B.C. women facing charges of uttering death threats against Premier Christy Clark

A woman faces charges of uttering death threats aimed at Premier Christy Clark and Speaker of the legislature Steve Thomson over allegations she left threatening telephone messages at two Kelowna area constituency offices, a special prosecutor said.

Pavla Janeckova of Kelowna, B.C., faces two charges of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, the B.C. Prosecution Service said Tuesday.

The service said the threats are alleged to have occurred around April 30 in Kelowna.

Janeckova is scheduled to appear in Kelowna provincial court on Friday.

Kris Pechet was appointed May 3 as the special prosecutor in the case because the B.C. Prosecution Service said it wanted to avoid any potential for real or perceived improper influence in the administration of justice in light of the people involved.

He is a senior lawyer in New Westminster and was given the mandate to provide legal advice to RCMP investigators and conduct any related charge assessment, the service said.

Pechet said in an interview that the alleged threats were left as recorded telephone messages at Clark’s constituency office in her Kelowna West riding and at Thomson’s constituency office in Kelowna−Mission.

Pechet said he would not provide specific details of the calls other than to say they involved an individual who is "upset with circumstances."

He said the calls also involved "a general view of how government is performing," and came during B.C.’s election campaign.

"Any time somebody who is running for office, it wouldn’t have mattered who it is, but any time anybody’s threatened who is in the midst of running for office, it really should be taken seriously in a democracy," he said.

Neither Janeckova nor her lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment.