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If the allegations are financial, James outlined a series of reforms he instituted since 2011, including hiring a former auditor general and former comptroller general to sit on an audit committee as well as have the legislature’s books independently audited annually.

“I have established processes in the legislative assembly that are essentially bullet-proof,” said James.

At the legislature, the Liberals tried and failed to get an emergency debate on the suspensions.

Liberal MLA Mike de Jong said the vast majority of MLAs did not know when they voted that Plecas and Mullen had conducted a secret investigation, or that Plecas had tried to install Mullen, his friend, into the sergeant-at-arms job.

“I am certain that when members were presented with the motion to suspend, they were not anticipating, nor would they have sanctioned, the deplorable, shoddy, disrespectful, humiliating treatment that long-serving servants of this assembly, who are entitled to every presumption of innocence, were subjected to,” said de Jong.

NDP house leader Mike Farnworth and Green Leader Andrew Weaver said it would be inappropriate for the legislature to debate an ongoing RCMP investigation, a position that was backed with a ruling by deputy speaker Raj Chouhan.

Monday’s question period was also among the most bizarre in recent memory. Plecas sat in the chair as Liberal MLAs effectively criticized his decision-making, but refused to recuse himself. Plecas and Wilkinson had a tense exchange about the subject matter of a question.

Attorney General David Eby refused to answer any questions about an active police investigation.

In the hallway, Plecas snapped at reporters when asked about the appropriateness of the investigation. “I think what you people need to do is understand that when you talk about investigations, there is a huge continuum and one of them is called due diligence, and I’m thinking you might want to do some of your own,” he said before closing his office door.

Plecas did, however, write a letter to the three party house leaders that said they’d agreed in the private meeting with him “that it would not be appropriate for these permanent officers to continue to be at the assembly in the face of an active criminal investigation regarding their actions related to the assembly.”