A Look At The Councillor Skakun Charges

By Ben Meisner

It is important to say at the beginning that the charges against Councillor Brian Skakun are, at this point, just allegations.

Skakun is accused  of  breaching the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, as he is alleged to have  released a confidential report given to Prince George City Council.  The report dealt  with the relationship of then Chief of Police, Dahl Chambers and his common law wife, Ann Bailey.

A copy of the report known as the ,” Heller Report” was passed to Betsy Trumpener of the CBC , the report was posted to their website , all be it for only a day and a half or so, before someone realized they were posting information of which they had no right to and it was quickly removed.

Now if Councillor Skakun was the party who passed the info on to the CBC , then the matter is cut and dried, he has no authority what so ever to pass a file containing information on personnel  to anyone, and anyone (regardless of who) should know better. To suggest in some way that the information has been floating around city hall and so that gives anyone the right to have it published , again just doesn’t cut it.

Now to the bigger picture in this matter. Councillors are sworn to secrecy in  any in camera sessions for a reason. Let’s assume they are dealing with a major real estate question in which they are set to re zone a large piece of property. It would be oh so easy to pick up the phone and phone cousin Ralph to get out and buy the property. The releasing of personal information on a employee has an added weight in that, if you’re the one doing the releasing and the publishing of the information it carries with it the added burden that you could face a civil action in which a judge may not take kindly to the fact that you blabbed about an employee in your care. The law is there for a reason, and you simply can’t use it to suit yourself.

Now it is important to say again, these are only allegations against Skakun, but he himself (if you are to believe the writings) is suggesting some conspiracy over the matter of an alleged bribe.

Skakun says the local RCMP did not investigate the matter properly and the new charge is simply a way of getting him.

The allegation of a bribe dealing with the Casino was investigated by some very high profile RCMP staff, from the North District I might add, who call their own shots, they did not take their marching orders from Supt Dahl Chambers who was running the City Detachment at the time.  As a matter of fact Chambers had to take his marching orders from the boss over at North District contrary to what some people would like you to believe.

It is also important to note that around the same time as this investigation was ongoing; a similar investigation was underway alleging Chambers had harassed staff. That investigation was being done by the RCMP North District and it is known that three separate investigations into his work place were underway at the same time. Well Chambers was found guilty of harassment and he left his post here to move to the lower mainland, the matter of his association with Ann Bailey who worked in the detachment never made the same noise in the news but it never the less was part of the investigation.

What is commonly known as the "Heller report" put the matter on the front page but only for a short space before Chambers took a transfer to the lower mainland.

What didn’t receive the same media attention was the fact that there were others involved in relationships in the detachment that had their own vested interests in mind, and they were making an effort to make their presence felt.

Now the local paper went so far as to run a poll asking whether Chambers should go, they also editorialized that point. Nothing wrong with that, they are entitled to make their opinion known, but what was missing was the very thing that has come out this week, who leaked the information of a personnel file to the media and you might also add another question, why did they do it?

We at Opinion250 took flack for the fact that we looked at the big picture which was that the issue involving Supt Chambers  and the harassment charges could be linked to an interoffice fight that was going on. We now have learned that the,”Heller Report” indeed was a very integral part of the whole picture.

To his credit, Chambers took his licks, left a city that he really liked and headed off to uncharted ground. He himself I am sure would admit to being too crusty in the matter, but it is easy to see that when it comes to defending someone that you love, emotions can grow.

Now Councillor Skakun, faced with a charge of breaching a confidence, faces the same music teacher as Chambers.  If found guilty,  will Skakun take the same course of action?  Will he leave a post he likes, a city he had come to call home?

We will have to wait and see how the matter ends. 

In handing out a bit of advice to Councillor Skakun,  he might do well to remember that the media are not the judge and jury in this matter, a judge will make the final determination, and pleading the case before the media is taking your case to the wrong court.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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