suspended legislature sergeant at arms has been launched by Speaker Darryl Plecas.

Gary Lenz was cleared recently on allegations of misspending by an investigation by Beverley McLachlin, the former Supreme Court of Canada chief justice.

But Plecas has commissioned a new investigation of Lenz, under the Police Act, based on a complaint filed by his chief of staff, Alan Mullen, says Mary Polak, the B.C. Liberal House leader.

"We don't have a lot of details with respect to what he's looking at," Polak said Friday.  "It appears as though he is reinvestigating allegations against Gary Lenz that were part of the McLachlin investigation."

NDP house leader Mike Farnworth wold only confirm a probe is underway.  But he wouldn't say who was the target of the investigation, calling it a human resources issue.  Farnworth said that investigation is being led by an individual with a very strong background in whom he has every confidence.  He said the findings of the investigation -- which is not a criminal investigation -- will come to the legislative management committee, the group of MLAs that oversees the operations of the legislature.

"I am very limited in what I can say," said Farnworth.

Farnworth, who is the minister of public safety and solicitor general, said the Speaker has the power to launch such an investigation under the Police Act.

Plecas declined to confirm the investigation, also saying it was a human resources issue.

"I have been advised by my lawyer that that's the proper way to do it," he said.

Polak said she doesn't have a problem with the individual hired for the new investigation, but she does question the manner in which it came about.

"A complaint has been made, so a complaint needs to be investigated and you go where the facts take you," Polak said.

But Polak said it would have been more appropriate for Plecas to have reported the complaint to the legislative management committee and let it decide on an investigation.

"The Speaker, as outlined by Justice McLachlin, should not be doing this stuff on his own," Polak said.

"If there is something to investigate it should go through (the legislative assembly management committee) and not through the Speaker on his own."

Polak said her understanding is that the results of the new investigation will be brought to the legislative assembly management committee, not the Speaker.

"So that's been put back into an appropriate process," Polak said."


Enjoy chewing on that bone, Speaker Plecas.
Because taxpayers are enjoying the sound of it.

...and did taxpayers say Thank You loud enough for you to hear?
Sure hope so!

White Collar Crimes Go Unpunished

...except maybe for the humiliation and embarrassment.
But that was self-imposed because of their nefarious deeds.

We're talking about British Columbia's legislature scandal which Speaker Darryl Plecas exposed.
A disgusting and criminal (we think) twosome of senior officials in the Victoria legislature who both benefitted from unnecessary and unsanctioned expense account claims and unnecessary trips on the public purse.

Craig James and Gary Lenz are both proven by Speaker Plecas to have profited.
But in a strange twist, it was reported that Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz did not violate the terms of his employment, although he remains suspended with pay.

It was reported that Craig James "abruptly retired Thursday following the release of a report supporting allegations of misconduct against him".  In addition, James himself approved a 2012 retirement benefit that awarded him $257,988 during that year.  But he didn't retire in 2012.

The Province newspaper headline was "Ex-legislature clerk can retire without returning money".

So...what do we teach our children about this?

Obviously nothing.
We teach them wrong from right, decency versus immoral acts.
And then the Legislature scandal comes along.

Greg James and Gary Lenz should be in prison...and sued by the public.

And there's more.

Money-laundering is making the news nightly, and in particular how prevalent it has been (and perhaps still is) relating to the RiverRock Casino in Richmond, with ties to real estate and luxury cars.

And no-one could be happier than Ross Alderson, the former director of anti-money laundering investigations for the B.C. Lottery Corp.  He's apparently "pleased a public inquiry has been called, and he's anxious to testify, as he 'had a front-row seat,' the whistleblower added.

That is good news, but maybe not for the B.C. Liberals, who turned numerous blind eyes away from what was readily apparent to even a 10 year old.

What is heartening is that both Ross Alderson and Speaker Darryl Plecas are former RCMP officers, obviously both dedicated to law and order.  And they are to be congratulated.

I bet both Plecas and Alderson are disgusted that white collar criminals generally don't spend much time -- if any -- in jail.

