BURST
Delta South MLA Ian Paton is meeting with the RCMP today, where he expects they will ask about a job he claims he was offered in exchange for quitting so B.C. Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay could run in his seat.
Paton, who is among seven MLAs to leave the Conservative Party under Findlay’s leadership, has said he was offered an agricultural adviser role by Findlay’s chief of staff, Chris Delaney. Paton says the new job would have come with a salary to match what he currently makes as an MLA: $122,043.
Canada’s Criminal Code’s makes it illegal to offer a reward for elected officials to resign.
Findlay has denied Paton’s allegations.
Findlay is now running in a byelection in Abbotsford-Mission after MLA Reann Gasper vacated her seat. Gasper has since been appointed the Conservative leader’s deputy chief of staff.
Paton says the RCMP reached out to him Tuesday morning, and he believes the police have reached out to two others.
Paton noted the RCMP did not say specifically why they wanted to interview him.
“I’m assuming they want to talk to me about me being asked to step down to give up my seat for Kerry-Lynne Findlay to run in a byelection,” he said Wednesday.
One legal expert Postmedia spoke with has cautioned there is a high threshold to prove any criminality under the Criminal Code section.
Joven Narwal, a Vancouver lawyer with expertise in criminal defence and regulatory litigation, has said a prosecutor would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there was a quid pro quo, that something was provided in exchange for something, and disprove any innocent explanations.
Paton said when he was offered the job in exchange for quitting he did not even know there was a provision in Canadian law that could make these types of offers illegal.
He said he took no notes after the call in mid-July, and there is no recording of the conversation.
“It’s my word against their word,” said Paton.
In an audio clip released last week anonymously on social media of a B.C. Conservative caucus meeting in early July, Findlay can be heard saying that if an MLA was willing to step aside, she could give them a role as a senior adviser in their same portfolio so that they remain involved.
Findlay has responded that the person who posted the audio made the “preposterous” suggestion that these comments may constitute a crime.
“Any fair-minded person listening to the recording will immediately realize that this is not a good faith allegation of wrongdoing,” said Findlay.
The RCMP says it is aware of the social media post, but adds that generally it does not confirm or deny any investigation, or the identity of any person who may be subject to an investigation, until such time as charges have been laid.
The RCMP did not say why they were interviewing MLAs.
Prince George-Valemount MLA Rosalyn Bird, one of those who quit the Conservatives, says she was also asked to step down so Findlay could run in a byelection in her seat.
Bird has not said whether she was offered a job to do so, and would not say on Wednesday whether the RCMP had reached out to her.
“If Ian has told you he’s meeting with them, then that’s fairly serious,” said Bird.
Narwal has said the section of the Criminal Code that deals with situations like this does not generally prohibit political horse-trading.
“Negotiation, accommodation and even a member’s decision to step aside so a leader can seek a seat are ordinary incidents of political life that are not criminalized,” said Narwal, an adjunct professor at UBC’s Allard School of Law.
“What the offence prohibits is narrow and transactional and captures more specifically, forms of purchase and sale of a public office,” he said.
There is a previous example in B.C. of an MLA stepping down to give a leader a chance to gain a seat in the legislature when they had formed government, and that former MLA being given a newly created government job.
In 2013, when Westside-Kelowna MLA Ben Stewart stepped down from his seat for B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark, he was appointed as B.C.’s special representative in Asia , a $150,000-a-year job he held for three years.
After Stewart left the post, it was not filled again. Stewart ran again and was elected in 2018 and 2020.