Carriere-Belanger Relationship Under More Scrutiny

Carriere-Belanger Relationship Under More Scrutiny

Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 14:02

The Saskatchewan Party has produced a letter from a victim in the Murdoch Carriere case regarding the extent of Carriere’s relationship with an NDP cabinet minister.

For weeks, the Opposition has been asking whether the government’s handling of the affair has had anything to do with a purported friendship between the former civil servant and former Environment Minister Buckley Belanger.

Public Service Commission Minister Pat Atkinson has repeatedly denied Carriere was a friend of the NDP government.

But in a letter made public today, one of the women allegedly harassed by Carriere says it was clear that he and Belanger were close friends.

The unidentified woman says she and others witnessed the friendship firsthand when she was still working with Carriere at the fire management and forest protection headquarters in Prince Albert.

Atkinson says the Saskatchewan Party is trying to portray Carriere as an “NDP insider” or one of Belanger’s “buddies”. She says that was not the case, and insists Carriere and Belanger had a professional working relationship.

Saskatchewan Party Leader Brad Wall is calling on Premier Lorne Calvert to agree to a review of the case by an all-party committee, but Atkinson says there is no need because the government has answered all of the Opposition’s questions.