A petition to the courts by B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma for the return and destruction of a confidential report previously kept by Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson has seen success, following a hearing earlier in November.

The mayor turned the report over after the province’s petition was filed, but for months prior ignored requests by the City of Kamloops to return or destroy the confidential document.

Known as the Honcharuk report, the 100-page document details workplace complaints made about the mayor’s conduct in late 2022 and early 2023, just months after he took office. The complaints were investigated in February and May of 2023 by an independent investigator and then compiled into a report by Terry Honcharuk of the Integrity Group.

The report had been anonymously leaked to the mayor, who said he received it by mail in Tofino in 2024. He later sent copies of the report to media, including Kamloops This Week, which published details of the report in August 2023.

Under B.C. privacy law, the mayor was not authorized to possess or distribute the report, since it contained personal information. At the time, Hamer-Jackson said the report could be used to “clear his name.”

The report and its conclusions had a major impact on how the mayor could operate at city hall, including limitations on how he could interact with certain city staff.

In court, Hamer-Jackson came prepared to challenge the matter on various fronts, including identifying the “real leaker.” But the matter before the court specifically addressed the handling of the report, and the mayor’s defense was limited.

“We’re not going to embark on any inquiry as to leakers,” the judge told Hamer-Jackson, after asking why he had not filed a response to the petition after nearly eight months.

The mayor was given 72 hours to deliver a complete list of names of those he had sent the report. He was also ordered to destroy any copies he might receive in the future, and the Attorney General’s office was given permission to destroy the copy Hamer-Jackson had returned.

The province was previously asking for its costs to be covered, but at the conclusion of the hearing, the two parties agreed to pay their own costs.