Saturday, June 28, 2008
.Look what I found, with a little help from my friends. We were wondering what the rest of the $300,000.00 was used for. What do you think? - BC Mary.
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EYES TRAINED ON OmniTRAX LOBBYISTS IN BRIBERY CASE
By Greg Griffin
Staff Writer
Denver Post (USA) - 06/09/2007
Denver real estate and railroad investor Pat Broe and a colleague dined at a pricey Italian restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia, in December 2003 with the province's minister of finance. Apparently unknown to them, the downtown restaurant was staked out by undercover federal agents of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who videotaped the meeting, according to Canadian court records.
Police were interested in whether Broe's Denver-based company, OmniTrax Inc., would receive a gift from the finance minister's office for acting as a straw bidder in an auction for British Columbia's provincial railroad, court records reveal. But if investigators were focused on Broe and former minister Gary Collins, they later lost interest. Neither was ever named a target of the government's investigation, and the details of their conversation at Villa del Lupo restaurant on Dec. 12, 2003, were never released.
OmniTrax officials said in a 2004 statement the company acted properly during the bidding. Broe and his company, however, remain deeply entangled in the mess.
According to documents filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver, two lobbyists hired by OmniTrax allegedly paid bribes to ministerial aides for information about the bidding. The bribes were worth nearly $30,000, according to published reports based on additional court filings.
{Snip} ...
The case has drawn intense coverage from Canada's newspapers and on the Internet. In addition to a secret videotaping of a high-ranking public official, it features wiretapped phone conversations revealing unguarded political discussions.
OmniTrax is a political player in Canada, where it operates railroads in three provinces and owns the grain-distributing Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay.
{Snip} ... [Erik] Bornmann and [Brian] Kieran, a former newspaper columnist, were political operatives in Vancouver working for Pilothouse Public Affairs Group. The firm had a contract with OmniTrax, reportedly worth $300,000 Canadian, to help it win the rail bidding. The firm later changed its name to K&E Public Affairs, with Kieran as a partner.
OmniTrax was one of three finalists bidding in 2003 for the government-owned British Columbia Rail, Canada's third- largest railway. The auction was being handled by Collins' office, and Dave Basi was involved.
Late in 2003, one of the bidders, Canadian Pacific Railway, dropped out. CP Rail officials believed the government had already chosen another bidder, Canadian National Railway, as the successful bidder, according to a February court filing by the defense. Listening in on Basi's phone, investigators learned in November 2003 that OmniTrax was considering dropping out for the same reason, the defense said in its filing. Basi tried to dissuade them.
"It was clearly in the Provincial government's political interest to have an auction with more than one bidder," defense attorneys said. Canadian National won the bidding, paying $1 billion for BC Rail in late November 2003.
Investigators learned that OmniTrax might be given a "consolation prize" for having stayed in the bidding, according to the defense filing. The company was interested in a smaller spur line that also was being privatized, according to the filing, and had requested a meeting between OmniTrax officials and Collins. The Vancouver restaurant meeting followed.
The sale of the spur line was later canceled. Bornmann, 31, is considered the key witness, having made most of the payments, prosecutors have said in documents. Defense attorneys stated in their February court document that "the special prosecutor has advised defense counsel that Mr. Bornmann continues to this day to have the threat of criminal charges brought against him until after he testifies."
Staff writer Greg Griffin can be reached at 303-954-1241 or ggriffin@denverpost.com.
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_6098753
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It bears repeating (and thanks for the reminder from Anonymous today) ...
Friday, September 28, 2007
More LPCBC connections
Anonymous has left a new comment on "Jamie Elmhirst re-visited":
Mary
You might want to start a separate entry for this as it concerns mainly
George MacIntosh and his law firm Farris, Vaughn, Wills and Murphy.
First let me begin by correcting two statements anonymous 10:55 made. Firstly the name of the law partner of George MacIntosh at Farris, Vaughn, Wills and Murphy is
James Hatton, not Hattan.
