Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 01 Mar, 2022 01:30 PM
VANCOUVER - A special prosecutor says British Columbia's former clerk of the legislative assembly used public funds to enrich himself in "glaring and egregious" ways.
Brock Martland made the allegation as he began closing arguments in the Crown's case against Craig James, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud over $5,000 and three counts of breach of trust.
James's defence is expected to present its case Wednesday.
Martland says that as the most senior officer of the legislature, James held a position akin to the CEO and was responsible for financial stewardship of the institution.
He accused James of acting outside of his duties by picking up a wood splitter and trailer for the legislature and storing them at home for a year, exploiting a weakness in the system to award himself a $258,000 retirement benefit and charging souvenirs to the public purse.
Martland says public trust in government officials is a critical part of a functioning democracy, and he alleged that James violated that trust.
"This case is about trust, specifically the public trust that we place in government officials," Martland told the court on Tuesday.
"Our position is that the public trust was violated repeatedly and extensively by Craig James."
For anyone whose net self-employment income was under $5,000, those conditions include having filed their 2019 and 2020 tax returns and having $5,000 or more in gross self-employment income in the 12 months before their application for benefits.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says there is now sufficient Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to move up the interval for the booster shot to about eight weeks.
BC has hit significant vaccine milestone. So far 3,032,811 doses of a COVID vaccine have been administered in BC. 156,730 are second doses. 65.8% of adults have received at least one dose.
Facebook doesn’t usually ban misinformation outright on its platform, instead adding fact-checks by outside parties, which includes The Associated Press, to debunked claims. The two exceptions have been around elections and COVID-19.
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