I recently investigated two sister groups, the BC Association of Municipal Chiefs of Police and the BC Association of Chiefs of Police. I found that both groups are playing a shellgame with the law: On the one hand, they’re claiming they are “private groups” whose activities are not subject to BC’s freedom of information laws covering public bodies. On the other hand, they are operating these “private groups” out of their police departments using police staff and public police resources. (Read the article to see how much more complicated and dubious their shellgames become when I try to obtain even basic documentation about their groups.) And even though they spend a lot of time meeting with politicians and bureaucrats and helping craft legislation and lobby for laws, they also think they don’t need to be legally registered as a lobby group because they’re just doing all this as part of their normal day to day policing duties.
At the end of that article, I explained that I had submitted complaints to both the Lobbyist Registry and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, arguing that these police chief groups were either public bodies subject to laws covering public bodies, or private groups subject to laws covering private groups — they could not escape being either. One way or another, I argued, our police chiefs have to be subject to at least some laws of transparency and accountability like the rest of our society.
The OIPC is investigating. And now, in a recent email to me, the Lobbyist Registrar has deemed these concerns to be valid enough to warrant an investigation as well. Here is the full text of the email from the Lobbyist Registrar:
Dear Rob Wipond:
This is to acknowledge receipt of your complaint under the BC Lobbyists Registration Act (“LRA”) that the Association of Chiefs of Police may be engaging in activities that qualify as lobbying and have not registered as required by the LRA.
I attach for your reference our policy in respect of complaints.
Requesting the Registrar Conduct an Investigation
7.1 Where a person requests the Registrar to conduct an investigation to establish whether there is or has been compliance with this Act, the requester will be expected to provide the registrar with the name and address of the subject of the allegation and a description of the facts that are alleged to constitute a violation of the LRA.
7.2 If no investigation is commenced as a result of the request, and the request for investigation has not otherwise been made public, the identity of the requester will be kept confidential.
7.3 If an investigation is commenced as a result of the request, the identity of the person requesting the investigation may be disclosed to the person under investigation, to the extent that it is necessary to conduct the investigation and adhere to the principles of procedural fairness.
7.4 Despite paragraph 8.3, the registrar may direct that the identity of the person requesting the investigation, and any information disclosed by that person, be kept confidential to the exclusion of any other person including the person directly affected, on terms the registrar considers necessary, if the registrar believes that direction is necessary to ensure the proper administration of the Act, including the protecting that person from physical or other harm.
7.5 A person who requests an investigation has no rights to notice or information during the investigation, and has no greater procedural rights in an investigation or subsequent hearing than any member of the public.
Please be advised that we have not disclosed your identity to the Association of Chiefs of Police, however, given the public nature of this complaint, it is not our intention to keep your identity secret, unless you can provide reasons otherwise.
In response to your complaint, we have commenced an investigation under section 7.1 of the LRA, which states that if it is considered necessary to establish whether there is or has been compliance by any person with the LRA or the regulations, the Registrar may conduct an investigation. You will be notified of our findings in respect of your complaint.
Yours truly,
Mary Carlson
Deputy Registrar of Lobbyists for British Columbia
Website www.lobbyistsregistrar.bc.ca