Hatton is listed on the firm's website www.farris.com as a specialist in technological law. He served as secretary on the Liberal Party of Canada in BC executive along with
Erik Bornmann and
Bruce Clark from 2002 to 2004 and then with
Jamie Elmhirst and
Bruce Clark from 2004 to 2007. On April 1 2005 he was appointed to a governance position with the National Research Council by the Paul Martin government.
Second, Hatton was not the only person associated with Farris, Vaughn, Wills and Murphy who served with Jamie Elmhirst on the lpcbc executive.
Shannon Salter succeeded Erik Bornmann as communications director, serving in that position from 2004 to 2007. When she started in this position she was a UBC law student. Then in 2005 she articled with Farris, Vaughn, Wills and Murphy. Then in March 2007 she joined Farris, Vaughn, Wills and Murphy as an associate, working in their commercial litigation group headed up by George MacIntosh.
MacIntosh who is regarded as one of the leading experts in commercial litigation law, has been with Farris Vaughn, Wills and Murphy since 1974.
There is no mention of either MacIntosh or his firm ever having any involvement with criminal law.This raises the question, why did George MacIntosh agree to represent Erik Bornmann as a client when:(a)MacIntosh's expertise lay in litigation law NOT criminal law and this was a criminal case.(b)there was a potential case of conflict of interest with MacIntosh's partner James Hatton serving on the same lpcbc executive as Eric Bornmann and Bruce Clark, a man Bornmann accused in his statements to police of being involved in the Basi affair.
As it turned out, Erik Bornmann did not get very good representation from George MacIntosh. What kind of a lawyer negotiates an immunity deal for his client without putting it in writing? Perhaps a lawyer who specializes in commercial litigation but is lacking in experience when it comes to criminal law!
For the record, Hatton and Salter both supported Gerard Kennedy in the Liberal leadership race whilst Elmhirst and Clark supported Stephane Dion.
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For the record, Anonymice, your information is very much appreciated. - BC Mary.
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Hansard March 3, 2004, final excerpt
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J. MacPhail: What lessons were learned from the B.C. Rail privatization that are being applied by Partnerships B.C.?
Hon. G. Collins: I just spent a bit of time this afternoon explaining to the member why the B.C. Rail transaction was outside of Partnerships B.C. Partnerships B.C. was not involved in the transaction because it was not the type of transaction that would be good for Partnerships B.C. to be involved in.
J. MacPhail: I'm not sure what that had to do with my question.
Partnerships B.C., according to their own annual report, are about partnerships between the private and public sector. Let me just see some of the big files they've got right now. They've got the Abbotsford regional hospital. That's a $300 million project.
Let me ask this: are there any lessons to be learned from the B.C. Rail sell-off and the Abbotsford hospital?
Hon. G. Collins: The final conclusion of the B.C. Rail transaction has not occurred yet. When it does, it may well be that Mr. Trumpy and his team want to advise other people in government what they've learned. They're certainly free to do that. And if they have any valuable advice, I hope they give it.
J. MacPhail: But the minister doesn't know when the deal's going to be completed. He can't answer that for me. He has no idea what the competition bureau is doing here. He's just such a hands-off guy. I think it'll come as a real shock to British Columbians that this minister lacks such influence across government. Of course, he wouldn't be claiming that if he weren't in this hot water around the raid on his office at the Legislature. I'm sure he'd be claiming success at every turn.
Well then, I'll ask very specific questions about the various deals that are underway by Partnerships B.C. How many proponents are left in the bidding for the Abbotsford hospital?
Hon. G. Collins: I think it's been publicly stated that it's one.
J. MacPhail: What happened to the other bidders?
Hon. G. Collins: They dropped out over time.
J. MacPhail: Why?
Hon. G. Collins: Because it wasn't a transaction that they felt they could complete.
J. MacPhail: Did they file any formal withdrawal letters about why they couldn't complete the project?
Hon. G. Collins: I'm told yes.
J. MacPhail: What did those letters say? How many bids were there initially? Maybe the minister could read the letters into the record, please.
Hon. G. Collins: I don't have them with me, but under the normal procedures, I'll try and get them to the member if she's requesting them.
J. MacPhail: I'm sorry. Why are they not here? I assume this would be part of the debate around Partnerships B.C. How long will it take? I would like the letters. It's always awkward not to have this information available in estimates. How long will it take?
