Annette Phillips reports for the Kingston Whig-Standard of Kingston, Ontario, Canada regarding a polygraph dragnet at City Hall. Excerpt:
Local News – Councillor Don Rogers says he will not take a lie-detector test to help police trace the leak of a confidential council document.
“I find the idea of being subjected to a lie-detector test truly offensive,” Rogers said yesterday.
“I have co-operated with the police investigation, but I will absolutely not, under any circumstances, in any investigation, take a lie-detector test.”
The Ontario Provincial Police Anti-Rackets squad is continuing its investigation into how documents from an Oct. 9 in-camera council meeting were leaked to The Whig-Standard.
Council authorized Mayor Isabel Turner to launch a probe into the leak. The mayor handed the investigation over to police, who are questioning councillors and asking for fingerprints and lie-detector tests.
Rogers said he was asked to attend an interview with OPP officers last week, at which time he was asked to submit to the polygraph machine.
He took a lawyer to the meeting, found out that he was not legally required to take the lie-detector test, and refused to do so.
He acknowledges that some might perceive his actions as those of a guilty man.
“I would certainly hope the public would perceive me as a councillor who is not going to permit his civil liberties to be eroded,” Rogers said.