Photo: CTV

A government communications director who pleaded guilty to breach of trust in connection with a plan to win votes from ethnic groups was "an instrument of others" including ministers in former premier Christy Clark's cabinet, a defence lawyer told a sentencing hearing Wednesday.

Ian Donaldson said Brian Bonney has admitted to some missteps as part of a so-called quick wins scandal that embroiled the B.C. Liberal party before the 2013 election but he mostly did what he was told, so his behaviour wasn't subversive to the democratic process as the Crown maintains.

Donaldson told provincial court that while Bonney lost his job after Clark appointed her deputy minister to conduct a review into allegations of the partisan use of taxpayers' money to target minority groups, others involved in creating the strategy remained employed and received "fat severance cheques."

Bonney pleaded guilty last October before the start of a trial, though Donaldson said his client is "barely guilty" for blurring the lines between his public service employment and his partisan political activities.

"This case isn't about corruption or personal gain," he said, adding Bonney had been on the job for seven weeks before attending a meeting in December 2011 to discuss a strategy he wasn't involved in drafting.

Donaldson has asked for a suspended sentence for what he described as a breach of employment terms. The Crown wants a conditional sentence of 12 to 23 months that would include house arrest.

Court has heard Bonney supervised seven people who were tasked with building a list of ethnic organizations and individuals who would support the Liberal party.

Donaldson said it's not unusual for governments to have an agenda to engage ethnic minorities.

However, Judge David St. Pierre said the evidence from the Crown has suggested only voters who supported the Liberal party were targeted.