By Sarah Mills

Report finds former MLA LeClerc acted “unethically” while in office

Nov 23, 2010 | 4:10 PM

A damning report from the conflict of interest commissioner concludes that former Saskatoon MLA Serge LeClerc was both “unethical and unlawful” during his time in the legislature.

He resigned earlier this year after the CBC released tapes allegedly of the politician discussing pot and cocaine use.

LeClerc has long denied the accusations, but conflict of interest commissioner Ron Barclay paints a different picture.

He sent the tapes to the RCMP and investigators determined there was no doctoring or editing of the recording. Barclay writes, “According to the content of the recordings, it is my opinion that Mr. LeClerc smoked marijuana during the time period he was an MLA, and that he had an unidentified person bring cocaine to his residence during the time period he was an MLA.”

LeClerc's government laptops and those used by his staff were also looked at and while four of them had not been used for internet chatrooms, Barclay reports LeClerc had thrown away one of the hard drives, making it impossible to be analyzed.

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Barclay resists making assumptions, but writes LeClerc's actions do impact his credibility.

“I find it quite troublesome that he would render unavailable such key evidence.”

A separate report by Barclay concludes that LeClerc did not violate the legislature's conflict of interest act.

LeClerc is said to be seriously ill in an Ontario hospital.