B.C.’s new Downtown Eastside consultant was the focus of heated debate in the legislature again on Wednesday, with the opposition continuing to hammer the government over the $150,000 appointment.
BC Conservative MLAs this time raised questions about Michael Bryant’s departure from his last job as the CEO of Legal Aid B.C.
Bryant left the Crown corporation in April 2024, without explanation.
Outside the legislature, BC Conservative Leader John Rustad continued the barrage.
“You’ve got an individual there who has obviously left Legal Aid under a cloud of suspicion,” he said.
“You have a premier who has admitted he was involved in recommending this individual, is a friend of this individual. Disappointing to hear the answers, but I’ll say this about the premier: birds of a feather flock together.”
As head of Legal Aid B.C., Bryant took home a salary of more than $250,000, and close to $300,000 after benefits.
In a statement, Legal Aid B.C. said, “we are unable to provide information regarding former employees due to privacy and confidentiality policies that protect their personal information.”
Global News is also seeking comment from Bryant about the questions raised in question period.
Earlier Wednesday, B.C. Premier David Eby confirmed he had put Bryant’s name forward for the Downtown Eastside consultancy.
“I have a lot of confidence in Michael Bryant. I met him when he was doing work at Legal Aid B.C., and I was the attorney general,” Eby said.
“He’s a guy who’s gone through quite a personal journey of recovery and understands law, understands politics, understands the challenges of addiction and recovery. And it was my recommendation to the minister that’s responsible.”
Eby declined to discuss Bryant’s departure from Legal Aid, saying, “Any HR issues with his previous employer are just that.”
He added that Legal Aid had identified and hired Bryant on its own, but that the Crown corporation had asked Eby for his opinion and that he’d given a positive review.
“I saw his work at Legal Aid B.C., he worked with Indigenous people, he worked with poor people, worked with people who are struggling, getting them access to justice in a meaningful way,” Eby added.
“And I need him to use those skills in the Downtown Eastside, to find ways that we can provide better supports for people.”
The province says Bryant was hired on a six-month contract to provide an outside perspective on programs operating in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and next steps to address problems in the province’s poorest neighbourhood.
That work began in February, raising questions about why the position was not announced earlier.
On Tuesday, Social Development and Poverty Reduction Minister Sheila Malcolmson took responsibility for that, calling it a “communication problem” between her office and the premier’s.
In 2009, Bryant was charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing death after an incident that left Toronto bike courier Darcy Sheppard with a fatal head injury, but was never prosecuted after the charges were controversially withdrawn.
He later wrote a book about the experience and his own battle with alcoholism.
— with files from Rumina Daya