B.C. NDP attacked for bungling allegations against Jinny Sims
Credit to Author: Rob Shaw| Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2019 01:26:11 +0000
VICTORIA — B.C.’s New Democrat government faced sharp attacks from critics Monday over whether it bungled accusations by a whistleblower that may have sparked a police investigation into former cabinet minister Jinny Sims
Opposition Liberal critics zeroed in on emails sent by Kate Gillie — Sims’ former constituency assistant — to senior officials in Premier John Horgan’s office in March. The emails alleged, among other things, that Sims wrote visa application endorsements for some Pakistani citizens in exchange for promised campaign donations, and that some of those people were on a U.S. security watch list.
The allegations prompted an investigation by Horgan’s chief of staff Geoff Meggs, which Horgan has said concluded there was no wrongdoing.
However, the RCMP is now in the middle of “an investigation being conducted into allegations of criminal wrongdoing against MLA Jinny Sims and other persons unknown,” according to a statement Monday by B.C.’s prosecution service.
Prosecution section spokesperson Dan McLaughlin would not comment or confirm Monday whether police investigation is related to Gillie’s allegations.
Veteran Vancouver lawyer Richard Peck is overseeing the probe to ensure it is conducted without any political interference. Sims resigned as citizens’ services minister when the news was made public Friday.
The Opposition Liberals used the first day of the legislature’s fall session Monday to accuse senior officials in the NDP and premier’s office of mishandling the original allegations against Sims month ago.
The Opposition sent Gillie’s emails to the RCMP and criminal justice branch May 29. The party followed up with a second letter Sept. 11. The RCMP asked for a special prosecutor on Sept. 30, according to the criminal justice branch.
“The premier and Geoff Meggs were more than happy to tell British Columbians there was absolutely no wrongdoing by his minister,” said Liberal critic Jas Johal.
“We raised countless questions for months about the misconduct of the former minister. The premier’s response: ‘Trumped-up charges.’ He even had the NDP caucus lawyer write an intimidation letter to the whistleblower, threatening legal action to defend his minister. Yet here we are months later, and the police are now investigating her and others.”
Attorney General David Eby said the government is in the dark.
“Nobody on the government side, to my knowledge, knows what the police are investigating,” he told the legislature. “Only the police know. It’s been set up this way under an independent special prosecutor.”
B.C. Premier John Horgan has defended the actions of his staff in investigating the initial allegations against former cabinet minister Jinny Sims.
Horgan said it was appropriate for Sims to have stepped down until the police probe is complete.
“I don’t know what the allegations are,” Horgan told reporters. “I didn’t know then, and I don’t now. But we acted quickly.”
Liberal MLA Shirley Bond called on Horgan to “release the Meggs report so that British Columbians can know exactly why the premier decided that the minister had apparently done absolutely nothing wrong.”
There is no written Meggs report, Horgan’s office said in a statement.
Meggs and NDP caucus executive director Roseanne Moran reviewed the matter because it concerned a caucus employee. “There was no evidence found to support the allegations in the email,” the premier’s office statement said.
“There was no evidence in (the) election finance database for any of the names of people alleged to have made improper donations,” according to the statement.
Several other allegations contained in that and a second letter from Gillie were also dismissed during the review, including claims of improper contracts for website work in Sims’ riding that were not backed up by the invoices, a cash-for-access fundraiser that was actually a charity event for the Vancouver Children’s Hospital, improper lobbying that was deemed untrue by Registrar of Lobbyists and security watch list claims that were not backed up by local Cloverdale-Langley City MP John Aldag, read the statement.
Horgan stood in the legislature in May and called the whistleblower accusations “trumped-up charges about a human resource matter between a former employee and a member of the legislative assembly.”
“My chief of staff did what I directed him to do — ensure that there were no cash transfers taking place,” Horgan told the house May 29. “There were not.”
“I’m confident, based on the work that my chief of staff did, that any of the substantive allegations that have been made are not founded, and I’m comfortable with where we are on that,” Horgan added.
Gillie wrote a March 4 email to B.C.’s Conflict of Interest Commissioner and Alex MacLennan, deputy cabinet secretary to the premier, outlining allegations against Sims she witnessed during her employment.
Gillie wrote that on Feb. 6 2019 she was allegedly asked by Rabina Sattar, the fundraising co-ordinator for Sims’ riding, to help sort out the status of several visa application endorsement letters Sims had written using her ministerial title for Pakistani citizens that were allegedly going to donate to her campaign in return.
But Gillie alleged three of the 10 individuals Sims vouched for ended up on a U.S. security watch list.
“They pertained to 10 Pakistani individuals that Jinny had written supporting their application for a Canadian visa in October and December,” Gillie wrote.
“Rabina explained that the lead of the group was Noor Ahmed Ranjha, according to Rabina this individual was her ‘brother’ and extremely important to Jinny as not only ‘are they going to give $10,000 to her campaign but they are coming to discuss a big investment with her.’”
Sattar could not be reached for comment Monday.
Sims has denied any money was discussed in exchange for the endorsement letters. She admitted it was a mistake to use her ministerial title on the documents.
“I have no idea about the allegations, I have not been told anything,” Sims said on Monday. “And it would be inappropriate for me to speculate.”
Sims said she has not been contacted by police. When asked if she was worried a police investigation could take years, Sims said, “I have every hope and belief that this will be done in a timely manner.”
Gillie’s lawyer, Don Sorochan, said he’s pleased to see the special prosecutor system working, but he’s also unclear to what extent her original allegations are part of the current RCMP probe.
“We don’t know what the police investigated,” he said. “I can assume it had some tie-in to what my client did.”