1327 replies to this topic

[Sparky]

David Broadland of Focus Magazine is keeping the topic in the air with a well written article. It looks however that he needs the help of the privacy commissioner to remove some of the black felt pen marks to get at the truth underneath.

DID THE MAYORS OBSTRUCT THE ELSNER INVESTIGATION?

“Records obtained by FOI leave little doubt that Mayor Helps and Mayor Desjardins hid allegations of sexual harassment raised against Chief Elsner.”

https://www.focusonv...estigation-r12/

[rmpeers]

Surely the mayor's aren't trying to keep the facts from the public?? People might start to think they didn't act appropriately...

[spanky123]

The other aspect of this FOI request that David briefly touched upon last month was that originally the Police Board stated that there were no emails between Helps and Desjardins as they had all been deleted. It wasn't until Focus filed another FOI act request and received emails that the Board has previously claimed were deleted that it became apparent that the original response had not been truthful. 

 

Apparently the Police Board has no documented records retention policy which sounds entirely inept to me. Anything they don't want the public to see they just delete and unless it gets captured inadvertently elsewhere then they won't ever be held accountable?

[rmpeers]

It's a real shame we don't have a local newspaper in this city; because if we did, this would be exactly the sort of story they'd be digging into.

So much to unpack here:
How the mayor's acted in the first place.
How they acted to cover up both Elsner's action and their own.
How city staff are still tasked with the ongoing work of covering up the mayors' actions.
How taxpayers would have been spared $1 million if this hadn't been bungled so badly.
Why every other councillor was too chickens&@t to call the mayor out on knowingly covering up sexual harrassment and groping.
Why, with much of this having been revealed, did 12000 Victorians vote the mayor back in? (Option 1: they are fine with sexual harrassment. Option 2: they possess the intelligence of a rock.)
With such an ugly story uncovered, how did candidate Helps secure endorsements from former beloved Canadian icon David Suzuki, as well as from women?
I could go on, but my sense is that the metoo era completely passed this town by.

[rmpeers]

Great news. Focus Magazine's complaint to the OIPC about the heavy redactions to the Elsher docs (remember the ones that didn't exist and then the City magically found them?) has resulted in a hearing being set... in October 2020. I applaud Focus' dogged pursuit of this story, although I get that sexual harrassment isn't a big deal to many Victoria voters; it's nice to know that someone still cares.

[David Bratzer]

Frank Elsner has been removed from the Order of Merit of the Police Forces:

 

TERMINATION OF APPOINTMENT TO THE ORDER OF MERIT OF THE POLICE FORCES

Notice is hereby given that, further to his individual request and the Administrator of the Government of Canada's subsequent approval, the appointment of Police Chief (Retired) Frank Elsner (Victoria Police Department) to the Order of Merit of the Police Forces was terminated by Ordinance signed on February 3, 2021.

 

Ottawa, April 10, 2021

 

Ian McCowan

Secretary General of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces

[Sparky]

Great news. Focus Magazine's complaint to the OIPC about the heavy redactions to the Elsher docs (remember the ones that didn't exist and then the City magically found them?) has resulted in a hearing being set... in October 2020. I applaud Focus' dogged pursuit of this story, although I get that sexual harrassment isn't a big deal to many Victoria voters; it's nice to know that someone still cares.

 

Did we ever get to see what the redactions were?

[rmpeers]

Did we ever get to see what the redactions were?

Appears Focus Magazine stopped reporting on this a year ago. Maybe the mayor was able to pull some strings to put a lid on this rather inconvenient story.