B.C. Liberal Party executive director Laura Miller resigns after charges laid in Ontario

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      The senior staff member of the province's governing party has quit.

      Laura Miller, the 36-year-old executive director of the B.C. Liberals, resigned in the wake of an email-deleting scandal in Ontario.

      Miller served as deputy chief of staff to ex-Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty. She faces one count of breach of trust, one count of mischief, and one count of misuse of a computer system.

      McGuinty's former chief of staff, David Livingstone, has also been charged with the same offences, according to a statement issued today by Ontario Provincial Police.

      The statement described the investigation as "complex" and the two are scheduled to make their first appearance in court on January 27.

      The police probe came after emails were deleted in connection to the government's cancellation of two natural-gas-fired power plants in Ontario.

      Miller has retweeted statements from Ontario-based journalists, which quote her alleging that the Ontario Provincial Police is biased.

      She has retained lawyer Clayton Ruby to fight the charges.

      Coincidentally, B.C. Liberal premier Christy Clark has found herself in the midst of a different email-deleting scandal.

      In October, Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham released a report revealing that government emails had been triple-deleted in the premier's office and two ministries to expunge them from computers. 

      This week, former information and privacy commissioner and former deputy attorney general David Loukidelis released a report on how the government can implement Denham's recommendations.

      Meanwhile, the Georgia Straight's Travis Lupick reported this week that Clark has basically stopped using email. Only one record showed up over an eight-day period in late October and no records over a two-week period in December.

      “It is hard for me to imagine how you could be the premier and have one email over two weeks,” NDP MLA David Eby told the Straight earlier this week.

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