Prince George Coun. Brian Skakun has lost his bid to clear his name in the courts, but says he will continue to fight the good fight for whistleblowers everywhere.
Skakun, who was first elected to council in 2002, was in 2011 convicted of leaking to the CBC an in-camera report that dealt with allegations the police chief had harassed a number of civic employees. He was fined $750.
A lawyer acting pro bono for Skakun, sparing him an estimated $50,000 in legal fees, appealed the Provincial Court ruling to the B.C. Supreme Court, which upheld the conviction.
Skakun then appealed the Supreme Court ruling to the B.C. Court of Appeal, but in a ruling released Wednesday, B.C.鈥檚 highest court dismissed his appeal.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Skakun said he was 鈥渄isappointed鈥� by the latest ruling.
鈥淭his is about trying to ensure that elected officials had some right to disclose things that they figure that the public needs to know about,鈥� said Skakun, who plans to run for re-election again this fall.
鈥淓lected officials were elected by the people to represent them, to let them know what鈥檚 going on behind closed doors as best they can.鈥�
The issue on appeal was whether he was an officer of the municipal government under the applicable laws and therefore obliged not to disclose the report.
He argued that as an elected official, he was not an officer of the government. In her ruling, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Daphne Smith found that he was. Two other judges on the Appeal Court panel, Justice Anne MacKenzie and Justice David Harris, agreed with her.
Skakun said that at one point, representatives of the B.C. government who interpret and administer the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act told him in writing he was not an officer, that elected officials are not officers.
Skakun, who has received a national whistleblower award since his conviction, has no plans to take the appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, the country鈥檚 highest court.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been five long years since this whole issue came about and I was convicted of this privacy offence May 24 three years ago. I was re-elected, I did quite well. I don鈥檛 think it hurt me politically. I know I did the right thing the wrong way.鈥�
