The Legislature Raids

Today, BC Mary had lunch with the 4 people who are responsible for launching me into print on the Basi-Virk issues. I had encountered them in their on-line ListServ and as we became acquainted, I asked them if they were following this story. Although they're lively, interested, well-informed citizens, they said they had only a vague general memory of the Legislature Raids and asked me to write up a summary, which I did. They promptly circulated "Why David Basi is Important To Us" and persuaded Malaspina College radio to do a brief, live, on-air interview which ran to 40 minutes.

So today, we had lunch at Earl's in Nanaimo, and then 3 of them led the way to Nanaimo Court House where we hoped to discover the 3 dates: when will the trial of former Constable Ravinder Dosanjh continue? when and where does the trial of Basi, Young, and Duncan begin? And what is the date for the main Legislature trial of Basi, Virk, and Basi?

One of the 4 had worked for 17 years as Executive Assistant to an Ontario cabinet minister, so she stepped up to the plain-looking wicket with the simple sign pointing to it: Supreme Court. I was glad to have the anonymity, and stayed in the background. I felt that the whole business of having to attend the Court House in person, to be just a little threatening.

Well ... guess what. "You can't get that information here," said the nice young lady behind the wicket. "You need to go to Victoria for that."

Victoria, for Chrissake, is where the Court Registry Enquiries lady told me that people had to attend their nearest Court House, in person, and use their computer to obtain these dates. "I don't know why they would have told you that," said the young lady. "You can obtain this information by telephone. I'll give you the number: it's (250)356-1478. And if you can't obtain the information you want, ask to speak to the Manager."

Right. We felt we were on the right track.

But no. Later, on checking my notes, I saw that the phone number she gave us, is the number which had previously refused to give me the info, which had told me to visit my local Court House in Parksville.

And it had already dawned upon me that when I got hustled off to phone Sooke Court House for the date of Trial #2, that particular lady had no trouble at all, about giving me this information.

"All this should be public information, freely available on-line, just the way Libraries are," harrumphed one of my commandos as we slouched back down the steps to the parking lot.

This ain't over. This ain't even getting started, really. What this is, is downright embarrassing (democratically speaking). See ya later.