Re: “NDP keen to put Amrik Virk on the hot seat,” online only.
Your columnist does journalism no favors when he minimizes the revelations brought forward by the NDP in the Legislature April 20.
As he notes, the NDP sought information from multiple sources within government, notably from a gentleman named Nick Facey who worked for Amrik Virk during the height of the scandal around Kwantlen College executive compensation. I dryly note Virk was forced to admit he had “forgotten” that he was involved in efforts to skirt the compensation rules when he was a board member at Kwantlen.
So the NDP asked for emails from Facey during that time. “No records” was the response. But the emails did turn up, largely blacked out as cabinet advice, from the ministre’s files.
The Freedom of Information and Privacy Act protects our democratic institutions by forcing governments to inform us of what they are up to. It’s a damn shame Leyne doesn’t find a government routinely evading the act more appalling.
Merv Adey, Saltspring Island
