OUT OF LEFT FIELD: Do you have a right to know if your elected official has a criminal record?
By Kyra Hoggan
I absolutely applaud a resolution Mayor Lawrence Chernoff announced Monday that he’d be bringing forward to council next meeting to consider bringing to the Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Governments and from there, if it passes, to the Union of BC Municipalities and then to the provincial government.
In effect, the resolution will ask that the province require electoral candidates seeking municipal office in B.C. to submit to a criminal record check, the results of which would be made a matter of public record as part of their nomination paperwork. “The intent is not to prevent people with criminal records from running for office – of course they could still run – it’s to give the voters the choice; to let them decide whether the crime is relevant, and whether they still want to vote for that candidate,” Chernoff said. He said it’s well past time such a policy was put in place, as criminal record checks are now required for positions ranging from sports coaches to non-profit volunteers …but not for those in municipal public office who are in positions of public trust. I couldn’t agree more. Do I think a 15-year-old conviction for shoplifting will prevent most candidates from achieving office? Of course not. I think voters are compassionate enough to allow for the occasional poor judgment call in someone’s youth. But what about a recent conviction, achieved while said candidate is already in office? Does the public have a right to know about that? Absolutely. Will it affect their chances of getting elected? I surely hope so. I run the West Kootenay branch of the St. John Ambulance Society, and I needed a criminal record check for that. I also worked for the local Community Services Society, and I needed a criminal record check for that. How is it, then, that we have no such requirement for people asking to make multi-million decisions on our behalf, to be privy to sensitive information, to hold power over local police through budgets? Not to mention people we’re paying to do the job? It’s outrageous, and should have been addressed long since. And Chernoff and I aren’t the only ones saying so. The Nanaimo-Ladysmith school trustee Donna Allen has made a motion for next month’s annual general meeting of the B.C. School Trustees’ Association, asking them to consider urging the provincial government to amend the Criminal Records Review Act to require all school board candidates in B.C. to submit a current criminal record check along with their nomination papers. Hear, Hear. I think people would be shocked to discover just how many elected representatives across the province have criminal records – and I think many would never have been elected if they had disclosed the truth about themselves. What do you think?
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