The Legislature Raids

I thought that it was a great refresher show and highlights the many concerns over a 4 and half year delay that falls at the feet of the RCMP and Special Prosecutor.

I was unimpressed with Neal Hall who seemed to be ill prepared with comments and struggled with many of the key facts in this case.

Bill Tileman should have been the logical guest and he showcased his knowledge with detailed questions and observations. At one point Keith Baldrey mentioned that Bill had another update on the status of Erik Bornmann's attempt to become a lawyer in Ontario up on his blog.

Keith Baldrey was very detailed and well prepared and Vaughn Palmer tried to explain some details in simple terms and was very cautious in stating that many topics were only allegations. The show used clips from Bill Tieleman and referred to Bill's excellent work and plugged his website a number of times.

The show also spoke to a number of concerns raised on your website Mary. The highly troubling conduct of the RCMP, questions regarding the conduct of the Special Prosecutor, the family relationships between the RCMP and the BC Liberal Party, the fact that Bill Berardino was teaching Erik Bornmann during the course of the investigation and other issues and of course the the fact that we are now in Year 5 of this long drawn out affair were all key subjects.

All of these topics have been raised on your site and it was a great show to give the viewers a good overview of the issues at hand.

The show finished with the question of when the trial may begin. Neal Hall claimed it may begin in the fall of 2008 and Keith Baldrey said the spring of 2009.

With more disclosure hearings, the Special Prosecutor appeal of the secret witness in June, and charter applications to be heard, I think that Keith Baldrey's prediction should come true.
 

I watched about the first 45 minutes, and it was good to at least (and at last) have some representation of the complexities of this situation reported in a TV venue. Many important aspects were touched upon - enough to, I hope, pique the curiosity of the intelligent but unaware and motivate them to educate themselves (which is sadly what is required in this situation if one - including journalists - is to have any semblance of understanding). Somewhere here I read someone suggesting that a book might eventually come of the Legislature Raids/Basi Virk case. Sooner would be better than later, so that people wouldn't become overwhelmed with having to read and search to the extent that is required to mine either this site or others for the gold they contain. There were several times during the show when I was disappointed or irritated at glossing overs or possible misrepresentations etc, but I don't have the time to go into great detail, and I'd want to watch it again in order to do so accurately. They did manage to illustrate the craziness and complexity. I hope it makes more people interested. How do we all help to get cameras in the courtroom?
 

Express Collision Shop Said,

I missed the first 15 minutes and will try to watch again. Palmer had quite a script he was going by. It was as if he wanted to cover as much as he could and there was not enough time for answers. They covered plenty of concerns, however short in detail. It was good to see Neal Hall and his remarks that this trial will go ahead. Baldrey said he keeps in regular touch with Basi and Virk. He says they want to see a public enquiry after this mess is over, hmmm. I think it was Baldrey that poked fun at Tieleman over his hounding of Lawyer/witness to be Bornman. I have to admit it does look like Tieleman has a dislike for Bornman. Do these guys have old history together?

The boys brought up the lack of disclosure by RCMP, special prosecutor and government lawyers. They also talked about the secret witness's quite a bit. It seems they all know who these secret witness's are. All of them brought up the fact that their lawyers warned them to shut their yaps on this one. No kidding. I would love to get these guys drunk and have a chat with them. These scribes all know Brian Kieran rather well. I would bet a nickle that they all know a hell of a lot more regarding this trial than their telling.

Hall said that this trial was hard to keep track of and write about, with all the delays and all. Baldrey talked about all the thousands of wiretapped phone calls and all the government types sqirming in thier dirty loafers if they are made public. That was pretty funny.
 

Hi Mary,

I watched voice of BC and even have it taped. What I got out of Vaughn’s program was a general overall review of the raid on the legislature, starting with Campbell’s election promises from 2001and working through the high lights (or low lights) of the scandal right up to today.
There was not a great deal of in-depth discussion but the conversation did connect the dots along a time line for the public that is not up on the case. A lot was left out, maybe over time restraints, maybe not. I would admit that the hour did fly buy rather quickly given the many avenues the conversation did/could go. All and all the program seemed to be fair in a general way.

I will be writing Vaughn to thank him for putting the show together and would encourage other folks to do so also. I’m hoping that Vaughn now feels he has the hard part behind him (that is the first show out of the way and now it can only get easier) and will put other shows together as this trial proceeds. All British Columbians need to be informed.

