Kwan bungled, but no harm, no foul

By Paul Willcocks
VICTORIA - My desk in the legislature is a metaphor, I think.
The Press Gallery is up under the eaves of the third floor, a dead end at the top of the stairs, with a TV room with a battered couch and a couple of good chairs and another room full of desks that look like Bob Cratchit once used them to tally figures figures for Ebenezer Scrooge.
The walls are covered with black and white photos of life in the gallery. On the stairs, there are annual membership photos going back almost 100 years, when five men in black suits and fearsome mutton chops kept watch over the politicians.
My desk is slightly messy, but an iBook - a fairly cool laptop computer - sits in the middle. Small mountains of reports and clipping threaten my safety, but most research is actually done on-line.
I am slightly messy - maybe more some days - but I'm wearing a tie, and my jacket is close at hand, because without both I'm barred from the halls outside the chamber.
The days unfold with an odd combination of ceremony and cynicism. I join the scrums around cabinet ministers, and treat them with some deference while asking whatever questions I think you would like answered, and they generally respond.
It's a strange, even weird, place. People still dress in costume to do their jobs. Rules, written and unwritten, govern most aspects of behaviour, but wretchedly rude and imature behaviour is considered normal inside the chamber, where MLAs squabble like chickens.
But the rules and traditions provides at least some protection for the rights of citizens.
Which leads, by a slightly indirect route, to Jenny Kwan.
Kwan, an NDP MLA, is deservedly in trouble. She's being investigated by a legislative ethics' committee after some of the recommendations of a draft report on the future of education were leaked by B.C. Teachers' Federation head David Chudnovsky. Kwan - a member of the committee until she resigned - has admitted that she showed the draft recommendations to several stakeholders, including a B.C.Teachers' Federation representative. Her explanation is that she wanted to enlist their help in preparing her own report.
Kwan did well initially, acknowledging the error almost as soon as Liberal Reni Masi raised the point. It's a measure of the state of political life that some people questioned her wisdom in 'fessing up, instead of lauding her for doing the right thing. She's backtracked since then, offering up justifications for what is ultimately a breach of trust.
There is a certain amount of strategic leaking around here. The government has given First Nations a report by a committee of MLAs on offshore oil, while keeping it secret from the public. It's not a legislative committee, so they get to make that decision.
But legislative committees are different. The MLAs agree they'll keep the report confidential until its made public. The issue is only partly confidentiality; it's also one of trust. Kwan broke that promise.
She's expressed dismay at the possibility that the teachers' federation rep leaked the information. But if a friend confides in you, in confidence, and you tell someone else who blabs, that's your fault. You, like Kwan, broke the trust.
Kwan's offence now goes to an ethics committee to decide if she should be sanctioned. Punishment can be quite serious.
But the committee shouldn't get overly exercised, or invest too much time.
Kwan's action wasn't damaging, except to herself. She looks inept, a person who can't keep a secret or use good judgment in sharing information, and should be embarrassed, like anyone caught betraying a trust.
Kwan behaved badly, and would do well to acknowledge that instead of making excuses. No serious harm was done. On to some more substantial issues.

Paul Willcocks can be reached at willcocks@ultranet.ca