Monday, November 24, 2008

 

Today ... the biggest, most fancy hearing!

.
A major pre-trial hearing begins at 10:00 o'clock this morning, November 24, 2008, in the infamous B.C. Supreme Court Case #23299,

Her Majesty the Queen vs Udhe Singh (Dave) Basi, Bobby Singh Virk, Aneal Singh Basi,


with an estimated 11 lawyers including two new Federal lawyers appearing before Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett for an estimated three (3) weeks regarding Disclosure Application ... disclosure, disclosure, disclosure ... which could possibly lead to some startling conclusions. Or not.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC at THE LAW COURTS BUILDING
800 SMYTHE STREET, VANCOUVER B.C.



A quote from Up to their armpits in sleaze by Robin Mathews:

... Paul Palango demonstrates that the RCMP covers-up, attacks opponents, misleads, and delays - parts of a systematic approach to its activities.

Delay has been the operative word in RCMP disclosure in the Basi, Virk, and Basi case. Almost a full year followed the Search Warrant "raids" on B.C. legislature offices on December 28, 2003 before the accused were charged. Among pages of Affidavit material released at the request of Leonard Krog, Justice critic for the NDP, a memo written during that year from George Copley, lawyer for the cabinet, records that he was asked by Special Crown Prosecutor William Berardino not to mention the already shaping delay when the two of them appeared before Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm (who also had the discretion not to mention the delay).

In the two years since pre-trial hearings began Defence has fought against delay after delay with applications for disclosure that have been badly received, shoddily treated, partially - and often inadequately - answered. Many of the requests were for disclosure of RCMP notes and other materials. To this observer in the gallery, the RCMP seems to have been a major source of delay and obstruction. The requests were, of course, made through the Special Crown Prosecutor.

Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett, presiding judge, appears to this observer to have done very, very little to insist that the Special Crown Prosecutor and the RCMP produce materials in a full, fair, and timely fashion. The quotation from Paul Palango at the head of this column points out that a biased police force "compromises" "the integrity of the entire justice system". I believe that may well be what we have witnessed in the Basi, Virk, and Basi case ...

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