De Jong fires back at AG over implications he knew about problems at Hastings Park
Credit to Author: Derrick Penner| Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2019 20:16:11 +0000
B.C. Liberal MLA Mike de Jong is demanding a retraction from Attorney General David Eby over his statements about raising concerns about impropriety in horse racing while still in opposition, which resulted in no action.
Eby, on Aug. 27 while addressing media in relation to the Canada Border Services raid on Hastings Race Course Aug. 19, said he had first heard about impropriety in horse racing while he was in opposition and raised them then with de Jong, who was minister at the time.
De Jong, however, said the allegations Eby raised with his office in 2016 were about drug use at Fraser Downs race course, not the alleged illegal employment of foreign workers and he commissioned an inquiry into those specific allegations.
“It strikes me that he deliberately wanted to convey to the media and the public that this was a specific allegation that he had brought to the attention of the previous government, and it’s just not true,” said de Jong in an interview Thursday.
De Jong said he was out of the country at the time of Eby’s media conference and unable to respond, but was “surprised and perplexed” by the Attorney General’s statements after learning about them on his return.
“This is an continuing pattern for (Eby) and it really doesn’t reflect well on him, the office he holds and ultimately is very concerning,” de Jong said. “Because the Attorney General is more interested in playing politics than he is in doing his job.”
The Aug. 27 media conference was in relation to the CBSA raid, which saw up to 26 Mexican backstretch workers at the track, mostly grooms employed by individual trainers, being detained for not having the proper work permits.
And a Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch inspector was alleged to have been involved in falsifying information on applications for provincial licenses to work at the track for some of the workers.
That investigation was sparked by the tip from a whistleblower whom Eby said approached his office last October.
B.C. Liberal MLA, and former attorney general, Mike de Jong.
Eby passed the tip to the Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch, which brought in the CBSA after uncovering possible impropriety related to work permits.
“It’s surprising to me there are such different results depending on who is in government and who is looking at the issue,” Eby said during the media conference.
The Attorney General was not immediately available Thursday to respond to de Jong’s comments.
However, de Jong counters that he did conduct an investigation into the specific concerns Eby raised in 2016.
Postmedia obtained a copy of that initial letter, dated Nov. 3, 2016, in which Eby said he was contacted by a “credible Registered Gaming worker from Fraser Downs who brough forward serious allegations of failures at the Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch to enforce drug policy at react tracks in Metro Vancouver.”
De Jong, in his response to Eby, said the associate deputy minister of finance brought in former auditor general George Morfitt to investigate those specific concerns, who found that the horse racing unit was operating within its legal authority and offered recommendations about operational policies.
De Jong said he plans to ask for a retraction and will raise the issue directly with Eby in the legislature when the fall session begins.
More to come.