Former Vision Vancouver school board trustee Ken Clement is one of the seven men charged in a sex sting where police officers posed online as underage girls between the ages of 15 and 17.
Clement is charged with obtaining for consideration the sexual services of a person under the age of 18 years.
"We are just learning that one of the individuals arrested was a former trustee," a district spokesperson told the Courier. "The district was not made aware of the arrest and was never notified [by the] VPD."
The Courier requested an interview with board chair Janet Fraser and superintendent Suzanne Hoffman but was told neither was available to speak. A call to Fraser wasn't returned.
Vancouver Police Department deputy chief constable Laurence Rankin said earlier Wednesday morning that a months-long investigation began in June and ended in November.
According to court records, the offence related to Clement took place on June 27, 2018. Clement was announced as a Vision candidate on June 20 and dropped out of the race the following week.
Vision spokesperson Michael Haack told the Courier at the time that Clement was not running in the upcoming election race due to health reasons.
Reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, Haack declined comment.
Clement was the first municipal official of First Nations descent in Vancouver's history when elected to the school board in 2008.
A trial date has been set for Oct. 29, 2019.
The original version of this story can be found here.
