Prince George, B.C.- Day two of the trial of Councillor Brian Skakun began not unlike day one, with the continuation of the application for disclosure of documents. Defense Lawyer, Jon Duncan, had requested a court order that would make the City hand over further documents which are relevant to the case , documents which Duncan believes are there but have not been produced.

The difference this morning is that the lawyer doing the speaking is Barry Williamson who is acting on behalf of the City of Prince George. 

Williamson pointed to what he calls a “recurring theme” in the defense’s argument, that being that the City had already conducted its own investigation into the beach of the Freedom of Information Protection of Privacy Act before handing it over to the RCMP.  Williamson says Council had considered conducting an investigation, even discussed a budget ($35 thousand dollars) but chose instead to hand it over to the RCMP. “There is nothing in the evidence to suggest there was an investigation by the City.”

Duncan argued the City’s search parameters for the Mayor’s (Kinsley) e-mails were too limited, the key words used in the search were “Heller, RCMP, CBC”. Williamson said he had advised Duncan of the search parameters, and the first time he heard there was an issue with those parameters was yesterday.

Williamson says the documents being requested by the defense include the notes and file belonging to Kitty Heller who authored the report which is at the centre of this case,   that request says Williamson, “Shows how deep and wide this fishing expedition has become .” Williamson says what the accused wants is to “Turn City Hall on its head and shake out every piece of paper in a fruitless search for further documents.”

In April of 2008, the local daily newspaper  had printed a quote from the Heller report. The defense argues that proves the report was already in the public domain and yet the City  didn’t seem to care about that leak. Williamson counters that the leak in April of 2008 could have come from one of the complainants named in the report who had access to the report to review it, but were not given copies. Williamson says there is a difference between that April article which contained a quote, and the posting of the entire report on the internet which is what happened in August of that year.

 Following an RCMP investigation, Councillor Brian Skakun was charged with breaching the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.