Question Period handout at the BC Legislature May 14-2019

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Begin forwarded message:

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kate Gillie < > Subject: Jinny Sims MLA & Minister of Citizens' Services

Date: March 4, 2019 at 5:09:57 PM PST To: conflictofinterest@coibc.ca Cc: Alex.MacLennan@go .bc.ca,

ethicsAd isor.intergovernmentalrelations@gov.bc.ca This is a true statement and one I will swear to. I began work for Jinny Sims MLA as a Constituency Assistant on 8 January 2019, I have reported this to the IRCC and the BC Elections Commission.

Statement begins:

On February 7, 2019 Rajeena Pannu (temporary CA) answered a call to Jinny Sims LA office. The man explained that he needed Jinny s help to get home, he was here in Canada illegally and had no papers. Rajeena asked me for advice, I told her to take his number and that I would look into it. I contacted a friend at CBSA who advised that I should call the RCMP and report the call, failing that, to suggest that he take himself immediately to a border and hand himself into the Canadian Immigration Services. I relayed all of this to Jinny via text.

Please note that throughout my employment with Jinny Sims (8 January to 22 February) a constant has been the strident instructions from both Jinny and her SMA, Shannon, to phone or text only to their private non-Ministerial phones. Emails sent have been deleted and I have consistently been warned not to : these emails can be found on my leg.bc.ca account, as I refused to triple delete them. If they are not there and have been deleted I did not do it, and a forensic investigation will confirm this.

Jinny responded saying that I should leave it with her, and tell no-one . I was extremely uncomfortable with this answer as I am aware that there are a number of human trafficking rings operating in and around Surrey. I met with Jinny in the morning of 8 February and requested that she not intervene as she is a BC Provincial Minister and this was possibly a criminal matter. I was told that she had the immigration file and knew what she was doing. It was clear that she had already contacted the individual as she carried on with, “and his wife is sick. I'm going to make sure he can come back to Canada without any problem from this.

On Wednesday, 6 February, 2019 Rabina Sattar (Jinny Sims Fundraising Co-ordinator for her riding) was told by Jinny to pass some “files to me to fix a very important matter. Jinny called me that afternoon and told me to “drop everything and deal with this . Rabina arrived at about 4.15pm with the files on her phone which she forwarded to my leg.bc.ca email. They pertained to 10 Pakistani individuals that Jinny had written supporting their application for a Canadian visa in October & December. Rabina explained that the lead of the group was Noor Ahmed Ranjha, according to Rabina this individual was her “brother and extremely important to Jinny as not only “are they each going to give $10,000 to her campaign but they are coming to discuss a big investment with her".

As I was instructed to do I went to MP John Aldag s office to ask if they could assist in finding out why the visas had been refused. 3 of the individuals Jinny had written in support as Minister of BC are on a US security watch list. Her letter had this in it for each: “I hold employment as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Surrey-Panorama and the Minister of Citizens' Services for British Columbia. I have provided a link for you to look into my employment. Thank you in advance for your consideration , signed “Yours sincerely, Jinny” Please note that in my questioning of Jinny she

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admitted that she did not know these indi iduals personally but ouched for them in the name of the BC Government regardless. The others were rejected as a security concern and the IRCC was not convinced once in the country that they would leave. I did not at this time mention the conversation I

had had with Rabina with regard to the $10,000 each had promised to pay Jinny for facilitating their visas.

After the call on 7 February and the conversation I had with Jinny, I called Kiran at John Aldag's office and told her what had occurred. I as ed her to protect John and warn him not to write any supporting letters for a re-application as Jinny was asking him to do. I further told Jinny I would have nothing more to do with this.

Rabin on Wednesday 6 February 2019 also asked if I would help her friend and supporter of Jinny, Goldie Gurdeep Dhaliwal, with getting his basement . “We must get him his basement, he s going to give her $10,000 as well.

