B.C. Legislature Sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz, left, and clerk Craig James will hold a media conference at noon Monday. The two were placed on administrative leave last week. File photo.
Two suspended legislative officials have a called a media conference for Monday at noon in Vancouver.
Sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz and clerk Craig James will hold the media conference at the office of their lawyer.
BREAKING: the 2 suspended Legislature officers will hold a news conference Monday @ 12 @ their lawyer's Vancouver office. @CHEK_News #bcpoli
— Mary Griffin (@Mary_Griffin_) November 26, 2018
A lawyer for Lenz and James says they do not know why they have been suspended and have denied any wrongdoing.
Last Tuesday, the two officials were escorted from the legislature after MLAs voted unanimously to place Lenz and James on paid administrative leave following allegations related to their administrative duties.
Two special prosecutors were appointed to assist in the RCMP investigation.
On the weekend, the Opposition Liberals pushed for an emergency meeting Monday to question Speaker Darryl Plecas about how and why he hired a special adviser to look into his concerns about the two top legislative officials.
Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson said Saturday his caucus still has a lot of questions about the Speaker’s decision to hire his friend Alan Mullen in January to look into the administrative duties of Lenz and James.
Last week, Plecas hired former B.C. Liberal and attorney general Wally Oppal as a second special adviser.
Oppal said Saturday the Speaker obtained “significant” legal advice before taking any of his actions in the matter.
In a sworn affidavit, Liberal house leader Mary Polak said Plecas proposed installing Mullen as the acting sergeant-at-arms, which she described as “inappropriate”.
In a response to the Liberal party’s demand for an emergency meeting Saturday, Plecas broke his silence by saying the notion Mullen was hired under a cloud of secrecy is “utter nonsense”.
The Speaker said Mullen was hired in consultation with human resource and legislature financial officials.
With files from the Canadian Press.
CHEK News
