BC Conservatives Seek Answers on Eby Staffer Fired over Past Leaks

The Conservative Party of BC led question period Tuesday seeking answers about why Premier David Eby’s office hired — and then fired — an international relations official alleged to have leaked sensitive and classified information while in a previous federal government job.

Officials in Victoria, Ottawa and the RCMP are declining to provide more information while the matter remains under investigation and before the courts.

“The premier’s office is being sued by a former executive director of international relations, John Pratt,” B.C. Conservative party interim leader Trevor Halford said in the legislature, citing information first reported in The Tyee.

“He had been previously terminated from his job with the federal government under suspicion of leaking sensitive materials,” said Halford. “Did the premier know when he hired him that this person was under investigation, or did he not even do the proper due diligence of a background check?”

Attorney General Niki Sharma responded. “As this matter is before the courts, we won’t be commenting on it in question period.”

The Tyee reported Monday that Pratt is suing the B.C. premier’s office for wrongful dismissal. The notice of civil claim filed last week in the B.C. Supreme Court said Pratt was the acting executive director of international relations in the Intergovernmental Relations Secretariat earning $124,700 annually.

The province suspended Pratt without pay in July 2025, about a year after he began working for the premier’s office, when the employer learned he had been arrested and detained by the RCMP during an investigation.

Pratt was allegedly responsible for the unauthorized disclosure of documents containing sensitive and classified intelligence while in a previous job for the Privy Council Office, which supports the Canadian prime minister and federal cabinet, between May 2022 and February 2023.

The premier’s office fired Pratt in December 2025 without notice or pay in lieu of notice, according to the notice of claim, which also said the RCMP investigation is ongoing and no charges have been laid.

Asked by The Tyee whether there were any similar concerns arising from Pratt’s work in the premier’s office, Sharma said, “As it’s a [human resources] issue and it’s a court matter, it’s very tightly held in terms of the information and what I can say about anything related to it, so I don’t have any information.”

Pierre Cuguen, an official with the Privy Council Office, declined to answer questions about what documents may have been leaked and to whom.

“Given that this matter was referred to the RCMP by PCO, we cannot comment on it further,” they said. “The protection of classified information is essential to maintaining trust in Canada’s system of governance.”

Nor would a spokesperson for the RCMP provide more information, saying the force generally does not confirm or provide details about investigations until charges are laid and they are a matter of public record.

Halford said he is “alarmed” about the firing and the questions it raises for Eby’s office.

The first question is whether the premier’s office knew about the allegations when they hired Pratt in 2024, he said outside the legislative chamber.

“If they did, then that’s a huge problem,” Halford said. “And if they didn’t, that’s a big problem too. The fact of the matter is that then they decided to suspend this person with pay, but why would they have made that hiring decision in the first place? Do they not have adequate background checks or was there another reason they made this hire?”

At a time when the province is closing the Office of the Merit Commissioner, which for more than two decades has reviewed government hiring to make sure it’s done fairly, Pratt’s hiring shows why scrutiny is needed, Halford said.

“You can tell this government is being caught flat-footed on their hires and I think they’re holding themselves to a different standard than other British Columbians at this point,” he said. “It seems the premier is ready to hire anybody that he sees fit, and I think British Columbians disagree with that.”