Gurdeep Dhaliwal was being sued by the City of Surrey for a number of things including breaking a stop work order, dumping illegal fill and failure to obtain a permit. I told both Rabin and Goldie that I could do nothing to assist, nor would I. I asked Jinny to relay the same message to both as Goldie was not taking that “no" for an answer, insisting that “Jinny can fix this .

My time with Jinny was unbelievably stressful and overwhelming. On my first day a young lady who had volunteered and worked for Jinny since she as 16 years old, left the office not to return. There is a long history of abuse and harassment that is documented. It is obvious to me now that the toxic atmosphere in that office is systemic and entirely due to Jinny Sims who encourages her Executive Assistant to behave in the appalling manner she does.

Jinny Sims hired her EA, Mindy Bansal, after paying her $6,000 in 2018 for “contracting . The invoice states that Mindy was paid for “work on the website" which came as a surprise since she did not know the password or log in details, told me she had never touched it and the website was in arrears for non-payment (I paid it and was told by Jinny that “we will talk about reimbursement when she received the invoices on DocuWare). Mindy is an aesthetician: hair stylist and make up artist.

She has from my perspective, and experience, having been the brunt of a lot of her tantrums when she was flailing, has absolutely no background or ability to do her job. She is entirely focused on Jinny s image and that is the role she was hired to do. I find it abhorrent and corrupt that the BC tax payer is paying for this EA with the support of the NDP Government.

The office was a shambles when I joined. There were no processes, Constituents were walking in angry having waited months to have a reply from the CO (I can provide examples), files were lying around, it took me two weeks to catch up with the emails that had been left unanswered, 45 phone messages that had been left on the answerphone, I even had to track down the Canada post box that Jinny had no clue about. When I opened that mailbox it had 3 months of mail in it.

After two weeks, I was fed up with the EA indy Bansal and her tantrums. I was beginning to feel exceptionally uneasy with the things I was seeing and hearing in the office (including Jinny’s meetings with Moe Sihota). I began to push back and draw boundaries. That is when things became extremely difficult. The history of what transpired for the next month is a matter of record with both the NDP Government Executive Director and BGSEU. After the meeting with Roseanne Moran, Jinny Sims and BGSEU on February 15, Jinny took me into her room and told me that I was no longer trusted. It was clear to me that I was going to be fired for calling in the Union and that she would continue with her aggressive “victim blaming and I found her comments gross in the extreme: really, what is yelling?

I spent the next two days closing files and making sure that everything would be easy to follow/pick up for Preet Sangha the young abused employee who was scheduled to return. Jinny had said to me on Friday 15 February after the farcical BGSEU meeting that “you’re going to see a side to me nobody has when Preet returns”. The threat was real and I took it to heart for the poor young woman.

On Thursday 21 February 2019 I insisted that Jinny provide me with details of the meeting we were to have. In response she replied it was a disciplinary hearing. On 22 February I received a letter of termination for being disrespectful to my employer.

In truth, I was disrespectful. I despise corruption and I loathe bullies. Jinny Sims is both. I did not hide my disgust following the betrayal of union process by an icon of the union world. For more on her disrespect for Union process please see the extensive file against Jinny Sims held by BCGEU. I had been working on two scholarships (The Jinny Sims Scholarships) for the two high schools in Surrey-Panorama. Jinny had said that she wanted it to be awarded for STE or Social Justice, having had my fill of the hypocrisy of this statement I suggested that it would be more fitting to make

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it for Aesthetics as clearly she prized that over social justice, intelligence, hard work or any other aspect usually associated with the serious business of Government. She took it exactly as I meant it.

I am waiting for the repayment of over $1,600 in expenses ($500+ of which was charged to my credit card after my firing having specifically requested that she desist from using it any further). For details on this you can approach Exec Director Roseanne Moran. This is a matter of record and so is the reasons why her employees were asked to use their own credit cards for her expenses.

Kate Gillie at home

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