{"id":63131,"date":"2026-03-18T19:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=63131"},"modified":"2026-03-18T19:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:07:14","slug":"statement-from-premier-houston-on-blackmail-extortion-scheme-against-mla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=63131","title":{"rendered":"Statement from Premier Houston on blackmail, extortion scheme against MLA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56506&#8243;]<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HALIFAX: <\/strong>The following is a statement from Premier Tim Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I was deeply troubled to learn that Hammonds Plains-Lucasville MLA Rick Burns and his wife have been the victims of a criminal blackmail and extortion scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;No one should ever be subjected to this kind of violation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When criminals target public officials with blackmail, they are attempting to compromise the people Nova Scotians have chosen to represent them and shake the very core of our democracy.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56526&#8243;]<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><br>&#8220;We cannot and will not accept a climate where serving your community in public life makes you and your family a target for extortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I have full confidence in law enforcement to investigate this matter thoroughly and hold those responsible to account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Our government will always stand against any attempt to intimidate, coerce or blackmail those who serve the public.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56179&#8243;]<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56509&#8243;]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HALIFAX: The following is a statement from Premier Tim Houston. &#8220;I was deeply troubled to learn that Hammonds Plains-Lucasville MLA Rick Burns and his wife have been the victims of a criminal blackmail and extortion scheme. &#8220;No one should ever be subjected to this kind of violation. &#8220;When criminals target public officials with blackmail, they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[957],"tags":[10577,9913,50,80,8559,48,2517],"class_list":["post-63131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-criminal-blackmail","tag-extortion","tag-halifax","tag-hammonds-plains","tag-mla-rick-burns","tag-n-s","tag-premier-tim-houston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}