Less than 24 hours after Saskatoon city councillor Pat Lorje was sanctioned for leaking a confidential city report, police are confirming an investigation is underway into the confidentiality breach.
A spokesperson for the Saskatoon Police Service told CTV that Regina police are investigating the leak.
The city requested in late October that Saskatoon police conduct an investigation, the spokesperson said. The case was passed to Regina on Oct. 31 to avoid any conflict of interest.
The spokesperson would not confirm the breach involved Lorje — though Lorje has already been disciplined by city council for leaking the confidential document.
She was sanctioned Monday in an unprecedented move by fellow city councillors.
The sanctions include restrictions on how Lorje views and receives confidential documents. She will no longer receive electronic copies, and paper copies will be watermarked and will have to be returned to the city clerk after in-camera meetings.
Lorje said the breach was unintentional and she has since apologized. She said she was seeking confidential advice about the report from a trusted advisor.
“When I sought confidential advice on a document I did not realize I was in breach of Saskatoon city council code of conduct,” Lorje said.
“I certainly did not intend to be in breach, by seeking private, independent, confidential advice from a trusted advisor. I did not consider such a person to be a member of the public as defined by the city’s code of conduct."
Lorje said she did not try to hide the breach and in a statement added "given the interpretation of the code by city council, I gave my solemn undertaking never to do it again. I have apologized unreservedly for this unintentional breach.”
She said she does not plan to resign in the wake of the leak.
“I was elected to represent the citizens of Ward 2 and the citizens of this city. I will carry on regardless."
Mayor Don Atchison was tight-lipped Tuesday on both the sanctions against Lorje and the investigation.
“I don’t have anything to say about that at all because, again, anything that occurs in-camera is to stay in-camera,” Atchison said. “And anything to do with police services, regardless of what the investigation is, that’s up to the police to do. We don’t instruct them how to do their operations.”
The city won't confirm the nature of the document leaked but councillor Tiffany Paulson said it was a report that was jointly authored by Jeff Jorgenson, the city’s general manger of transportation and utilities, and city solicitor Patricia Warwick.
Warwick said the document remains in camera because it could affect the city in legal proceedings and it contains legal advice subject to solicitor-client privilege.