Hon. G. Collins: I'm certainly prepared to talk about the general content of the letters and the reasons behind it if I can. Correspondence like that is subject to freedom of information and protection of privacy. The individuals who wrote those letters have business issues they may want to deal with, and they'd need to be consulted. That's the act she put into place and voted in favour of.
J. MacPhail: Oh, balderdash. Why is it that this government, this minister in particular, always says: "Use FOI." What happened to the promise of openness and accountability? What happened to the Premier's statement that openness beats hiddenness any day? What happened to that?
I would like the letters. There is no provision under the act that allows the minister to prevent releasing those letters to me. In the meantime, I will take him up on his offer right now to give me a summary — per bid, please.
[1605]
Hon. G. Collins: There actually is something in the act. It's third-party confidence, and it needs to be respected. We just don't release that kind of stuff without the advice….
J. MacPhail: They've withdrawn.
The Chair: The minister has the floor.
J. MacPhail: There is no competition.
The Chair: The minister has the floor.
Hon. G. Collins: I have no knowledge whether there are items in those particular letters that may be prejudicial to future bids that those companies might make or be making presently in other parts of the world. I've no knowledge of that. The member might like to have everything at her fingertips, but unfortunately for her, the law she helped put in place and voted in favour of and continues to support, I think, requires that we respect the rights of those third parties. It's not just freedom of information; it's also protection of privacy. The member is aware of that.
J. MacPhail: Can I have a summary of the contents, please?
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Final excerpt for March 3, 2004. Special thanks to "Lynx" for this research.
P.S. Anyone who knows Joy MacPhail, please tell her that she is needed again in the B.C. Legislature.
- BC Mary.
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Friday, June 27, 2008
Psst! Buy waterfront land? Only $1.
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These items appeared during the interlude after police raided the B.C. Legislature, when we faced the shock of realizing that the province was in mortal danger. Journalism took on a brilliance and honesty which is reflected in these articles below. Sadly, the corporate media soon regained the upper hand and BC news gave way to a relentless theme of "Move along folks, ain't nuthin' goin' on here." Two items from that time, which appeared in Columbia Journal (Vancouver), www.columbiajournal.ca, are presented here "as is" and unverified, as there are things mentioned which we haven't seen before. It seems, too, that B.C. has many serious obligations to fulfill, under the terms of this 1,500-page still-secret (as far as I know) agreement. Special thanks to Gary E for discovering and sharing these items.
- BC Mary.
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ALL ABOARD: 30 POINTS WEST AND NORTH TO DISASTER
Columbia Journal - Volume 9, Number 3, May 2004
http://www.columbiajournal.ca/04-05/BCRail.html
Bob Smith
1 BC Rail sold to C.N. Rail for $1Billion
2 $750 M of this is for the right to operate freight operations for 60 years and options for an additional 930 years on B.C. owned rails and rights of way and for ownership of the BC Rail company itself and its name and trademarks.
3 Of this total amount, $250 M will go to acquire for CN tax credits on the accumulated (for tax purposes, losses, capital expenditures, and deductible expenditures over 70 years) of BC Rail worth an estimated $2 Billion or more. The credit may be as much as $250 M. There is a qualifier: If the federal tax department agrees that BC Rail’s tax debt credit (useless for a crown corporation which pays no taxes) can be transferred to CN then BC gets the $ Billion from CN, if not BC gets $750 million plus what amount CN is able to get from the federal tax department. There is no certainty that Canada will agree to accept directly in lost future income tax, $250 Million of BC’s indirect debt, payable by a corporation which now does not pay income taxes at all as a transfer to one that does pay taxes.
4 BC to pay off all the current $500 M B.C. Rail debt from the money CN Pays BC.
5 BC will pay $17.2 million for part of the Prince Rupert terminal facility.
6 BC will pay $15 million into a First Nations Trust, not necessarily divided equitably between the 20 Bands through whose reserves BC Rail track runs. The trustees of this fund are to be mostly Native people appointed by the Liberals.
