The recent coroner's inquest into the death of Sherry Charlie saw a parade of witnesses testify about the toddler's slaying at the hands of her great uncle. But absent from that parade was provincial New Democrat MLA Nicholas Simons. Before he was elected, Mr. Simons, as our astute readers will remember, was commissioned by the government to write the director's review into Sherry's death. And, according to our operatives, he had been subpoenaed to testify at the inquest - perhaps providing information that may have been left out of that report. But, on Monday, coroner's counsel John Orr notified Mr. Simons he had been struck from the witness list because a number of additional names had been added to the inquest's already packed schedule. To date, the MLA has been unable to speak about his past review work due to a confidentiality agreement with the government.
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Say, what?
Somebody who wrote the director's report was gagged...errr...struck... from the witness list.
This is really, truly outrageous.
Perhaps an in-depth interview with Public Eye is warranted.
According to the Premier , the government isn't going to do anything until all reports are in, the last being in June. Sort of handy as the house won't be sitting. If the chap who wrote a review and it was confidential, I guess somewhere down the road, maybe the confidentiality clause could be removed.
Maybe it's like the MLA's from the government side going around the province talking to selected people, and only reporting to the cabinet who choses not to tell the rest of the MLA's what they saw of heard. Who did he write the report to, and if it was confidential I wonder if he could have been forced to break the confidential deal? I sort of doubt it. Maybe someone would ask him. He has a office, give him a call.
I have to mention, for the record, that apart from great reporting, you have a real flair for headline writing, Sean. Loved "The Ministry of Unfortunate Events" and "Better Homes and Partisans"...
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