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BC Liberal MLA Dave Hayer cleared by police

UPDATE: Statements made in this article, while made responsibly when originally written, have been determined to be unfounded by the RCMP. The allegations were unsubstantiated. The file relating to the allegation has been closed. No report was made to Crown Counsel and the RCMP did not ask for a special prosecutor.*

B.C. Liberal MLA Dave Hayer was under police investigation as part of the B.C. Legislature Raid case, defence lawyers alleged in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Michael Bolton, representing David Basi, former aide to ex-Finance Minister Gary Collins, told Justice Elizabeth Bennett that new disclosure of documents to the defence revealed that Hayer was investigated on allegations that he and Basi were attempting to have "assessments or collections" of money owed to the Insurance Corporation of B.C. (ICBC)

“We’ve now got disclosure of the Basi-B investigation. It turns out it’s an investigation of MLA David Hayer regarding collaborating with Hayer to forgive ICBC assessments or collections against some of his constituents,” Bolton said. “It appears that David Hayer was under investigation at one stage.”

"That investigation fizzled out but originally we thought only Mr. Collins was under investigation. Obviously Mr. Hayer and Mr. Collins were at various times under investigation,” Bolton said.

“That’s important information we’re getting years down the road,” he added.

Hayer, a B.C. Liberal who serves as MLA for Surrey-Tynehead, released the following statement on Wednesday: "I understand that allegations have recently been made in a court case. Out of respect for the independent judicial process, I am unable to comment on anything that comes out of any case that is currently before the courts."

NDP MLA Mike Farnworth said the government needs to “come clean” on what happened.

“We’ve heard in the past that no elected officials were under investigation and this flies in the face of that. What have they been covering up?” Farnworth said outside court.

Bennett also heard defence complaints about the volume of disclosure of evidence and the status of Freedom of Information requests. Outside court Bolton said the defence has waived the right to appeal FOI requests to the Freedom of Information Commissioner and asked Bennett to rule on them herself.

The court is scheduled to begin another hearing September 29 on the vetting of approximately 1,000 documents related to solicitor-client privilege claims filed by the government.

For more on this emerging story, see Bill Tieleman's blog.

Update: Following this report the RCMP investigated and found the allegations were unsubstantiated. The details are here.

*Story updated at 11:45 a.m. on May 14, 2012.


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