7 BC will pay $4 million for airport improvements in Prince George.
8 BC will pay $135 million into a Northern Developments Initiative.
9 BC will pay $1 million for terminal and runway improvements in Prince George.
10 BC will pay $50 million into a general trust to support economic development across Northern BC.
11 BC Rail rolling stock is estimated to be worth $600 million which CN gets as part of deal.
12 At the time of sale, BC Rail had about $1.2 BILLION worth of undepreciated capital assets, much of this in industrial land which does not depreciate, on its tax books.
13 BC Rail had operating losses over its approximately seventy years of existence that can be carried forward for tax deductions. This value was about $800 M. This may result in a tax credit against CN Rail’s present and future earnings of about $250 M. This is entirely contained in # 3 above.
14 The firm hired to access fairness was explicitly disallowed any capacity to assess the real value of tax shelters as part of sale. It was not allowed to determine if CN or BC got value for its contribution.
15 The firm hired to assess the “fairness” of the sale had to rely solely on what the government said about its own transactions and it was given a strictly limited framework in which to assess the “fairness” of the bidding process. Both other bidders for BC Rail have claimed publicly that the process was unfair.
16 CN is not required to give any accounting of the BC Rail line’s costs, profits or benefits to anyone, ever. It is a public company and must report general operating results to its shareholders. It does not have to report any specifics about parts of its operations.
17 BC Government to be partly responsible for the cost of a 7% rate reduction promised to major BC Rail customers. There is no promise to small customers.
18 Approximately half of BC Rail employees are to be laid off, including almost all maintenance workers in Squamish and Prince George. The work will be done at existing CN Rail shops in Winnipeg and elsewhere by existing CN staff. 60% of BC Rail’s head office staff are to go too. CN has made no promise to keep any of the BC Rail workers. CN will acquire and operate a wheel refurbishing shop in Prince George. Transfer of workers’ seniority, if any, seems unclear at best.
19 BC Rail has a debt now because it was required by the Bennett Governments to absorb the whole cost of the spur lines to the North-East coal mines, now abandoned. Previous construction on the BC Rail was charged to Provincial General Revenue in most cases like the Dease Lake Extension, now about half unfinished and/or abandoned. BC Rail has been paying these off ever since, in full, and on time, from BC Rail’s before-net earnings.
20 The projects in #5-10 will be paid for from the amount of money above that required to pay off the BC Rail debt and only after the debt has been paid. That could be years.
21 BC can sell any BC Rail land to CN at any time and CN must take it for $1.00. This is intended to force CN to accept responsibility for any environmental damage. BC can sell any BC Rail lands to CN, at any price CN agrees to pay, at any time. This includes specifically the tracks and the land under them.
22 CN may increase freight rates on the line as it sees fit but not until just after the 2009 election. There is no limit or formula to determine the amount of the rates after that, other than an appeal to the Federal Competition Review Board or Parliament. CN may abandon rail lines (stop using them) but again, not until just after the 2009 election.
23 CN and BC Rail’s current industrial shippers are currently in dispute about whether the base freight cost today should be stated in US dollars (CN is US owned and is primarily a US carrier) or Canadian. If US, the promised 7% reduction has already largely been achieved at little additional cost to CN or BC. The freight bill has usually been charged in Canadian dollars by BC Rail but not always.
24 CN has its own debt of several $ Billion from some operating losses and the acquisition of other railroads in the US. When Canada sold CN, Canada paid the banks which had held the CN debt all the accumulated debt of CN and its predecessor railroads since 1910, before CN was sold.
25 The sale contract runs to more than 1500 pages.
26 CN is to provide a number of new railcars to work on BC Rail tracks but gets to sell current BC Rail cars to partly offset the cost.
27 If BC wants to buy BC Rail back there is no provision in the agreement to set a price in advance. BC will have to pay what CN wants to get at that time. It is never required to sell at all. The price will be unlimited.
28 The Magna Carta (The English speaking world’s longest standing contract) has only been in effect for 789 years. Technically, a series of 60 year renewals is legal. A single 990 year lease would not be valid, even between corporations which, unlike the rest of us, never die. The CPR negotiated 999 year leases on rail track in the 1880s when such long terms were legal. CN and its predecessors may have done the same before WW 1. These extensions commit BC and CN Rail until June of the year 2994.
