Heller Report to be Released to Complainant
Thursday, April 25, 2013 @ 11:23 AM
Prince George, B.C.- The controversial Kitty Heller report, is once again at the core of a court case.
The controversial report was at the centre of the case against Prince George City Councillor Brian Skakun, who was charged and convicted of breaching the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act for releasing that document to the CBC. He is has been granted leave to appeal that conviction.
The report dealt with the investigation of allegations of harassment by a Civic manager at the Prince George RCMP detachment. In her final report, the investigator, Kitty Heller, dismissed the allegations.
One of the municipal employees who made the harassment allegations, Sheri McLean Smith, has since launched a lawsuit against the City accusing the City of wrongful dismissal, and alleging there was a “conspiracy to injure”.
All the while, the Kitty Heller report has remained a confidential document. Even at the time the report was first delivered to the City, McLean Smith was allowed to view it, but not to copy or remove it from City Hall.
Yesterday, the court issued a consent order granting McLean Smith and her Lawyer, each a copy of the report but there are restrictions attached to that consent.
McLean Smith and her lawyer are not allowed to make additional copies unless they are granted permission by the Court to do so. McLean Smith’s lawyer will have to give 21 days notice to the City (the defendant) before filing any affidavit to which the report is either exhibited or is referenced. The report must be kept confidential and once the court case is over, all copies will be returned to the lawyer acting for the City.
There has been no date for the court hearing on this suit.
City Council has been called to an emergency "in camera" meeting today, to discuss litigation, or pending litigation. It is not known if this consent order from the Court is the reason behind the hastily called meeting.
Comments
It’s pointless to care about civic politics in a city like this.
Round up a couple of screenwriters. This seems to me to be an ongoing soap opera. Maybe PGTV can get the rights to have a couple of seasons of episodes. Instead of watching “Little Mosque on the Prairie” we can call it “Little Dysfunctional City Hall Up North”.
Is it against the law to memorize a document?
Not yet?
I just reel at the amount of money this is costing the city tax payers every time the council has to do a huddle to talk this, and the back lash around it, over again and again. Just plain stupid.
Why wont this just die.. what a waste of everyones and the courts time.
If all the allegations were dismissed in the report it must be on the up and up. Why the secrecy? You would think city hall would be more than happy to see the report disclosed to the public.
But then again maybe city hall is attempting another cover up and it is coming back to haunt them.
The huddle and talk probably costs a couple of dozen donuts from Timmies, and maybe a coffee .
Maybe they should have handled the situation correctly the first time around.
Palopu is right on!
It should have been handled correctly the first time around!
This rests with the bureaucrats and the politicians of the day. They thought PG was small enough to sweep it under the rug.
“They thought PG was small enough to sweep it under the rug”
They can think? Doesn’t show.
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