Former ministry staffer George Gretes expected to plead guilty in triple-delete scandal

The former B.C. government staffer charged with lying under oath in the so-called triple-delete email scandalis expected to enter a guilty plea in court today in Victoria.

George Steven Gretes has been charged with two counts of willfully making false statements to mislead, or attempt to mislead, under the province's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

He allegedly told a colleague to deleteemailslinked to freedom of information requests while working inMinister of Transportation Todd Stone' s office.

The scandal broke in May 2015 when formerB.C. government staffer Tim Duncan revealedmore than a dozen emailswere deleted in November 2014 following a freedom of information requestrelating to theHighway of Tears, astretch of road notorious for cases of missing and murdered women.

Aninvestigation into the scandal byPrivacy Commissioner ElizabethDenham concludedGreteslied under oath when he denied thatheintentionally deletedemails and records related to the Highway of Tears. Gretes resigned after Denham's report was referred to the RCMP for investigation.

According toDenham'sreport,Access Denied,triple deleting means first moving anemailto the computer system's "deleted"folder, expunging theemailfrom the folder itself, and then manually overriding a backup that allows the system to recover deleted items for up to 14 days.

Stiffer penalties needed?

Gretesis expected to appear in Victoria Provincial Court at 2 p.m. PT today.

If found guilty, the former ministry staffer could face amaximum fine of $5,000 but no jail time.

VincentGogolekfrom the B.C. Freedom ofInformationand Privacy Association says the penalties thatGretescould facearen't stiff enough.

"You don'treallyhave somethinggoing, 'Well, I could go to jail for thisor there could be serious consequences'," he said. "That is what we need to see."

Gogolekadded the government needs to add stricter rules around keeping files.

"The legislative committee has come up with a lot of important things including the duty to document which is a record of what you are doing," he said.

After the scandal came to light, PremierChristy Clark hired former privacy commission DavidLoukidelis to draft new guidelines for the government,which heissued in a report in December 2015.

With files from Richard Zussman