29 At current rates of interest and earnings at BC Rail and without allowance for major staff reductions and other economies of scale, CN should have recovered its purchase price in a decade. Making allowance for these lay-offs and savings, CN could be in the black on this in about seven years. ($250 Million from income tax, BC Rail currently makes about $100 Million a year, staff cost cut by at least a third, other less quantifiable savings from running single unified company under only federal railroad regulations.)
30 Passenger service is not included in the agreement but it would have to be organized to not disrupt CN Freight movements. CN will own the running rights on the BC Rail tracks and will not have to allow any passenger rail use.
The purpose of this agreement by the BC Government was to get BC out of the railway business. For CN it is a huge windfall and gives CN monopoly control of all the railways in BC except for a very limited amount along the right of way of the CPR from Banff to Kamloops to Vancouver.
The value of having control of a railway to the resources of the Interior of BC, the skilled jobs involved, railway competition, value for the taxpayers as well as for the citizens, and any future passenger, tourism or other options was deliberately set at zero by the Liberal Cabinet. The net benefit to BC and its people is neutral at best, horribly negative at worst. The facts that CN was such a huge contributor to the federal and provincial Liberal Parties, that CN Rail is mostly American and does not use the term “Canadian” in describing itself, and that the RCMP are still investigating whether vital information was leaked to CN Rail but not to the competing bidders will be footnotes that increase public resentment.
Once done, this deal can never be undone. Ideology, in the guise of reducing Government operations to the bare essentials, will have triumphed over the BC dream of controlling our own future economic development.
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BC RAIL SALE SIDETRACKED
Jim Lipkovits and Marco Procaccini
Columbia Journal - April 2004
http://www.columbiajournal.ca/04-04/bcrail.html
The BC Liberal government’s move to sell BC Rail, already marred in scandal, has taken another hit as newly leaked documents showing a secret deal to sell railroad lands to the Canadian National Railway for just one dollar have come to light.
... the leaked sections of the agreement allow -- after just five years -- for the sale of public land under rail lines to CN for one dollar. These lands include very valuable waterfront properties between North Vancouver and Squamish ...
http://www.columbiajournal.ca/04-04/bcrail.html
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Thursday, June 26, 2008
BC Rail clientele ready and willing to pay $1,375 each to ride from Vancouver to Prince George in 2001
.
Did you know this?
BC Rail finds younger train market
Article Abstract:
BC Rail was pleasantly surprised to discover that people as young as 35 years old would pay $1,375 for a trip from Vancouver to Prince George aboard its latest train, the Whistler Northwind. The company estimates as many as 6,000 passengers will ride the train from May to September, with weekly departures from Vancouver and Prince George.
BC Rail spent as much as $12 million in promoting the new luxury train service, which it expects to recover within three years.
author:
Lazarus, Eve
Publisher: Rogers Publishing Ltd.
Publication Name: Marketing Magazine
Subject: Business, international
ISSN: 1196-4650
Year: 2001
Railroads, Rail Transportation, BC Rail Ltd. http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Business-international/BC-Rail-finds-younger-train-market-Making-peppers-hot-part-2.html
BC Mary should be on holiday. I'm weary and need a change of scene. That will happen soon. Meantime, I've been searching for specific information online and finding some very odd items as I go -- such as this one (above). If anyone can take time to verify or refute this, I'd certainly welcome the assistance. The URL as shown doesn't work for me, but ... maybe it will work for a clever Anon-O-mouse.
The specific information I'm actually looking for? The "5-year" clauses -- the CN promises which drop off the "agreement" at the 5-year anniversary -- what are they? In my view, this is extremely important to know, as July 14, 2008 marks anniversary No. 4. - BC Mary.
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Hats off to our wonderful commentors ... like Lynx, who finds the Hansard items ... and Grumpy for the original statement:
Mary, you make a very good point about the significance of those "five-year clauses".
Last Fall, November 2007 on The Tyee the commentor, Grumpy, made this very interesting comment:
"I have heard an interesting rumour that CN wants to wash their hands of the BCR and sell it, at any price. The forest industry has dried up and the grades on the BCR are just too much for CNR managers.The rumour I hear is that the line from North Vancouver to Whistler may be abandoned; and the rest mothballed.
