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Man behind B.C. legislature investigation previously fired from casino security job

Speaker Darryl Plecas suggested Alan Mullen become the interim sergeant at arms, a position he had just investigated
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Alan Mullen met B.C. legislature speaker while he was working as a correctional manager at Kent Institution in Agassiz. (Tom Fletcher/Black Press)

After a sudden ousting at the B.C. legislature saw the clerk and sergeant at arms removed from the building pending an investigation, court documents show the man who conducted the seven-month internal investigation also had his own employment records looked at by a former employer.

READ MORE: Who is Alan Mullen? A new face in the developing B.C. legislature scandal

More than 10 years ago, Alan Mullen was fired from his job as a security shift manager for Great Canadian Casinos Inc. In September 2007, Mullen filed a claim in the Supreme Court in Vancouver against the company for firing him without due cause. In the company’s statement of defence, Great Canadian Casinos Inc said there was a cause: Mullen had tried to file a claim for 542 hours of overtime to the tune of $11,465.38. When the company asked Mullen for proof of the overtime, he “Instead, and without providing any documentation or supporting information to the Defendant, the Plaintiff [Mullen] initiated an action in the Provincial Court of British Columbia to recover the alleged overtime hours claimed.”

Mullen had also, in 2006, been suspended without pay for four days after being intoxicated at work.

WATCH and READ MORE: B.C. legislature clerk, sergeant at arms suspended for criminal investigation

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The statement of defence goes on to say Mullen “had poisoned his relationship with the Defendant [Great Canadian Casinos Inc.]. It was no longer feasible for him to remain in the Defendant’s employ and he was dismissed for cause as a result.”

On Dec. 24, 2007, Mullen applied to have the claims dismissed without a hearing. By Dec. 31, the courts ordered the claims dismissed, and neither party had to pay any costs.

Mullen went on to work at the Kent Institute as a correctional manager. It’s where he met Darryl Plecas, who was the prison judge. Mullen would go on to help Plecas’ campaign for the BC Liberals in both 2013 and 2017.

READ MORE: B.C. legislature speaker tried to appoint friend as interim sergeant-at-arms

Alan Mullen was hired by speaker Darryl Plecas at the beginning of 2018 to be a special adviser and began the investigation into Craig James and Gary Lenz in January. When James and Lenz were escorted out of the legislature on Nov. 20, Plecas then suggested that Mullen be appointed to the sergeant at arms interim position — a position open after the investigation by Mullen himself. That suggestion was deemed inappropriate by house leaders, and the position remains open.


@KeiliBartlett
keili.bartlett@blackpress.ca

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