Prosecutor right to keep Les investigation quiet: former ombudsman
03/04/2008 5:19:17 PM
MSN News: BC, With files from the Canadian Press.
Excerpts:
Former B.C. ombudsman Stephen Owen says justice authorities did the right thing by not informing the public that then solicitor general John Les was under investigation since June 2007.
Questions remain over land deal
Meanwhile, neither the RCMP nor the special prosecutor have revealed any more details about the investigation.
There is still no official word on what Les is under investigation for, but local residents and real estate agents have confirmed to CBC that they were questioned about the Rosebank subdivision that Les developed when he was mayor of Chilliwack.
What remains unclear is how the former mayor was able to subdivide the plot of agricultural land in the Fraser Valley municipality when its previous owners had repeatedly failed to do so.
The CBC has learned the decision was left to a single bureaucrat who was under no obligation to answer to Chilliwack city council or anyone else.
Willy Rasmussen told CBC his parents wanted to move a boundary line on their Chilliwack farm in the late 1980s so they could retire on two acres and sell off the rest, but the provincial Agricultural Land Commission repeatedly told them they couldn't.
A few years later, Les bought part of the same land and subdivided it almost immediately and sold it off as developable lots.
But CBC news has learned that rather than trying to pull the land out of the Agricultural Land Reserve, a provincial zone in which agriculture is recognized as the priority use, Les, the mayor of Chilliwack at the time, took his application to city hall instead.
That application ended up in front of Grant Sanborn, the city's approving officer, who had the discretion to approve boundary adjustments while leaving the land inside the Agricultural Land Reserve.
Current Chilliwack mayor Clint Hames won't comment on the Les investigation, but he said the approving officer is kept at arm's length from the mayor and council to steer clear of political interference.
At the same time, Hames said, " the approving officer is not accountable to ... essentially, anyone."
The CBC has also learned Sanborn has since been "separated from his employment" with the City of Chilliwack. Sanborn refused to comment on any of the issues when contacted by the CBC.
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The RCMP would have to find direct evidence of some sort of criminal wrongdoing (such as a bribe, or some material benefit) to lead to any sort of recommendation of charges against anyone. I think this will be a difficult case to find such evidence. Regular folks often experience the barriers of their own applications to councils and such, but then local business and political elites turn around and obtain approval for the same applications (such as in this case), but unless there is some sort of "smoking gun" (ie. paper trails and witnesses) it's really difficult to prove allegations of influence peddling and wrongdoing. This is where whistleblowers prove an important mechanism for truth and justice for all of us. I'm willing to bet that there are a few people in Chilliwack who have evidence of wrongdoing and I hope they do the right thing and stand up for all of us. Also, the Criminal Justice Branch would have to decide if proceeding with charges is in the interests of the public (why & how) and if there is a substantial likelihood of conviction based on the evidence gathered. Should be an interesting case to follow, although I suspect it will drop off the radar soon as the investigation continues.
I think the general public would be surprised how common it is for people in different levels of government to be completely without accountability mechanisms governing their authority and decision-making. Also, a lack of regulatory bodies, or oversight. Gotta love neo-conservatives ideology of globalization. Hey, it works for those who can line their pockets, but not the rest of us,
but who cares about us anyways.
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