Now, if this were to happen, what would Campbell's reelection chances be? and waiting in the wings another bird of prey "Falcon" may get his wings clipped by the CNR/BCR fiasco.
The real problem facing the CNR is the BN/Santa Fe would like to have a line through Canada to connect to Alaska, so abandonment and/or moth balling is out of the question. You see if the CNR sell off rights-of-way along portions of the line it will be near impossible for a competing railway to operate.
Evidently 2009 may be the date when the CN/BCR deal really shows what was intended all along. Maybe this is why 'BC Railgate' is so important to delay, delay, delay!"
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Hey, now there's an idea for those $100. green cheques, eh? Only halfway kidding ... what do you think of all this? - BC Mary.
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What? I always thought they were created on another planet
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SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AT UBC APPOINTS DIRECTORAllison Cross
Vancouver Sun - Thursday, June 26, 2008
Mary Lynn Young has been appointed director of the School of Journalism at UBC.
Young, who was an associate professor at the school, will serve as director from July 1 to June 30, 2011. She served as acting director of the school in the second half of 2007.
Her experience includes working as a reporter and editor for the Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, Hamilton Spectator and the Houston Post.
She replaces Stephen Ward, who has accepted a position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Fail-grade to whoever wrote this press release; unless, of course, Ms Young is actually going to be working only from July 1 to
June 30, 2011. What's she going to be doing until then?
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008
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We know so little about them. And yet, Dave Basi, Bobby Virk, and Aneal Basi will go down in history for the profound impact they have had upon political life in British Columbia. Some background:
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'BASI'S BOYS' ROSE HIGH IN LIBERAL POWER CIRCLES
Kim Bolan
Vancouver Sun - 2004 (exact date to be verified)
Their names have been associated with some of the most successful and controversial campaigns in Liberal party circles at both the federal and provincial level.
Now their names are also linked to a criminal probe reaching into the highest political offices in B.C.
They are a close-knit group of Indo-Canadian Liberal activists known to have delivered substantial Sikh support to Prime Minister Paul Martin's leadership campaign.
Since the police raids on the offices of ministerial assistants Dave Basi and Bob Virk Sunday [Dec. 28, 2003], many party activists are questioning their long-time association with a series of provincial and federal campaigns, including that of the new prime minister.
Basi, who was fired Monday from his job in the office of B.C. Finance Minister Gary Collins, is a back-room organizer responsible for signing up thousands of new party members, along with his long-time associates, including Virk, a relative of Basi's through marriage.
Both men under investigation are linked to a slew of high-profile Indo-Canadian organizers, including Amar Bajwa, who was regional director of Martin's B.C. campaign, as well as Savik Sidhu, who works in the premier's office.
Greg Wilson, a former member of the B.C. Liberal executive who was part of Sheila Copps' federal campaign, said the young Martin organizers -- referred to by insiders as "Basi's boys" -- are hugely influential.
"They have been paid organizers for the federal Liberal party. One of them, I know, was a paid organizer for the provincial Liberal party. They've been paid organizers for the Paul Martin campaign. Presumably that has given them some influence and some stature," Wilson said. "The people at the top of the pyramid are so seduced by the power that these individuals give them that they chose to reward these people and hire their acolytes to do the organizing."
Basi has been a major Liberal force on southern Vancouver Island for years. In his federal riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, he successfully took over the executive beginning in 1996, a former riding president said Monday.
Kit Spence, who no longer holds an executive position, said Basi is a "back-room guy" who controls which candidates are nominated and who is elected to executive positions in the party, through the large number of members he's signed up.
"He is able to bring out members of the Sikh community and sign them up as members and get them to vote in a particular way. So he is powerful and influential in that he can bring numbers to the table. That's his expertise," Spence said.
"He's able to go out and sell memberships to those people and bring them out when it counts.
Spence said there were complaints from some party members in 1996 about Basi's tactics, but "the results wouldn't have changed one way or another."
"Dave was instrumental in generating support for the winning candidate and getting his people out," he said.
