Wednesday, January 30, 2008

 

Railgate Just Got Weirder

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Fast ferries, secret e-mails, mystery hard drives: Basi-Virk case's wild week.

By Bill Tieleman
Published: January 30, 2008

TheTyee.ca


... Bolton argues that Basi and Virk merely facilitated a government-wide strategy to ensure B.C. Rail bidder OmniTRAX stayed in the dubious privatization process after fellow bidder CP Rail dropped out. Had OmniTRAX quit it would have left only the eventual winner CN Rail as a bidder, causing political turmoil for the B.C. Liberal government.

"What they did was critical to the survivability and electability of the [provincial] government," Bolton said in May, arguing that Basi and Virk are fall guys for politically more important or more connected players ...

Full report at http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/

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Don't miss one of Tieleman's best reports. Many thanks, Bill.
- BC Mary.

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Comments:
Express Collision Shop Said,

ABUSE OF PROCESS MOTION ?

I have been trying to figure out when the defence will lay this motion down that judge Bennett mentioned awhile back. It sure seems like they do indeed have plenty to complain about regarding the endless amount of late,hidden and found evidence that has surfaced in the pretrial drama. The list seems endless ie: RCMP notes missing,investigation or no investigation of former minister, complaints re. bidding process, not charging alleged bribers, intervention of Solicitor General, Stonewally's description of the governments own court reporter, Paul Taylor and his wifes emails, the ALR and a cool $50,000, secret witness's and a long list of politicians and more hidden emails etc. etc. etc. The special prosecuters look like a ship of fools with all the cover-ups and I don't knows. Is it just me or is Judge Bennett asking a lot of ridiculous unanswered questions?

Mary, I have not heard to much about the SunRiver Estates,ALR land removal mess and the cool $50,000. I found a Times Colonist article from April 5,2006 by Kines and Rud. Do you or any of your concerned citizens have any updates?
 
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Express Collision Shop:

I did notice a passing reference recently which sounded as if the ALR charges against Basi would be rolled into the BC Rail Case.

Then I happened to find this interesting bit of old news on Rabble:


... it's worthwhile to look at Sunriver Estates in the context of changes the Liberal government made to the land commission soon after taking power.

The developer's land exclusion application gathered momentum in the spring of 2001, shortly before the Liberals were elected. The following Christmas, the Campbell government sent the entire 11-member land commission packing and left the job in the hands of two deputy ministers and three land commission employees. The Liberal purge of the land commission occurred just as its members were preparing to assess the Sunriver Estates property, just over two months after Shambrook applied to have the land excluded in October, 2001.

In February 2002, the application was rejected. Revised plans were submitted in June 2002 and approved before the end of summer. The RCMP allege that money changed hands "between January 2002 and September 2003," a timeline consistent with the developers' ALR exclusion application. ...

Having covered many an exclusion application over the last decade, this doesn't seem like the kind of scenario that needed cash to grease the wheels. There's a good chance the land would have been excluded anyway. Could it be the developers just wanted to speed up the process to take advantage of low interest rates?

Staff at the land commission office this week referred all media inquiries to Colin Fry, one of the five interim commissioners mentioned above. Fry, who was "in meetings in Victoria" Tuesday did not return my calls, so perhaps the commission isn't as independent as its apologists would have us believe. The government's shift into full damage control mode over this news is a further indication that the province keeps the commission on a tight leash.

The Campbell government did a good job of distancing itself from Round 1 of Dave Basi's legal troubles. This time it won't be so easy.

After all, Basi was hand-picked by to be former Finance Minister Gary Collins ministerial assistant. The two men were good friends and Basi was valued for abilities as a political organizer for both the federal and provincial Liberals. He had access to the premier's inner circle and influence over the Liberal legislative agenda in the house.

I have to wonder if Collins' departure from government two years ago was made with the knowledge that the Sunriver investigation wouldn't remain secret forever. ...

[ 07 April 2006: Message edited by: Yossarian ]

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One question. What and where exactly is the court registry?
 
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