Cecil Clarke said he’s prepared to take the stand as a witness when the province’s public accounts committee reviews the practice of giving inmates at the Central Nova Correctional Facility in Burnside weekend passes to serve time at home.
And he wants Justice Minster Ross Landry to do the same.
Clarke, who served as justice minister under Rodney MacDonald, maintains he knew nothing about some prisoners being given leave to serve time at home on the weekends due to overcrowding at the Burnside jail.
“That information was not supplied to me,” he told reporters after yesterday’s committee meeting.
“I was not aware.”
But Keith Colwell, the Liberal MLA who called for the review last week, said he believes Clarke did know.
“He’s just trying to cover his tracks on this,” Colwell alleged.
“As a former cabinet minister, no, I do not buy that. I do not buy that at all, because he would be kept informed at all times of all the different issues in the department he looked after.”
The committee requested the Department of Justice turn over all relevant information on the issue in three weeks.