That same expertise was used for Martin's campaign. Spence said the Saanich riding association has between 1,200 and 1,500 members, about half of whom are Indo-Canadian. Most of those were signed up by Basi and his people, he said.
"Some people complain about that, but it is a legitimate part of the political process. The guy who's got the most numbers wins and David was able to organize people, sell memberships and get them to come to vote."
Basi's boys were there at the Young Liberal convention at the University of Victoria in the spring of 2002. They brought in busloads of new youth to the party and beat out the rival candidates for executive positions. But it wasn't without controversy.
Complaints were made to the party that some of those brought to the meeting weren't legitimate members. Other rumours swirled that some had been lured by an under-age drinking party held afterwards. The allegations were dismissed by an internal party review.
Marco Dekovic, an active Young Liberal supporting Allan Rock at the time, said he found a lot of the tactics of the Basi boys and other Martin campaigners aggressive.
"There was a bit of a democratic deficit," he said Monday. "Within the Young Liberals they were pretty strong . . . I think they were more back-room kind of organizers."
The Basi boys, most of whom are in their 20s and attended UVic, were also very involved in the takeover of the Vancouver South riding of federal MP Herb Dhaliwal by Martin supporters.
The pro-Martin candidate now seeking the nomination in the riding is Shinder Purewal, who did not return repeated calls Monday.
Peter Dhillon, a friend of Dhaliwal's who is active in the riding, said Purewal should publicly explain his connection to those now under investigation.
Dhillon said he has been inundated with calls from many concerned Liberals who now want a review of what is going on.
"It's important for the party that his [Martin's] leadership handle this very quickly," Dhillon said.
He said a new membership sign-up process was put in place some time ago to protect against abuse.
"This could potentially be the worst abuse of all. I don't think our prime minister would support something like this and am sure he would want to get to the bottom of this."
Randeep Singh Sarai, the candidate running in Vancouver South against Purewal, said there were many irregularities in the take-over of the riding association, though the party dismissed complaints.
He called the developments Sunday "disturbing" and said they impact on the entire federal party.
"It is the whole Liberal family that is affected by it. There is no doubt it is going to hurt the Liberal party until there is some clarity on it -- on who is involved and exactly what happened," Sarai said.
The criminal probe makes him more concerned about some of the allegations that have surfaced in the riding.
"If people involved in criminal activity are involved in the Liberal party and in the ridings associations, it is definitely a concern for everyone," Sarai said. "It is a distortion of the democratic process."
Sarai said most of the information circulating consists of still unconfirmed rumours, albeit troubling ones about links to drug dealing and money laundering.
{Snip} ...
Wilson said the federal party has moved to an almost all-cash system for membership fees and delegate expenses, instead of the prior practice of cheques or credit payments.
Financial statements used to be presented to riding associations meetings regularly, he said.
"People associated with the Martin campaign have rolled back that accountability and the financial statements are no longer provided at conventions to party members," he said. "We've moved backwards and the effect is that disturbing links and allegations like these are given credibility that we are not more accountable and more transparent."
Wilson said the party must take immediate action to deal with the financial issues, as well as the powerful influence of the Basi boys.
"What you have here is a system where a group of people seem to have been rewarded with organizing jobs or what have you based on their faction's ability to sell memberships, and it doesn't appear to be in the interests of the Liberal Party. It is certainly not in the public's interest."
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LIVES OF BASI AND VIRK INTERTWINED LONG BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE RAIDS
Lori Culbert and Jim Beatty
Vancouver Sun, Jan. 10, 2004
The families of Dave Basi and Bob Virk, the two ministerial assistants at the centre of the legislature raids, are long-time friends who own a business and two real estate properties together.
And the two men are now related after marrying two women who are either sisters, according to some sources, or close cousins, according to others who know them.
The lives of Basi and Virk were intertwined long before a drug and organized crime investigation resulted in the Dec. 28 legislature raids, which shoved both men on to the front pages of newspapers. The next day, Basi was fired from his post as ministerial assistant to Finance Minister Gary Collins, and Virk was suspended with pay from his job as ministerial assistant to Transportation Minister Judith Reid.
