LangleyAdvance
Who’s a good boy! pg A11
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Tuesday, February 1, 2011
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Email sparks legal concern
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MLA Rich Coleman says an email circulating through Langley is “a lie.”
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by Matthew Claxton mclaxton@langleyadvance.com
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Teamwork Using only their bare hands, volunteer re-enactor Jennie Starr helped four-year-old Kyerra Bradley in her house-building efforts during the Vive les Voyageurs Festival at the Fort Langley National Historic Site. The second annual festival celebrated the French-Canadian culture that first emerged in B.C. when the Hudson’s Bay Company arrived at Fort Langley in 1827. See story on page A10. BUILT-IN VACUUM
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Green flips on RCMP call
The mayor was informed he was about to get a call from the police, he has confirmed. by Matthew Claxton mclaxton@langleyadvance.com
Langley Township’s mayor had not only been told about a police investigation, he was told which officer would be calling him. After first claiming he had not heard yet from the RCMP, Mayor Rick Green has now confirmed that he was contacted early in January by Langley RCMP commander Supt. Derek Cooke. The call was a “sort of a heads up,” Green now said of the call. “Nothing was official.” Green told the Langley Advance last week, “I can’t tell you anything about it, because nobody’s talked to me.” [RCMP ask questions about Green, Jan. 28, ] On Monday, Green said Cooke told him that a certain RCMP corporal would be contacting the
mayor in the near future. As of last week, Green said, the corporal has called him. “I received the official phone call,” he said. Green said there is an accusation that he has breached provincial statutes. “It is not a criminal offence, it is not a criminal investigation,” Green said. He expects to meet with the investigating officer soon. “I am very prepared,” he said. The police inquiries began this month, as RCMP officers began asking questions of council members, and requesting documents from the Township, in midJanuary. Police are apparently looking into Green’s actions after he was censured by council last year. RCMP officially refused to comment on whether an investigation has begun, and no charges have been laid. However, Township administrator Mark Bakken confirmed that police have made verbal requests
for information from members of council and from Township staff. The police were looking for documents and minutes from meetings. Some of the materials had to be vetted before being released, but the Township’s policy is to fully cooperate with the police, Bakken said. “Their requests have continued,” Bakken said of the police inquiries. Officers have followed up and were apparently looking for more information as recently as last week. The investigation is thought to relate to a press conference Green gave after he was censured by council for misleading them about when he had obtained certain documents. The documents were about a discredited controversy that surfaced in the mid1990s and involved the wives of several local politicians, bureaucrats, and realtors. An investigation 15 years ago by the provincial conflict commissioner concluded that there had been no conflict of interest.
An email containing allegations about Rich Coleman is libelous, slanderous, and a lie, the Fort Langley-Aldergrove MLA said. “I’ve already forwarded this to legal counsel,” Coleman told the Langley Advance on Friday. The twoparagraph email has apparently been circulating since Thursday morning. Its second Rich Coleman, MLA paragraph Fort Langley-Aldergrove urges people to vote in the Advance’s online poll. The writer urges people to vote for Township Mayor Rick Green in response to the question, “Who would you like to see occupying the Langley Township mayor’s chair this time next year?” The email applauds Green as a protector of farmland. It’s the first paragraph that has raised Coleman’s ire. It contains allegations about conduct. The allegations are linked to the ongoing police inquiries being made about Green’s actions. “For someone to make that type of comment is completely a lie,” Coleman said of the email. The MLA said that, until he saw the email this week, he had not really been paying attention to the news regarding Green. Coleman has recently been on a brief vacation. “I am not, and will not, get involved in this,” Coleman said, saying he wants to stay above it. His lawyers will advise him if he needs to take further action regarding the email, he said. Green said he was not aware of the email: “I haven’t seen it, I don’t know anything about it,” he said. The mayor denied accusing anyone of anything.