Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 01 Mar, 2022 01:30 PM
VANCOUVER - A special prosecutor says British Columbia's former clerk of the legislative assembly used public funds to enrich himself in "glaring and egregious" ways.
Brock Martland made the allegation as he began closing arguments in the Crown's case against Craig James, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud over $5,000 and three counts of breach of trust.
James's defence is expected to present its case Wednesday.
Martland says that as the most senior officer of the legislature, James held a position akin to the CEO and was responsible for financial stewardship of the institution.
He accused James of acting outside of his duties by picking up a wood splitter and trailer for the legislature and storing them at home for a year, exploiting a weakness in the system to award himself a $258,000 retirement benefit and charging souvenirs to the public purse.
Martland says public trust in government officials is a critical part of a functioning democracy, and he alleged that James violated that trust.
"This case is about trust, specifically the public trust that we place in government officials," Martland told the court on Tuesday.
"Our position is that the public trust was violated repeatedly and extensively by Craig James."
A statement from the board says 726 commercial properties sold in the Lower Mainland between April and June, a nearly 115 per cent increase from sales in the same period last year.
The concierge was working at a hotel on Robson Street on October 8 when he confronted a man who had entered the parkade and was peering into cars. The man pulled out a knife and allegedly threatened the hotel employee, before fleeing out to the street.
Ten days of trial dates were set during a brief, virtual courtroom hearing this morning, three months after military police charged the former Canadian Armed Forces commander following a sexual misconduct investigation.
The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat says 240,000 employees have filed their attestations of their vaccine status to the government, out of approximately 268,000.
The committee now recommends mRNA boosters to people who received two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, adults over the age of 70, front-line health-care workers with a short interval between their first two doses, and people from First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.
The office of New York congressman Brian Higgins says U.S. Customs and Border Protection won't be requiring a negative COVID-19 test for fully vaccinated travellers in order to cross the land border with Canada.
