WorkSafeBC won’t confirm investigations into Kamloops mayor

City officials say the mayor of Kamloops is at the centre of multiple WorkSafeBC investigations, but the Crown agency won’t confirm those investigations.

In response to a Freedom of Information request, WorkSafeBC said it is “unable to confirm or deny the existence” of any investigations related to Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson.

That’s despite numerous allegations he’s been the subject of numerous bullying and harassment investigations, some of them done by WorkSafeBC.

iNFOnews.ca requested any bullying and harassment investigations against Hamer-Jackson from Jan. 1, 2023 to April 30, 2025.

According to a June 16 response, WorkSafeBC refused to confirm the records because “revealing the existence of such records would unreasonably invade the personal privacy of third parties.”

A recently published letter from Coun. Nancy Bepple, meanwhile, said there are 24 “substantiated complaints of workplace misconduct” against the mayor.

While the letter to Municipal Affairs Minister Ravi Kahlon went on to say there are multiple WorkSafeBC claims, the City is “statutorily barred from detailing” them.

One example cited is his “arbitrary and seemingly retaliatory” suspension of CAO Byron McCorkell, but it’s not known whether that has led to one of the worker’s compensation claims.

His conduct toward staff has exposed the City to constructive dismissal or wrongful termination claims that could exceed $1 million in damages, according to the February letter to Kahlon.

When the first claims for worker’s compensation might have arisen isn’t known, but the first investigations into Hamer-Jackson’s treatment of staff started within months of his tenure. By Januray 2023, the Integrity Group investigation began internally, probing his treatment of four high-level staffers.

iNFOnews.ca learned of the investigation’s existence in June 2023, and it was later leaked multiple times to reporters, notably by Hamer-Jackson himself the following April.