Ady Pacheco and Gordon Wade are the two Immigration officers from the Department's Nationality Section who have gotten a lawyer to answer their Director on what happened to the Citizen Kim file - which famously disappeared.
In a document obtained by 7News which we showed you yesterday, Godfrey Smith wrote to the Acting Director Maria Marin on January 30th. He told her that his clients don't have to answer for any breech of procedure in handling of the Kim or any other files because they were never provided with an outline of their duties and the Department has no established procedures.
And as it relates to Kim, Smith writes that was conceived and engineered by Minister of State Elvin Penner acting either personally or through instructions directed at public officers. Smith tells Director Marin that his clients will not be scapegoats for quote, Minister Penner's disgraceful actions" and they will, quote, "vigorously defend against any disciplinary proceedings before the Public Services Commission and the courts of law," end quote.
Confronted with a lawyer, Director Marin turned to government's attorney, the acting Solicitor General Nigel Hawke.
Now, 7News has also obtained the copy of his letter back to Godfrey Smith. That is dated February 17th, just three days ago, and it finds Hawke back-pedaling. He tells Smith that the letters to Marin and Wade were not "show-cause" letters. This means letters in which they were asked to show cause why they should not be terminated. Hawke writes that the letters were, quote "merely…to assist the…department…in determining whether there is sufficient to issue letters asking them to show cause."
In other words, Hawke is saying that there's no need to get a lawyer at this stage because the Department has not decided to recommend their termination. But seeming to be disbelieving that Wade and Pacheco would bring out the big guns, Hawke also wrote to Gilroy Wade on Tuesday, February 18th., asking him if Godfrey Smith is his lawyer.
Email
Print