“I think that British Columbians should be very concerned by actions that would silence people from coming forward to their MLA.”
–Elenore Sturko
Premier David Eby delivered a remarkably candid rebuke to his government’s own director of police services Wednesday, saying he does not agree with the director’s decision to order an investigation into how an Opposition MLA obtained leaked government documents, and that doing so could put both a chill on politicians and whistleblowers.
Eby responded Wednesday to a Northern Beat story, which outlined how the Solicitor General’s director of police services, Glen Lewis, ordered the BC RCMP to investigate the leak of a Ministry of Health report to Opposition Conservative MLA Elenore Sturko about the criminal trafficking of safe supply drugs.
His order caused Sturko, who is the critic for Lewis’ ministry, and who has been critical of programs under his purview, to be interviewed by the RCMP’s anti-corruption unit.
The news sent shockwaves through B.C. politics because it appeared to violate the longstanding convention that protects MLAs from intimidation and police reprisal for doing their jobs. Sturko raised a personal point of privilege in the legislature on the matter.
The move also appears to contradict the NDP government’s efforts to increase protection for whistleblowers.
Eby was asked if the police probe could intimidate government critics and pull a chill on whistleblowers coming forward with vital information.
“I think that investigations like this can have that effect,” he said.
“I think that anyone [who] thinks that they can silence Elenore Sturko has another thing coming. But that doesn’t make what happened right.
“She was doing her job. That job needs to be protected. Whistleblowers need to be protected to bring forward information.”
Eby said he would have done the same thing Sturko did if presented with the leaked information when he was an Opposition MLA, and that she should not face police questions for doing the job British Columbians elected her to do.
Opposition calls investigation ‘witch hunt’
Eby said he wished police would drop the matter, but that he lacked the authority to order the RCMP to stand down. He said he hoped police would make better use of their time and target the pharmacies accused of kickback schemes involving safe supply prescriptions, which was outlined in the leaked report.
Lewis did not comment about his decision to order the investigation, which he did by drawing upon rarely-used powers in the Police Act available to his office. Neither Eby, nor Solicitor General Garry Begg, said they had any prior knowledge of his independent actions. However, Begg said he stood by the director’s decision to launch the investigation.
Opposition Conservatives twice in the legislature called for Lewis to be fired, with house leader Bruce Banman accusing Lewis of “initiating this witch-hunt” and directing police “to harangue whistleblowers who embarrass this government.”
The government released Lewis’s letter to the RCMP, in which he requested they investigate “the unauthorized disclosure of government information related to the investigation of diverted safe supply” and that the document “included sensitive information, including investigative information.”
The report leaked to Sturko did contain information about a ministry investigation into approximately 60 pharmacies accused of giving incentives to patients with safe supply prescriptions, in exchange for thousands of dollars in dispensing fees.
However, most of the information in the document had already been reported by the Globe and Mail 11 months prior, as well as in a series of subsequent stories about the kickback scheme that put the supposedly sensitive information out into the public domain well before it was leaked to Sturko.
‘It’s not going to stop me’
“This government is actively trying to put a chill on anybody who speaks out against them,” Opposition leader John Rustad said during legislature question period.
“Does the Premier honestly think that the public would believe that his police services director acted independently?”
“We did not direct this investigation,” said Eby. “This was initiated independently. It’s being conducted independently by the RCMP.”
Sturko, a former RCMP officer, reiterated Wednesday she believes the investigation was launched to try and intimidate her into stopping her ongoing criticism of government’s safe supply policies.
She continued to refuse to divulge the source of the leak, other than to say it was not a police officer.
“The fact this is coming from PSSG [the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General] really to me indicates bias, an attempt to silence me, an attempt to try and intimidate me from the duty that I have, that I was elected to do, to bring forward these types of concerns,” Sturko told media.
“I’m going to keep doing it. It’s not going to stop me. I think that British Columbians should be very concerned by actions that would silence people from coming forward to their MLA.”
She added: “I have no regrets for doing this.”