Friday, January 04, 2008

 

Organizational chart for Paul Martin leadership BC Team

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Basi-Virk case witnesses will include members of Paul Martin Liberal Leadership BC Team

Bill Tieleman


The upcoming trial of David Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi this year will feature a number of connections to the past federal Liberal Party leadership campaign in British Columbia of former Prime Minister Paul Martin.


[CLICK on chart for larger version. ]

Or visit Bill Tieleman's blog at http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/

While no aspersions should be cast on Martin or his BC team, and none of those members are facing any charges, it is interesting to note that several individuals are expected to be called as witnesses, including key Crown witness Erik Bornmann, who was responsible for "Operations" on the campaign and was also a federal Liberal Party in BC executive member.

Bornmann is alleged in police documents to have bribed David Basi and Bob Virk to get confidential BC government information about the $1 billion BC Rail privatization. Bornmann and Brian Kieran, another Crown witness, were lobbyists acting for OmniTRAX, one of the BC Rail bidders.

This organizational chart for the Paul Martin Liberal Leadership - BC Team was obtained by me in 2004 and has been written about in my past columns for the Georgia Straight newspaper but has never been published before now.

Others listed here include Bruce Clark, whose home was searched by police, who alleged in "information to obtain" documents that they expected to find confidential BC Rail documents there. Clark was also an executive member of the federal Liberals in BC; Mark Marissen, the strategist credited with Stephane Dion's upset Liberal leadership win and now federal Liberal national campaign co-chair, who was visited by police and who has publicly stated he gave them documents that he thought may have been helpful; and Amar Bajwa, a federal Liberal organizer who defended David Basi in the days after the BC Legislature raid and was membership chair in Vancouver South when then-Liberal cabinet minister Herb Dhaliwal lost control of his riding. Bajwa and Clark's names were also "identified" in police ITO documents but were not under investigation, the ITO said.

Dhaliwal publicly blamed David Basi for that takeover by Martin forces. Basi was also very active in the Martin campaign but is not listed on this chart.

Comments:
Basi was a active fellow for the Federal Liberals for sure. But as Mary says, that doesn't make him guilty of anything. All parties have operatives. Right now a NDP MLA ex Cabinet Minister is about to run for the Federal Liberals. At least most folks don't jump parites with 24 hours of being elected for another party.
But as Mary says. A lot of the same names keep showing up. Let's get into court and sort out the guesses, one way or the other.
 
Mary

Your site says the next court date will be January 8 2008(Tuesday). I thought the BCRail trial was schedualed to resume January 7 2008(Monday).
 
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Bill Tieleman had found out that the actual date is Tuesday, January 8. He, as usual, shared this information around.

Robin was asking, too.

So maybe it's best to check the court schedule ourselves which (all together now) can be done only on the very day of the hearing, from 6:30 AM onward.

CLICK onto "Van Court - Direct" which you'll find on this web-site in the left margin. One click will take you directly to TODAY's listing.

I hope you're planning to attend!

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Who, according to Bill Tieleman, are expected to be called as witnesses from that list? What does he base this on?
 
Ha Ha, I told you it would be January 7. I got it straight from someone who was there when the trial was adjouned in December.
 
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Anon 7:34,

You did indeed tell us the next hearing would be January 7, just as we all reported after the last hearing in December.

And don't forget that I always say: it's best to check the Supreme Court Listings every doggone day ... which is what I did this morning ... and was astonished to see the Basi Virk Basi names listed there for today because "somebody" very convincingly had told Bill Tieleman that nothing would be happening until tomorrow!!

One thing you may be overlooking: besides Keith Baldrey seeming to know very early about the Appeal delay (when nobody else seemed to know that either), Paul Willcocks' informative story about it appeared at the crack o'dawn this a.m., Monday Jan. 7.

If you think about that ... Paul would either have had to know about the Appeal last week (Friday at the latest) - or - there's a private pipeline for some chosen journalists. But not for others -- not even the "excellent" Bill Tieleman.

So no, I don't think Baldrey misunderstood McConachie. I think that the private pipeline was working as intended and that many journalists knew Bill Berardino's intentions. Yoicks.

So my question is: who wanted Bill Tieleman to miss today's session? Who told him so convincingly that the next Basi Virk session would take place on Tues., Jan. 8 ... ??

Who do you think?? And why??

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Today was taken up by George Copley's solicitor client priviledge submissions, so maybe it didn't count.
 
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Oh my gosh, Anon 2:00,

You're reporting in!

Thanks a million!

But only ol' George was there, mewling on about a bigger and bigger solicitor-client privilege tent? about the size of BCPlace? covering everybody he can think of?

What a sorry way for a career to end.

Please tell more.

And thanks again!

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Mary

I checked with my source about Monday Jan 7. The whole contingent of lawyers were there including Berardino. There were four other people in the audience who appeared to be friends. One of them was an assistant of NDP MLA Leonard Krog. Another was the only other person in attendance on Monday December 17th. Maybe he works for Krog, or maybe he's Stuart Chase's replacement. He appeared to know Krog's assistant quite well. My source didn't stick around for the whole day, as Copley is the most difficult to understand speaker of the bunch and Courtroom 54 acoustics are poor to begin with. Also, in regards to December 17, defence threatened/promised to put Gordon Campbell on the stand.
 
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Anonymous 6:59,

You really are a show-stopper!

Thanks for the news and clarification ... but that last line, wow.

DEFENCE might put GORDON CAMPBELL on the stand, you say? ... under oath? ... swearing to tell the truth? ... huh.

So much for those seismologists who are trying to tell us that it was only an earthquake.


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