Independent

Free Preview Outside the hearing room the media scrum pounced for comments with one reporter suggesting that because my testimony was protected by parliamentary privilege I could get away with the revelations without fear of legal reprisal. The least of my concerns was legal reprisal if it was a concern at all. After all, I've lost my family; my friends, my home; my career, what more can they take away from me? Outside the protection of the Public Accounts Committee, I shot back revealing Buchanan personally benefited by having his Leiblin Drive home painted and repairs done to his Piggot Lake summer cottage by government employees; and that the mail messenger staff served as chauffeurs and ran personal errands for the Buchanan family. The government tried to paint me as either a mentally ill unfortunate or a vengeful saboteur, while the opposition hailed me as an honorable man who has blown the lid of a corrupt system of patronage, payoffs, and crooked deals. “The testimony presented some of the most damning statements and scenarios that I have ever heard in the sixteen years that I have been a member of the house.” said Vince MacLean. “This is a top man in the government showing that he's been involved in the awarding of tenders and contracts and it's just the biggest scandal that has hit the legislature, and it will bring a stain on politics and unfortunate national attention to Nova Scotia. The public will feel that all politicians are the same.” Both opposition leaders Vince MacLean and Alexa McDonough were quick to call for a full RCMP investigation into the allegations. MacLean also called for the resignation of David Nantes as Minister of Health for breaching confidentiality by releasing medical information in an underhanded, sleazy, and totally inappropriate way. It was clearly reprehensible to reinforce the unfair stereotype that an individual who sees a psychiatrist must be mentally unstable. Nantes denied that he had released any confidential information about my mental health and rejected the call that he should resign. He argued that as the minister he simply signed a document that authorized me to go out-of-province for treatment and that it was the compassionate way to deal with the situation. This fabricated need for treatment was based on trumped up accusations which suited the government’s narrative without a full mental health assessment having been carried out. The collaborators in this scheme erred in sending me out of the province and lost control of their plan which eventually backfired. The Conservative government painted me as a bright civil servant who developed psychiatric problems when his marriage broke up. The premier and other ministers under fire by my allegations defended themselves by continuing to describe me as mentally incompetent. By the end of the week, the press either found or perhaps given my discharge summary from Homewood, on file under seal in the public court records dealing with my divorce. The document affirmed my testimony at Public Accounts that psychiatrists at the Homewood last year found nothing wrong with me that marital problems and a midlife crisis didn't explain. The document confirmed my squeaky-clean bill of physical and mental health and dispelled the innuendo alluded to by government officials about my emotional stability. After a long day of intense meeting with senior advisors a press conference was called for Buchanan to defend himself. He unequivocally wanted to assure Nova Scotians that there was no truth in statements made against his character at public accounts and during the last number of days. He told a packed news conference that the statements have caused a great deal of anguish to himself and his family. He denied receiving any kickbacks and said no government funds were spent painting his house or repairing his cottage. He said it was fine with him that the RCMP were looking into the matter and admitted that his government had been damaged by the allegations. He continued his attack on me as being mentally unstable and therefore not credible saying there was not a shred of truth in anything that I said. He railed against me for my accusations and later said “Something happened to him early last year before leaving the job.” When pressed by a reporter for more detail all he would say was “I have suspicions, that that's all. I have information that was given to me, but I told you, I'm not going to discuss that. That’s something that I don't think is proper for me to discuss.” His assertion that my performance had suffered since early 1989 contradicts statements made by my immediate boss Terry Donahue who had said that my performance in government was exemplary and by the Attorney General Tom McInnis who publicly stated that I had done nothing wrong during my five years as a deputy minister. He didn't know what to say when a reporter told him she had seen the medical reports from Homewood showing me to be normal. Buchanan declined to comment saying” I’m not a psychiatrist, I haven't seen the reports, and I'm not going to comment on psychiatric reports.” But that didn’t stop his earlier statements impugning my character and integrity through his false comments and innuendo suggesting psychological problems were behind the allegations. The Premier then in desperation to divert attention from himself, focused his attack on the Liberals claiming that the allegations were part of a Liberal plot to discredit and destroy his government and suggested that the leading questions by the Liberals at Public Accounts were rehearsed with me prior to my appearance. The opposition parties continued to reinforce the point that efforts to undermine my credibility with suggestions about my mental health was part of a smear campaign in an orchestrated response by the government to try to undermine probably the person who has given the most damning information on the internal workings of the Buchanan government by spreading rumors of the most vicious kind.