Conflict Costs

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The 10 petitioners for the Mike O’Reilly conflict of interest case are ordinary Kamloops residents. Most of them are retired and on pensions, and most have lived here all or most of their lives. They’re now on the hook for $18,191.86.

They aren’t rich. They had nothing to gain from putting hundreds of hours into bringing a petition except to see due diligence done. It’s too bad they’re being punished for it now.

The judge was hostile from the start, yelling and interrupting constantly. He told them from the get-go that he didn’t believe they had a case against Mike O’Reilly for conflict of interest.

They had good evidence. Due to its location less than 4 kms away and zoning which allows restaurants and brewpubs, Iron Mask Industrial Park has clear potential to gain from the location of the arena multiplex. Iron Mask is a perfect location for a staging area for multiplex contractors.

The petition’s claim of inside influence was backed up by City of Kamloops documents showing Mike O’Reilly voted to have the Build Kamloops committee that Iron Mask realtor, Brendan Shaw, was on given the responsibility to determine a location for the Arena Multiplex.

Once he was asked at a council meeting if he’d recused himself from arena multiplex location discussions and votes, Mike O’Reilly should have disclosed his conflicting interest instead of doubling down and making and then voting on the motion to fund the multiplex.

The judge was able to get around this clear evidence by striking down the petition based on the “45-day rule.” One of the petitioners was at the July 30 council meeting in which the Alternative Approval Process ballot was part of the council agenda package, even though neither the ballot nor the location of the multiplex was ever discussed.

To the judge, this meant that the petitioners should have suspected earlier that Mike O’Reilly was in conflict and filed their petition by September 15.

Mike O’Reilly won on this technicality. The judge’s choice to focus on the minutiae of legal form seems to fly in the face of the ethic behind the law. It does not encourage public trust in the process of law.

To be even further punitive, the judge ruled that the petitioners have to pay the costs for Mike’s lawyer and the City of Kamloops’ lawyer, even though this kind of financial punishment is very unusual. For example, the AAP petition, heard last February, was not burdened with costs even though the petition was dismissed.

They are putting as much as they can into paying these bills but they need all the help they can get.

Please consider donating what you can to help them out. They are grateful for anything you can spare.