Wednesday, December 05, 2007

 

STRICTLY HUSH-HUSH

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Strictly hush-hush
Basi-Virk

By BILL TIELEMAN,
24 HOURS - December 5, 2007

The results of a secret B.C. Supreme Court hearing that excluded both the media and public in the case of three provincial government aides charged with breach of trust, fraud and money laundering will be announced Thursday.

Justice Elizabeth Bennett said yesterday she will decide whether even defence lawyers and defendants David Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi will be allowed to hear secret material to be presented by the Crown in an in-camera application.

A temporary publication ban imposed by Bennett restricts much of what can be reported.

The case involves allegations that confidential government documents related to the $1 billion privatization of BC Rail were given to lobbyists for a bidder.

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2007/12/05/4707983-sun.html

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December 5, 2007. About that break-in at Bill Tieleman's office ...

Vancouver Sun has published nothing. I left them a "news tip".
The Province, ditto. I left them a "news tip".
Victoria Times Colonist: has this item. Repeat: December 5.


Office break-in tied to coverage of Basi-Virk case, reporter says

CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, December 05, 2007

VANCOUVER -- A reporter who had his office ransacked over the weekend thinks the break-in was connected to his coverage of a political corruption trial.

Sometime between Friday and Monday, someone smashed their way into Bill Tieleman's office near Granville and Broadway. But while the room was trashed -- bookshelves toppled, files scattered -- Tieleman said yesterday nothing was stolen.

The only sign of the intruder's intent, Tieleman said, was in the careful placement of a document linked to the trial of former B.C. Liberal aides David Basi and Aneal Virk.

"A copy of the press kit for Ken Merkley's fiction book about the B.C. legislature raid case was carefully removed from my desk and placed on top of the broken acoustic tiles from my ceiling," Tieleman wrote on his blog yesterday.

Tieleman, who has ties to the provincial NDP, has covered the case since it began four years ago with an RCMP raid on the legislature in Victoria.

The Crown eventually charged Basi and Virk with breach of trust and fraud for allegedly passing on confidential documents to lobbyists interested in the $1-billion B.C. Rail privatization.

The trial, now scheduled to begin in March, is bogged down in pre-trial proceedings.

Vancouver police are now investigating the break-in, but for Tieleman the intent of the raid was clear.

"The message has been received, but I'm not going to take it," Tieleman told CanWest News Service.

"I'm not going to be intimidated by criminals, that's just not going to happen."

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Comments:
Could it be that this is the way the government will derail this case and then stall a public hearing until after the next election? Or the twelfth of never?
It has to be unconstitutional for an accused to be denied access to an accusers charges. How else can they prepare their case if they don't know the supposed evidence?
 
Hi mary,globel had the" B and E" story on at 11:30 last night and ctv had the story at 11:33.Allways looking for tidbits.
 
Anonymous 9:21,

Interesting. 11:30 PM and 11:33 PM, eh. So that a scene of violence wouldn't scare the kiddies?

Honestly, I can't understand why B.C. journalists haven't expressed shock and sympathy, or why they aren't filling their columns with a good big bunch of "I'm-with-you-Bill".

Because ... if it happened to Bill, it could happen to any other journalist. Couldn't it? Couldn't it? Hmmmmm ...

The perps must be starting to laugh as they steal a few newspapers around Vancouver and begin to notice that nobody seems to care.

Violence against a journalist? A decent, honourable, well-known journalist? And CanWest barely yawns?

Grrrrr.

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