VICTORIA - A former staffer in Transportation Minister Todd Stone's office is accusing the government of deliberately destroying internal records before they become public, in a complaint to B.C.'s privacy commissioner.
Tim Duncan, Stone's former executive assistant, accused his old ministry and government of widespread and systemic abuse of the Freedom of Information law, in a May 18 letter to Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, released in the legislature by the Opposition NDP on Thursday.
In his letter, Duncan said he was asked to find records last November related to public consultations on the issue of missing and murdered women on the Highway of Tears in northern B.C.
But when he found records, he said another ministerial assistant came to his desk, took his keyboard, and deleted the emails before telling him: "It's done. Now you don't have to worry about it anymore."
The government is required under law to preserve certain records for public access.
Duncan said he questioned the appropriateness of deleting emails after an FOI request to the B.C. Liberal caucus research director and was told, "It's like in the West Wing. You do whatever it takes to win."
"I want to stress this is not an isolated incident," Duncan wrote in his letter to Denham. "It is my belief that the abuse of the Freedom of Information process is widespread and most likely systemic within the Clark government. I would ask that you please look into this further."
Duncan was hired to Stone's office on Oct. 14, 2014 and left five months later.
In an email to the Opposition NDP, Duncan called the government a "cesspool" and said he was particularly upset because his father was murdered in 2010 and he knows what it's like for family members of the murdered women on the Highway of Tears to be seeking information about their families.
Denham's office received his letter Wednesday.
http://www.vancouversun.com/government+accused+deliberately+destroying+Highway+Tears+internal+records/11090247/story.html#ixzz3bSdpYdoa#pq=ykaRXF
Tim Duncan, Stone's former executive assistant, accused his old ministry and government of widespread and systemic abuse of the Freedom of Information law, in a May 18 letter to Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, released in the legislature by the Opposition NDP on Thursday.
In his letter, Duncan said he was asked to find records last November related to public consultations on the issue of missing and murdered women on the Highway of Tears in northern B.C.
But when he found records, he said another ministerial assistant came to his desk, took his keyboard, and deleted the emails before telling him: "It's done. Now you don't have to worry about it anymore."
The government is required under law to preserve certain records for public access.
Duncan said he questioned the appropriateness of deleting emails after an FOI request to the B.C. Liberal caucus research director and was told, "It's like in the West Wing. You do whatever it takes to win."
"I want to stress this is not an isolated incident," Duncan wrote in his letter to Denham. "It is my belief that the abuse of the Freedom of Information process is widespread and most likely systemic within the Clark government. I would ask that you please look into this further."
Duncan was hired to Stone's office on Oct. 14, 2014 and left five months later.
In an email to the Opposition NDP, Duncan called the government a "cesspool" and said he was particularly upset because his father was murdered in 2010 and he knows what it's like for family members of the murdered women on the Highway of Tears to be seeking information about their families.
Denham's office received his letter Wednesday.
http://www.vancouversun.com/government+accused+deliberately+destroying+Highway+Tears+internal+records/11090247/story.html#ixzz3bSdpYdoa#pq=ykaRXF
