The following letter was sent to Premier Gordon Campbell and copied to Coast Reporter.
Dear Premier Campbell:
Based on the news that your office is alleged to have ordered the destruction of two year's worth of emails as recently as this May related to the sale of BC Rail, how can the public trust further decision-making by you without the integrity of your office being questioned? What other current or future issues will you be involved in that could be compromised by similar acts of incompetence?
Mr. Campbell, can you assure the public that you had no say in the government ordering the destruction of back-up tapes held by a computer contractor, EDS Advanced Solutions? Until your name is cleared on this issue, how can we extend our trust required to be premier? Call it quits now, or at least step aside until the investigation is complete.
Never in the history of B.C. have we experienced a situation where credible sources indicate that the premier's office has ordered the deletion of sensitive government correspondence. This makes Watergate look like the minor leagues. Mr. Campbell, we're not talking about an 18-minute recording gap, this is two year's worth of correspondence that could be missing and important as it relates to an ongoing criminal investigation related to corruption in the BC Rail sale. The optics right now couldn't get any worse.
If you are a culprit in these tapes being deleted, and now a case under investigation by the RCMP, you could be charged with abuse of process. Mr. Campbell, to continue in the premier's office under this cloud of suspicion is tough to rationalize and an affront to the title. Thus, I for one will be calling on others to demand your immediate resignation due to the above serious allegations.
Ross Muirhead
Roberts Creek