Randy Hillier, PC Party Critic for Labour, has today called upon the Attorney General for a formal criminal investigation into allegations of obstructing justice in the recent Crown case against Gulick Forest Products. Along with Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke MPP John Yakabuski, Mr. Hillier is pressing the government for answers to the alleged witness and evidence tampering performed by Ministry of Labour investigators and prosecutors.

There is evidence that documentation presented by the Crown was materially altered and tampered with. There are also allegations of untimely and incomplete disclosure on the part of the Crown Prosecutors just days before the intended trial was to proceed. As a result, the case of Her Majesty the Queen (Ministry of Labour) v. Gulick Forest Products Limited was adjourned. The Crown Prosecutors in the case consented to the adjournment, tacitly acknowledging their wrongdoing.

“It’s intolerable when those who are supposed to enforce the law are the ones who break it,” stated Hillier. “A full and complete investigation on the part of the Attorney General is necessary to get to the bottom of this. True democracy demands that government is not above the law.”

In a letter to the Attorney General yesterday, Mr. Hillier called for the examination of actions by both investigators and Crown Prosecutors from the Ministry of Labour. It is alleged that they withheld documents vital to the defence, as well as coercing a witness to give testimony.

“If this is true, then the government is responsible for a gross breach of the public’s trust,” said Mr. Yakabuski. “We need to know what happened, and if any laws have been broken. The Gulicks, like anyone facing Crown Prosecution, deserve a fair trial.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 12:51 pm and is filed under News Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.