Nothing revealing to offer, just it was a program that could be entitled “101 for the raid on the legislature”.

Mary, the panel did not bring up the subject of cameras in the courtroom. We'll all have to keep pushing to hopefully make it a reality.
 

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THANKS very much, all.

Somebody (was it Gary E?) suggested a YouTube repeat of this Voice of BC show ... that would surely be great.

Very, very clear is how you all felt relieved simply to hear the "Trial of the Century" being discussed right out in the open. Wow, that sure tells us something.

How do we get TV coverage in the actual courtroom, you ask?

I'd suggest that everybody phone/email at least ONE journalist to ask if they will look into having TV coverage of the courtroom proceedings. They'll know (or should know) how best to go about it. And it HAS been done before in BC.

Collision Guy, what's with this remark: "I think it was Baldrey that poked fun at Tieleman over his hounding of Lawyer/witness to be Bornman. I have to admit it does look like Tieleman has a dislike for Bornman. Do these guys have old history together?"

And what "hounding" would that be, pray tell?

It says a lot about how the Basi-Virk trial has been handled, if anyone in B.C. thinks that when a journalist does his due diligence by phoning the Upper Canada Law Society in Toronto or New York Law Society to ask about the credentials of the Star Witness ... something we wouldn't likely read about in our regular newspapers ... if anyone thinks that's "hounding", well ...

Finally ... if Keith Baldrey is in regular contact with Basi and Virk, I sure wish he'd talk about that once in a while. Surely there's no law against that, is there??

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Express Collision Shop Said,

The hounding remark was mine not Baldrey's. As I have told concerned bloggers before there are plenty of collision and auto glass shops very concerned about this trial. A few weeks ago, a few shop owners got together and were discussing this trial. Some of the questions raised again were "why were these lobbyist's not charged for allegedly bribing these government types?" and "what happened in that time after the raid till said lobbyist's were called crown witness's?" and "how were these guys allowed to continue to lobby government?" As a very concerned taxpayer and collision shop owner, I have watched and paid close attention to this trial. One of the comments that came up in our discussions were Whats up with Tieleman and Bornmann? My friend thought that Bill writes a lot of articles on Bornmann and when he talks about Bornmann on tv and radio Bill's voice raise's and his body language speaks volumes. We all agreed. We all know the importance Bill has regarding this trial. Bill has done an incredible job on this mess and we are thankful for that. Bill has informed us of many of facts regarding Erik and many unanswered questions that need to be addressed.

We also talked about the break in at Bill's office and thoughts about how far reaching this trial is. Who the hell would do such a thing? Someone connected to the trial? Who know's? Did the police ever get any good evidence? etc.

I would like to know what concerned bloggers think about "Why the RCMP needed these lobbyist's as witness's?" Did they screw up? It seems they had plenty of evidence. If you read the warrants, there seems to be plenty of good evidence to the uninformed(Baldreyism). The scribes also brought up the emails and the importance of one of them in particular. Judge Bennett has said this one is of most importance. Should be interesting.
 

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Many thanks, Express Collision guy.

I've just sent a Thank You note to Vaughn Palmer, asking if there will be more BCRail programs and also about TV cameras in the courtroom.

Just think, if you and those other shop owners had been able to watch the courtroom proceedings for yourselves, how much easier it would be to understand some of these things.

Anon 3:11, I've asked Koot in his Techie hat to explain how you might get your tape turned into a YouTube. Would you be interested?

More later ...

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Express Collision Shop Said,

Solicitor General John Les under investigation? Land issues? Oh great, he's also in charge of ICBC. What next and who's next?
 

Hi Mary

Sorry, I can't take credit for the YouTube suggestion. You know how remote I am up here and being on dial up it would take about 45 minutes to download about 3 minutes of YouTube. But whomever made it, it was a good suggestion.

I did however suggest that whoever gets a copy of those 250 pages of court transcripts should package them and sell them to defray costs.

I want to take the time here to thank each and everyone that has and will post their comments on The Voice of BC show. It has been rather informative. And I am pretty sure there are others in the province that have the same problems as I do with the net. So thanks again everyone.
 

Techie hat on here:

I keep forgetting that the "Voice of TV" is a television broadcast - my previous discussion of the issues with putting in on youTube were related to an audio track. With a video clip though the issues are similar. It depends on just what format it was recorded in to begin with like with a VCR, or a digital recorder or a Tivo, and probably other options as well.

