Penticton Herald editor James Miller announced his candidacy for election to Penticton city council this morning, May 4, 2021.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ James Miller

James Miller, Penticton City Councillor and editor of the Penticton Herald, has no intention of resigning from either role after it resurfaced that he once faced serious criminal charges.

Miller was subsequently acquitted however.

Global News reported on July 19 that in 2005 Miller was charged in Sarnia, Ontario with several sexual offences relating to incidents involving minors, allegedly between 1986 and 2005.

The criminal charges were rehashed as the result of a July 14 post on the Reddit page for Penticton.

In light of the recent news, Miller has been asked by council not to attend public events before an internal investigation.

“Council is just learning of these concerning events from Councillor Miller’s past in Ontario and have directed staff to make appropriate inquiries,” Penticton Mayor Julius Bloomfield said in a statement on July 19.

Miller directed INFOnews.ca to his lawyer, Michael Welsh, who released a statement on his behalf. In the statement, he said he’s grateful for the Canadian legal system which found the allegations against him to be unproven in 2006.

“Since the charges were dismissed, I have moved on with my personal and professional life, believing that this difficult time in my past was now behind me and no longer relevant,” Miller's statement reads.

“It is troubling that someone has now attempted to make this old court case news, but I trust people in this community will judge me on the work I have done on their behalf as a Councillor and as editor of a local newspaper. My present goals remain to work for the citizens of Penticton as one of their Councillors and to continue my profession as a journalist.”

Welsh was asked about the mayor's statement about City staff making appropriate inquiries. 

"The only 'appropriate inquiry' might be to obtain a current criminal record check to confirm that there are no outstanding charges, no convictions, no court order breaches and so forth," Welch's email reads. "This has been obtained by James today in order to end this situation, and result is completely clean. No record of any nature. That being the case, as I said in another media response, there is no purpose for the city to be conducting any further inquiries into this. The case is long closed and there is nothing a further investigation can reveal that a court trial did not address and resolve. It is a waste of taxpayer money to spend any more time on it."

Welch said the matter is irrelevant to his position as a councillor as it was for his campaigns. 

"Had he been convicted that would have been relevant under section 82.1 (of the Local Government Act) but an acquittal is another matter. There is no duty to disclose or to be disqualified for something a court of law dismisses as unproven. Under our system of justice we are all innocent until proven guilty of an offence and he remains innocent."

Welsh said the accusations were dug up as an attempt to smear Miller's reputation by somebody posting to Reddit under a pseudonym.

"I only hope the media takes the high road on this and does not publicize it further. It is a 'dead letter' matter and the city and everyone else should move on," Welsh said. 

Miller has been the editor of the Herald since 2008. He was elected to Penticton council in a 2021 byelection and got re-elected in the 2022 general election. As a journalist in the same city where he serves on council, Miller’s dual roles came under scrutiny around the time he was first elected.

— Story updated at 12:10 p.m., July 22, 2023 with comments from Michael Welsh.

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