ROTHENBURGER – Fretting over stray ‘secret’ report doesn’t address real issue

THERE’S SOMETHING about the mayor’s current legal issue with the Ministry of the Attorney-General that doesn’t sit right.

Let’s do a quick review. After months of unsuccessfully asking for a copy of an investigator’s report into his alleged inappropriate interactions with others at City Hall, Mayor Hamer-Jackson found said report in his mailbox last spring. It was, he says, postmarked Tofino, from a sender he’s never identified.

He ran off a few copies and distributed them to local media. The report in question is variously referred to as the Integrity Group report (after the Vancouver company hired by the City to do the investigation) or the Honcharuk report (after Terry Honcharuk, the lawyer who wrote it). Since it’s supposed to be confidential, the City doesn’t like to refer to it by name.

Honcharuk concluded that Hamer-Jackson had broken Code of Conduct rules in his interactions with three staff members including CAO David Trawin.

In early April, Stephanie Nichols, the City’s privacy officer, fired off letters — including one to Hamer-Jackson — contending she’d been notified that certain recipients had obtained highly sensitive confidential information, namely a workplace investigation report.

The report must be destroyed or returned to the City within 20 days, or the City may take legal action, including asking the B.C. Attorney General for pursue an order, the letter said.

Nothing much more was heard from the mayor — other than his avowed intentions to “defend himself” against the report’s conclusions — until last week. That’s when the attorney general filed a petition seeking an order that Hamer-Jackson return his copies of the report, delete any electronic copies, and name anyone else he gave copies to. And it wants costs.

The authority for this demand comes from the Community Charter and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Hamer-Jackson’s first inclination after the AG’s filing was to turn over the report but now he’s not so sure. The fact the AG’s decision to pursue legal action began with a request from the City has changed his thinking, he says.

So here’s what rankles. Never mind what you might think about RHJ’s style or about his many confrontations with members of council, or the several investigations and reports done on his behaviour, or the sanctions put on him by councillors. Think about this one particular situation.

See also: ROTHENBURGER – A surprise piece of mail reopens the debate on mayor’s conduct

It seems rather ridiculous that a very expensive investigation and report into his behaviour has been available this whole time to councillors but not to him. Whether or not having access to the report helps him defend against its conclusions, it feels as though natural fairness would require him being able to read it so he knows exactly what the accusations against him were.

One reason for not letting him have the report was that he declined, on the advice of his lawyer, to be interviewed during the investigation unless he was provided first with an understanding of the allegations. Apparently, this somehow puts him in a conflict of interest (“among other reasons”) and therefore is ineligible to read the report. Much emphasis is placed on the fact the report includes “personal information” about those interviewed.

There’s also the fact that the contents of the report haven’t been a secret since it was leaked to Kamloops This Week in August 2023. And, of course, it was back in the news last spring with the infamous Tofino copy.

That Tofino copy is a fascinating angle. How is it that someone on Vancouver Island got hold of it but the mayor himself didn’t? Either one person got it and mailed it while travelling on the island, or it went through multiple hands.

Either way, it was a true leak, just as it was a leak when KTW got hold of it. A limited number of people on council and staff were given access to it during an in-camera meeting — without the mayor being there — when it was completed. Obviously, at least one of them sent it outside the inner circle.

The real investigation should be into whoever that person was. We also know there have been a number of other leaks that appear influenced by a dislike of Hamer-Jackson or his policies. In a sense, Hamer-Jackson is being punished for his honesty — he never tried to hide the fact he was handing out copies to reporters last April.

Those who administer the law don’t have the option of considering the reasons for Hamer-Jackson’s sharing of the Honcharuk report. They can’t ponder his motives; only the question of whether he’s legally required to return it, albeit long after the cat is out of the bag. As the AG’s petition says, “that the Mayor and others have copies of the Report ‘does not detract from the City’s custody of the documents and the personal information contain(ed) in them.’”

Meanwhile, the matter of the Sarai Tape hovers over the whole issue. Since the yelling match captured on the tape was the trigger for the Honcharuk report, Hamer-Jackson contends the entire report should be declared void. Kind of a “fruit of the poisonous tree” argument, to use some legal terminology.

Exposing the leakers is the responsibility of the City; it needs to dig deeper. The AG is involved in a narrow sense based on process.

Hamer-Jackson has 21 days to reply to the AG’s demand. He is currently without a lawyer. “I’m gathering a lot of emails and a lot of evidence,” he said on the weekend.

Still, to a bystander, the scales of justice — natural justice at least — seem tipped in the wrong direction on this one. If common sense were to enter the picture, surely a solution could be found that protects against the dissemination of personal information, provides the mayor with the means to defend against the report’s conclusions, and triggers a broad, thorough investigation of City Hall’s leaky ship.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.