Once it is at least digital, the main thing is to put it into a "compressed" format for uploading and downloading using a reasonable amount of bandwidth and time. Copyright considerations re: Baldrey, Shaw et. al. are of course another issue that has to be either dealt with or ignored at one's own peril.

Now I'll change into my angry citizen hat:

As "wonderful" as it is to finally have some, from the sounds of it, rational thoughtful coverage on television of this trial, being televised on a local Shaw community channel is almost as if it didn't exist for most of our large and spread out province. This is particularly relevant when one considers that BC Rail itself was/is a far more important issue in the north - the regions that depend on what used to be our railway for receiving goods and shipping product. To the average denizen of the Big Smoke, BC Rail isn't nearly as important as whether or not they will be able to party and get served all night long during the Olympic Game-us Show.

By the way, anon above, I would be willing to bet substantial sums that this trial will not be taking place in the Spring of 2009. Perhaps you forgot that thanks to Gordon Campbell's new American style fixed election dates there will be a provincial election that very same spring. I doubt that even the Campbell Cabal is arrogant enough to allow this trial to proceed during an election campaign, unless of course they can figure out a way to come out smelling a lot like roses as the evidence enters the public domain.

Of course now that we just found out our chief law officer has been under investigation for almost a year, maybe these crooks won't be government by then. Don't deny me my dreams.................

As to Bill T and Bornmann, Bill T. shouldn't have to even practice due diligence to keep up with Mr. Multiple N's whereabouts as he should be facing charges and under bail/remand conditions that would define just where he is allowed to be between now and answering the charges of offering bribes to public officials. The fact that he isn't facing charges and there is no disclosed agreement with him for testimony is itself justification for his being under scrutiny by more than just our valiant Bill T.
 

here's a 10 minute clip on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBkuVXNRQjo
 

Hi, Anon 10:14,


1) A 10-min. clip about what???

2) Link doesn't work.

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Hi Mary,

I had posted earlier that I had taped the voice of BC program. Many phone calls later I have found the path that would allow for this VHS taped program to make it to you-tube. The first option is not affordable and that is to install a program ($100), this after finding a way to copy from VHS to DVD. The other option is to bring the tape to a multi-media outlet and they will send it to Calgary (?) for processing from DVD and burning it on to a disc so that the computer can read it. The process takes about a week at a cost of $30,and then the program is ready for the you-tube down load (have not found out what that entails yet) as I’m almost completely computer illiterate. But, I might add that learning is always a good thing.

If anyone out there has this program on there computer that will burn the program from DVD to a disc that the computer can read and you have a DVD recorder this would make a lot more sense. There will be another showing of the voice of BC on Sunday Mar.30th at 2:00 p.m. on the Shaw channel. Kootcoot makes a very good warning about getting authorization before redistributing other people’s property. Although it seems to me that Vaughn and Shaw would be delighted for this program to be put on you-tube as it was there intention in the first place to inform the public about this most important subject.

This is the voice of BC’s website: http://vancouver.shawtv.com/voiceofbc-mainpage.htm

I’m sure we can find away for this show to reach all British Columbians. Standing by.
 

Some machines will go direct through the mic jack. If not.

Future shop carries a thingy called dazzle 69 and 99 or so dollars 2 versions, try plugging it in without downloading the software for it first and get a copy. If not download the dazzle software and get a copy.

Compress and upload.
 

Hi Mary,

There’s something going on with Vaughn and his little show. The “raid on the legislature show” was NOT rebroadcast on Friday at 4:00 pm or today at 2:00 pm and had been replaced with a show from a week ago. This is very unusual and I have only seen this happen one other time, and that was just a few weeks ago when Mrs. James was the guest. Most of the public can put two and two together.

So, Vaughn and/or Shaw has had second thoughts on this whole democracy thing, and pulled the plug on informing the public about this corrupt Gordon Campbell government. Again this is so very cowardly of the media in this province. If this Campbell government can’t stand up for itself, then the media is just propping up a lame and corrupt government. If this Campbell government is found to have broken any laws, then I believe that the media should also be charged with compliance or enabling Campbell to hide the fact.

Good on you Vaughn for putting the show together, it’s to bad your ever so shrinking reputation has to take another hit.

But hay; as long as you’re receiving that pay check, then the hell with integrity. RIGHT?