So is British Columbia chock full of white collar criminals?
It appears they have made the province their homebase.

Legal versus Public Opinion

EDIT 3:30 pm (post-publish):
And this comment (from another blog):
"Exclusive: Plecas’s “final straw” was Clark’s plan to politicize riding offices.
Look, if anyone was “above board”, this exposure would have happened years prior, but it took an independent Speaker of the Ledge to bring it to light.
I would love an independent audit of at least the last 10 years of the BC Ledge, which includes current BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkenson’s tenure, when James got promoted without a consensus, over more qualified candidates.
You have to at least go back to the John Doyle accounting era, where his report chastised the BC Liberals for non-compliance to the rules. He got the boot with an NDA. I’d love to hear what he saw-the Greedo Scampbell-Coleman-DeJong horror show. Might as well throw Mary Polak in there because they all said not a thing about this for years and the blind excuse does not wash..
The fix was in from the start with Greedo’s inauguration when he LIED at the polls saying he wouldn’t sell BC Rail and then selling it to one of his prominent donators and creating a huge lawsuit and trial that cost taxpayers tens of millions and the trust of gov’t.
“You won’t recognize BC when I am finished” Scampbell said at his victory speech, almost identical to Justin Greedeau’s victory speech."

Now to my original post!

...and never the twain shall meet.
Unfortunately!
 
This week's exposure by B.C. House Speaker Darryl Plecas of the expense account "irregularities" of Messrs. Lenz and James have, as predicted by Plecas, made taxpayers barf.

As this Vancouver Sun article portends, legal opinions are already posturing that these guys will never see a day in court, and certainly not be found guilty of a criminal offence even if they do end up in court.

Seems to me they're separating crime from the white collar description, implying that if the rules are "loosey goosey", then the person can make their own decision about what the rules actually mean.
As in anything goes.

Senator Mike Duffy's expense account, and former Liberal aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk spring to mind, and we all know how those went.  It's called precedent.

The public considers this to be white-collar crimes.
But legal opinions--expressed in the Sun story--by lawyers (obviously jostling to become involved in this chaos if charges are levied!) separate the words "white collar" and "crime", as though nothing a white collar bureaucrat or official could do, or did in this case, is tantamount to crime.


So who are these guys?
James and Lenz.
Lenz and James.

I don't even care who is who...it's Lenz and James.  Or James and Lenz.

While the public considers "white collar crimes" to be criminal, these fraudsters will likely get a slap on the proverbial wrist, if anything at all.

Think back to the sub-prime debacle in about 2008...did any of the Goldman Sachs principals end up in jail for purposely bundling junk bonds within packets of good stuff to sell to the global investment community?
No, of course not!

These guys cheated us!
They defrauded taxpayers of contributions we made that belonged to the Province of British Columbia.

And that's just the start of it.
More will come out as the RCMP investigation--aided by two special prosecutors--will no doubt reveal.

And this isn't the first time, either.
Entitlement by senior bureaucrats isn't rare.
The investigation may indeed even cover elected members of the Legislative Assembly.
Remember that the ~16 year tenure of the Liberal party in B.C. was fraught with considerable chaos, specifically charges of political corruption most notably the BC Rail issue.  Not immune to chaos, British Columbia's NDP party had also faced charges of corruption after their second term.
Does anyone remember that taxpayers during the BC Rail issue ended up paying about $6 million for the legal defense of Basi and Virk?

Maybe government(s) count on our having a very, very short memory.

Decide just how disgusted you are.
Start with the 76-page Report authored by House Speaker Darryl Plecas.
Then have a quick read about bureaucratic entitlement called "The Final Pre-Extinction Clash".

Frankly, lying and "entitlement" isn't what we teach our children.
This isn't how we--the public--live our lives.

"Because we're honest," Kia would've intoned.

Our collars, whether blue or white, are clean.
Just like that of House Speaker Darryl Plecas, who deserves a medal from taxpayers.

Right after we clean up the barf.

Thank you, Darryl Plecas.
The "Honourable" that precedes his name is well-earned.