He stuck his neck out to save turtles
ENDANGERED: Even though he was fired, Gord McAdams says he would do it again
Susan Hollis
Special to The Province
June 12, 2005
NELSON -- Gord McAdams lost a number of things when he made a decision to wade into a controversial local dispute about some endangered turtles.
He lost his job just hours before he was due to retire. Because he was fired, he lost his pre-retirement leave, accumulated sick time and a portion of vacation owing -- the equivalent of five months' salary, or $25,000.
On the other hand, he says he gained a number of things. The comfort of knowing he was living up to his dad's teachings. The ability to sleep at night. The knowledge he'd set a good example for his daughters, and maybe even helped save a sliver of habitat for some endangered painted turtles.
McAdams, a 55-year-old with 34 years of government service under his belt, was fired in late May, just hours before retiring.
On his last day, he was escorted into an investigative hearing for an alleged breach of confidentiality. Then he was escorted out, fired, and the locks on his office were changed.
At issue was his decision to wade into a case before the Supreme Court of B.C. involving a proposed change to Grohman Narrows Provincial Park near Nelson. McAdams photocopied two confidential government documents in the Cranbrook office of the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection, and used them to file an affidavit.
His documents showed Victoria was violating the B.C. Park Act, and led to a ruling against a decision by Minister Bill Barisoff, who had overruled staff warnings and approved realignment of an access road that would save a developer money.
Barisoff approved relocation of an entrance to the park to accommodate a new intersection for a recently built industrial site. A 2002 document showed that the developer had already been asked to realign the entrance to his land, and a 2004 letter showed a ministry director had denied a permit to relocate the road within the park.
After receiving McAdams' affidavit, Justice Janet Sinclair Prowse ruled that Barisoff could not ignore the Park Act to accommodate a developer.
McAdams, a Nelson city councillor, is also a member of the West Kootenay EcoSociety, which launched the court case against Barisoff's decision.
McAdams has filed a grievance over his firing, but says that no matter how it's decided, he's at peace with helping stop a decision he says would have clearly threatened the habitat of the park's painted turtles.
"My dad told me that decisions aren't right and wrong based on easy or hard, or rich or expensive. Right and wrong [are] decided on other values, and it's really important to first look yourself in the eye, and then be able to tell your kids that integrity does work, and it is important," McAdams says.
"It's not the money [I lost] so much as the point of it. I'd do it all again. I didn't go to the press, I didn't go to the NDP in the middle of the election, I didn't sell [the information in the documents]. I went to the Supreme Court of B.C., which is where I think is absolutely the right place to go.
"The turtles are a blue-listed species, and [if] we can't protect listed species in protected areas, where can we protect them? It's about protecting species under threat -- that's one of the reasons we have parks, and if we can't protect the parks, then we're doomed."
Ministry spokesman Mike Long declined to comment on the specifics of the case. "[But] integrity is a key value of the public service," Long said. "Members are expected to conduct themselves in an ethical, honest, consistent and professional manner.
"Part of those standards of conduct include a duty of loyalty and confidentiality to government, as well as a duty to avoid potential conflicts of interest within an employee's private affairs."
None of which fazes McAdams.
"The coolest line I've heard about turtles is that even a turtle doesn't move forward unless he sticks his neck out," McAdams grins. "So maybe I learned from the turtles."
© The Vancouver Province 2005