The punishment of a former ministerial aide in the 鈥渢riple delete鈥� scandal has satisfied the law, but British Columbians will need more convincing before they are satisfied the government puts public interest ahead of partisan considerations.
George Steven Gretes, 28, a former ministerial assistant in sa国际传媒鈥檚 Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, pleaded guilty Thursday to making a false statement during an inquiry by then-privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham. He was fined $2,500.
Gretes was charged with lying under oath after telling Denham twice that he had not triple-deleted government emails. Denham鈥檚 office was conducting an inquiry sparked by a complaint from Tim Duncan, another Ministry of Transportation employee.
Duncan said he had been on the job for only a few weeks in November 2014, when the ministry received a request for records relating to the disappearance of women along northern sa国际传媒鈥檚 Highway of Tears. He said he turned up more than a dozen relevant documents. He said Gretes told him to delete the records, then took away Duncan鈥檚 keyboard and deleted the emails, then triple-deleted the files to erase them completely.
Gretes wasn鈥檛 fined for expunging the emails 鈥� it wasn鈥檛 prohibited at the time 鈥� but for twice lying about doing so.
The fine is only part of his punishment 鈥� his misdeeds cost him his job and some hefty legal fees, and will likely be a handicap in his career.
As the provincial court judge pointed out, though, 鈥渢here鈥檚 a public interest in all government employees being scrupulously honest.鈥�
If we could be convinced Gretes acted alone, the conclusion of his court case would be more comforting, but there鈥檚 more than a nagging suspicion that his actions sprang from a culture, not from an impulse. His lawyer said Gretes lied because an older staff member had shown him how to triple-delete, and he didn鈥檛 want to get her into trouble.
The culture in an organization is generally established from the higher end of the chain of command, not among the lower ranks. It鈥檚 in the genetic makeup of a politically appointed aide to do what the boss would want. If those at the top clearly insist on consistently ethical behaviour aimed at the public good, those at the bottom are less likely to engage in 鈥渨in at any cost鈥� strategies.
It鈥檚 that wrong kind of culture that fosters such things as the 鈥渜uick wins鈥� scandal, the strategy that sought to exploit ethnic issues to win votes for the sa国际传媒 Liberals. It鈥檚 that mindset that motivated Nigel Wright and others in the Prime Minister鈥檚 Office of Stephen Harper to try to make the Mike Duffy living-expenses scandal go away.
Denham鈥檚 inquiry into the triple-deletions was expanded into a wider look at how government documents were handled. Her report said political staff in Premier Christy Clark鈥檚 office and in ministries were routinely destroying government records and violating the province鈥檚 access-to-information laws.
The government鈥檚 response was appropriate 鈥� former privacy commissioner David Loukidelis was hired to make recommendations on how to improve its freedom of information policies and procedures and records management practices. And Clark has agreed to implement Loukidelis鈥檚 wide-ranging recommendations.
But it will take more than policies and procedures to change a culture. That starts with those at the very top insisting, without equivocation, that standard operating procedure is to do the right thing, even if it鈥檚 not the politically expedient thing.
