The Integrity Group report is pictured here. (CFJC Today File Photo)

By Michael Reeve

Honchurak Report

While set to return leaked report, Hamer-Jackson still believes document should be public

Jan 31, 2025 | 5:06 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson is confirming he will comply with a request from the province’s Attorney General to return his copy of a confidential report into alleged workplace misconduct.

Attorney General Niki Sharma has requested that Hamer-Jackson return the Integrity Group report, also referred to as the ‘Honchurak Report’, after he shared a copy of the document with the media last year.

The petition was filed in B.C. Supreme Court on January 30, requesting that the mayor return the report, destroy electronic copies in his possession and to advise the Attorney General who he shared it with. It’s a request Hamer-Jackson intends to comply with.

“Yeah, yeah,” confirmed Hamer-Jackson when asked whether he will comply with the request. “And this is an initiative from the city. They take a report that came in the mail more seriously than leaks that came out in 2023.”

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The legal basis for the petition rests under privacy law, while also ranging into the BC Community Charter, according to a lawyer who works in this field.

“It’s specifically the Community Charter and obligations that flow under the Local Government Act, but on broader perspective, it’s also generally privacy legislation and common-law privacy,” said Michael Scherr, Managing Partner at Pearlman and Lindholm in Victoria.

And while having the Attorney General and a city’s mayor as the participants is virtually unheard of, the general issue is more common.

“Especially within the realm of workplace investigation. People are coming forward and giving information to investigators or employers that would otherwise be very private, probably not disclosed, and they do so expecting it to be private and confidential and used for a specific purpose,” said Scherr.

Hamer-Jackson has routinely claimed that he is unsure if the copy shared with him is the original article. Despite returning the document, the mayor still believes it should be public

“The document is all about me, so why can’t I have a copy? Why can’t the media see it? Why? Nobody seems to ask the councillors why they will not release it to me. It’s about me. And in the document we did receive, if it’s anything like the original, the only sensitive information there is people lying,” claims Hamer-Jackson.

That assertion from the mayor, that it should be public so he can defend himself, is something Scherr believes is best suited to be decided by a judge.

“If he is entitled, or does need it for a defense, and it’s not a document that would otherwise be covered by a form of court privilege, then any proceedings that he is involved in, he can ask the court for disclosure and a judge can rule on it with all the facts,” Scherr told CFJC News.

Hamer-Jackson is awaiting paperwork from the AG on next steps. Both the Attorney General and the city of Kamloops declined to comment on the petition as it is still before the courts.