From: brewnoser2@gmail.com   
      
   Vancouver Sun May 28, 2015   
      
   B.C. government accused of deliberately destroying Highway of Tears internal   
   records   
       
   B.C.'s privacy commissioner says she's launched an investigation after   
   government accused of widespread and systemic abuse of the Freedom of   
   Information law   
      
      
   VICTORIA - B.C.'s privacy commissioner says she's launched an investigation   
   into allegations from a former government staffer that the province   
   deliberately destroyed internal records related to the Highway of Tears to   
   prevent them from becoming public.   
      
   Elizabeth Denham said in a statement she's begun work on the initial steps of   
   an investigation, after receiving the complaint Wednesday.   
      
   The complaint came from a former staffer in Transportation Minister Todd   
   Stone's office, who said he was instructed to delete certain emails before   
   they could be captured in a Freedom of Information request related to the   
   Highway of Tears in northern B.C.   
   , where 18 women have gone missing or been murdered.   
      
   Tim Duncan, Stone's former executive assistant, accused his old ministry and   
   government of widespread and systemic abuse of the FOI law.   
      
   In his letter, Duncan said he was asked to find records last November related   
   to public consultations government held for possible solutions to the Highway   
   of Tears.   
      
   !______________   
      
   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 the actions in a conversation   
   with 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 fired from government   
   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.   
      
   Stone said he was unaware of the allegations but would be having a frank   
   discussion with his staff about how he expects all FOI laws to be followed   
   appropriately.   
      
   The government's public consultation on possible solutions to the Highway of   
   Tears has been criticized by the NDP in the past, because officials only met   
   with only a small number of aboriginal women.   
      
   The government has also been accused of deliberately withholding records in   
   other past cases.  Denham said in a 2013 report that a culture of "oral   
   government" exists where officials are encouraged not to write anything down   
   so that it can't become a    
   public record.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)