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Sidoo is now charged with paying US$200,000 to help students, including his two sons, to cheat on American college entrance exams. The U.S. indictment also alleges Sidoo agreed to pay someone to take a high school graduation exam for his oldest son, sparking an internal probe by St. George’s, an elite private Vancouver prep school.

Photo by Fred Lee's Social Network April 23 2017 / PNG

Sidoo’s plight, and his well-known Liberal connections, were surely not lost on NDP Premier John Horgan on Wednesday when he was asked about the scandal.

“Mr. Sidoo, of course, is innocent until found guilty in court,” Horgan said. “Media assertions certainly don’t look good for him and a range of other luminaries — wealthy individuals who may have used their position in society to advance their children’s ends.”

Asked if the government would take back Sidoo’s Order of B.C. medal — something that’s never been done over the 30-year history of the award — Horgan answered: “I don’t feel any responsibility to do anything other than let due process run its course.”

But Horgan doesn’t need to take back Sidoo’s medal for the NDP to reap political benefits from this one. On social media, NDP supporters and spin-doctors are eagerly following the money in the case, as well as the SNC-Lavalin scandal that has engulfed Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in Ottawa.

Clark has been publicly defending Trudeau in the SNC-Lavalin affair, suggesting the prime minister was right to remove Vancouver MP Jody Wilson-Raybould as attorney-general after she refused to give the Liberal-connected firm a prosecution deferral on criminal corruption charges.