Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 01/01) - There will be no police investigation of a surreptitious recording by cabinet minister Jane Groenewegen unless a complaint is filed, said the RCMP.

"We have not received a request for a criminal investigation," said G Division Staff Sgt. Phil Johnson last week.

The legality of the call remains unclear. Section 184 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence for anyone to tape record a private conversation without the consent of at least one of the parties to the conversation, except in extraordinary circumstances.

Using a mini-recorder, Groenewegen taped a March 26 conversation between principal secretary John Bayly and conflict commissioner Carol Roberts. Roberts was unaware that Groenewegen and three other staffers were listening to the speakerphone Bayly was using.

In his testimony to a special committee of the legislative assembly, Bayly said he only became aware Groenewegen was taping the conversation part-way through it.

Wayne Renke, a professor at University of Alberta law school, said the speakerphone may be an issue.

"That would be another argument -- it isn't a private communication if we're all hearing it in this room."

At one point during the hearing even Groenewegen's lawyer cast doubt on the legality of the taping.

Sheila Greckol distinguished between the recording of the Bayly conversation and another recording Groenewegen had made of a conversation she had with the commissioner by saying the earlier conversation "was entirely lawful."

Committee chair Brendon Bell interrupted Greckol, to ask if she was suggesting the recording of the conversation with Bayly was unlawful.

"No, that is not unlawful either, in my mind," responded Greckol.

Clerk David Hamilton said the committee has yet to determine whether the tape or any other evidence presented at the hearing will be excluded as evidence.

Renke said that though such a tape would not be admissible in a court of law, quasi-judicial bodies such as the committee are not bound by the same rules of evidence.

The committee is to report back to the legislative assembly Oct. 23.