Is There A Potential For A Perceived Conflict Of Interest Involving The Conflict Commissioner?

OnceYouKnowAThingYouCannotPretendTo
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Look.

After this latest report of a provincial government leak, this time apparently involving the Conflict Commissioner's report (scroll down) on Ms. Christy Clark's secret large dollar fundraising activities, there is something I fee compelled to revisit as a citizen of British Columbia...

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The following is from a post I wrote in back in 2014 when the matter of Ms. Christy Clark's having been associated with a lobbying shop run by her former husband prior to her becoming the premier arose in the public prints:

Remember what our fine Premier, Ms. Christy Clark, told the proMedia, and anyone else who would listen after Matthew Millar's third story broke in the NaPo, about her demonstrable pre-premier connections to a subsidiary company of RCI, which itself is a company that our fine Premier has done her best to pump while in office?

I mean, it was only a couple of weeks ago, right?

Well...

For the record, here is what Ms. Clark told the VSun's Rob Shaw:

...“I never did any work for the company, I wasn’t paid by the company, I never attending any meetings at the request of the company, and as far as I know the company never really got off the ground,” she said at the legislature...
 
Which is a pretty emphatic statement, no?
 
Except...
 
As we have already pointed out, there is documentary evidence which suggests that something quite different may have gone down with said 'company' given their letter-based overture to the University of New Brunswick a number of months after their incorporation. In addition, this letter was dated a full two months after Ms. Clark's first monetary compensation was due to arrive based on the company's original invitation/contract to her.
 
An invitation/contract, by the way, that Ms. Clark herself signed off on.
 
And last week Bob Mackin unearthed more paper involving additional overtures to (gasp!) Ms. Clark's old alma mater, Simon Fraser University.
 
And while very few of the proMedia herd have followed up on such documentary evidence, have no fear because the good Premier offered a 'don't worry, be happy' - type solution that seems to have satisfied said herd:
 
...(Ms. Clark) said she’d be happy to forward the matter to B.C.’s Conflict of Interest Commissioner for review...

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With all of the above as pre-amble...

Please recall that the Conflict of Interest Commissioner that Ms. Clark was referring to is a very fine public servant by the name of Mr. Paul Fraser who was originally appointed by Ms. Clark's former boss, then Premier Gordon Campbell.

And please also recall that Mr. Fraser was forced to recuse himself from John van Dongen's recent complaint that revolved around Ms. Clark's actions in the run-up up to the sale/not sale (i.e. 990 year lease) of BC Rail by Mr. Gordon Campbell and friends, one of whom Ms. Clark likes to give bundles of our cash so that she can fly on private jets to exotic and hard to reach (by commercial airline route) locales like Edmonton and Regina.

And with that we finally arrive at a number of matters that get to the real heart of the matter here....

First, this, from Matt Millar's original VanObserver piece about how Ms. Clark once worked for Burrard Communications in her pre-Premier days just before the fine folks from BurrardComm went to work flack-hacking for Enbridge:

Which is how we know that BurrardComm, whose founder is Ms. Clark's former husband Mr. Mark Marissen, did such flack-hacking.

But...

Just who is this John Paul Fraser fellow named in the federal lobbying documents anyway?

And why does J.P. have a monicker that is so similar to that very fine conflict commissioner that we discussed above, but only because Ms. Clark herself indicated that he should make a ruling on the appropriateness of her not having disclosed her association with Burrard, Translink and a subsidiary of RCI, which itself had a business relationship with BurrardComm.

Well, as you may have already surmised, Mr. J.P. Fraser is the son of Mr. P. Fraser who is the above-mentioned conflict commissioner.

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And what, you may be asking yourself,  is the point of this revisiting of history given that the fact that it has recently been noted that Mr. Fraser's son works for the Premier's government at the Premier's pleasure?

Well...

Firstly, please don't assume that I am in any way impugning anyone for their past business or personal associations.

However, in my opinion at least, the history of the past associations noted above further indicates that the potential for a perception of a conflict of interest for the Conflict Commissioner is very real where investigations into the deeds and actions of Ms. Christy Clark as Premier of British Columbia are concerned.

Not as leader of the Opposition with no decision-making, spending, legislative or contract-writing powers that may, or may not, involve the myriad of big money donors to her political party that has been using said donations, at least in part, to pay her approximately $300,000 over the last six years.

But as Premier.

OK?


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And another thing....It looks like some proMedia folks from East of the Rockies are starting to sniff around at this thing...It is my sincere hope that they actually shame the local puffed-up punditry to actually do something....Or, at the very least, just shame them generally.


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