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VICTORIA — Darryl Plecas, the crusading Speaker of the B.C. legislature, said a disturbing thought entered his mind shortly after he took the job two years ago.

He became immediately suspicious of potential waste and corruption going on around him.

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And a steady stream of whistleblowers — mainly former employees sacked for speaking out — started showing up at his office with stories of misconduct and abuse.

“People say I’ve been doing a lot of investigating around here, but it was actually people coming to me, telling me their experiences,” Plecas told me.

Plecas said he quickly learned senior officials in charge of the place were in on the dirty deeds.

“So I couldn’t go to them for help,” he said. “If I was creating an ideal system for corruption, I would use the history of this place to do it.

“I realized I would have to fight like hell to expose it, and that I would be opposed by forces that wanted to keep it covered up.”