Monday, April 23, 2007
Gary Mason says: Mountain of evidence may never be heard
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MOUNTAIN OF EVIDENCE MAY NEVER BE HEARD
GARY MASON
The Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER ... There are, I'm sure, provincial and federal Liberals across the country praying the defence succeeds. If this case proceeds to full trial, there is no end to the number of prominent names that could get dragged into it, many inadvertently.
A mountain of evidence is sitting somewhere in the bowels of the B.C. Supreme Court, currently sealed, that I'm told contains no end of juicy and salacious information. Details of a significant financial contribution to the Liberal Party by a certain National Hockey League owner are said to be among the more succulent morsels {Snip}...
Along the way, Mr. Reichart not only found out that Mr. Basi was being investigated in connection with these "media monitoring" contracts -- a fact to which Mr. Reichart would go on to alert Premier Gordon Campbell -- but he would also learn that Mr. Bornmann had cut a sweetheart deal with the Crown in exchange for his testimony against the accused.
How did he find out these things? The defence has said in court that one can only infer that the information came from Sgt. DeBruyckere.
There is more. The defence will suggest that, because of the relationship between Sgt. DeBruyckere and Mr. Reichart, a decision was made not to pursue RCMP suspicions that Mr. Collins might somehow be involved in this whole mess.
Why? Because dragging Mr. Collins into the affair would have had far more disastrous implications for the governing Liberals than a case involving a few low-level political aides.
The political Trial of the Century continues.
gmason@globeandmail.com
Full story at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content
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MOUNTAIN OF EVIDENCE MAY NEVER BE HEARD
GARY MASON
The Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER ... There are, I'm sure, provincial and federal Liberals across the country praying the defence succeeds. If this case proceeds to full trial, there is no end to the number of prominent names that could get dragged into it, many inadvertently.
A mountain of evidence is sitting somewhere in the bowels of the B.C. Supreme Court, currently sealed, that I'm told contains no end of juicy and salacious information. Details of a significant financial contribution to the Liberal Party by a certain National Hockey League owner are said to be among the more succulent morsels {Snip}...
Along the way, Mr. Reichart not only found out that Mr. Basi was being investigated in connection with these "media monitoring" contracts -- a fact to which Mr. Reichart would go on to alert Premier Gordon Campbell -- but he would also learn that Mr. Bornmann had cut a sweetheart deal with the Crown in exchange for his testimony against the accused.
How did he find out these things? The defence has said in court that one can only infer that the information came from Sgt. DeBruyckere.
There is more. The defence will suggest that, because of the relationship between Sgt. DeBruyckere and Mr. Reichart, a decision was made not to pursue RCMP suspicions that Mr. Collins might somehow be involved in this whole mess.
Why? Because dragging Mr. Collins into the affair would have had far more disastrous implications for the governing Liberals than a case involving a few low-level political aides.
The political Trial of the Century continues.
gmason@globeandmail.com
Full story at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content
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