Real estate documents show Basi's paternal grandfather, Harjinder Basi, and his two paternal uncles opened a convenience store in Victoria called B&V Market with Virk's parents in January 1986.
The store, located in a red brick building on Quadra Street, is still operating.
Basi's two uncles, Amar and Bachittar, described in real estate documents as a postal worker and a businessman respectively, also own two condominiums in a high-rise apartment building on Hillside Avenue in Victoria with Virk's parents, listed as a businessman and a cook.
In 2003, one condo was valued at $133,700, and the other at $115,400.
Also part owners of the condos are family friends Jaswant and Gurpal Purewal, who are said to be a businessman and a government worker.
No one in the Basi, Virk or Purewal families, all of whom live in Victoria, would agree to be interviewed Friday.
The legislature raids followed a 20-month investigation by Victoria police (ref. Victoria Police Chief Paul Battershill) and the RCMP that involved drugs, organized crime, commercial crime and police corruption.
In all, nine search warrants were executed at seven premises Dec. 28, including the the legislature offices of Basi and Virk, as well as Basi's Victoria home.
No charges have been laid.
Police released few details of the probe, and the information in the search warrants has been sealed by the courts.
On Friday, The Sun, quoting sources, reported that the RCMP is investigating whether Basi was involved in a cross-border drug-trafficking scheme and/or breached the public trust in his handling of the province's privatization of BC Rail.
In response, Basi's lawyer, Chris Considine, issued a brief statement Friday refusing to comment on specifics of the police investigation.
Considine said "it would be inappropriate and unfair to speculate on what the police may or may not be investigating."
The statement reiterated that Basi said he has not done anything wrong and expects to be exonerated.
Basi's father, Gurnam, died in a 1976 car accident, when his son was only nine years old.
Gurnam Basi, a sawmill worker at Sooke Forest Products, was 38 when the car he was driving slid off a wet road and hit a power pole, according to newspaper stories at the time.
He left an estate worth $138,472 -- about half personal property, and the other half insurance policies -- for his widow and his two sons, nine-year-old Udhe (Dave) and four-year-old Bhinder (Ben), according to probate documents.
The documents indicate Gurnam and Sukhbir Basi were married for 16 years, but lived apart between 1962 and 1965, when the husband came to Canada and the wife stayed behind in India.
After Gurnam's death, Dave Basi, his wife Inderjit and his mother Sukhbir went on to amass their own real estate portfolio.
Between them, they own four houses in Victoria valued at more than $1.2 million in 2003. However, they are carrying a mortgage on each property.
Basi, who has a young son and daughter, earned about $66,000. His wife is a civil servant who works part-time as a customer service representative in the ministry of community, aboriginal and women's services. His mother is listed in real estate documents as a chambermaid.
When asked how Basi could afford his real estate purchases, Collins, the finance minister, told The Sun "my understanding is his grandfather had a sawmill in Victoria and the family has had resources over the years."
But when reached on the phone Friday, Harjinder Basi, Dave Basi's grandfather, confirmed he never owned a sawmill. He worked for more than two decades at a sawmill in Esquimalt, before retiring in the mid-1980s.
Collins' misinformation about Basi's past is surprising, considering the two have been friends since meeting in early 1993.
Basi, who graduated in 1992 with a political science degree from the University of Victoria, had been chosen as a legislative intern and was assigned to help the B.C. Liberal caucus with research, speech writing and preparing queries for MLAs to ask in Question Period.
Following the six-month internship, which ended in June 1993, Basi landed a job with the small business ministry.
Collins and Basi maintained their friendship and shared mutual interests in federal politics. Both are federal Liberals who were involved in the Young Liberal Association.
Basi worked as a civil servant in the bureaucracy until June 2001, when Collins encouraged him to take a political posting as his top aide, responsible for Collins' role as house leader.
Collins had met Basi's wife Inderjit on a couple of occasions, had received the odd ride in Basi's Jeep and had even attended the first birthday party of Basi's son.
Although they were friends, and Basi was always a staunch defender of Collins, they didn't socialize significantly.
In recent years, Collins was rarely seen in the legislature without Basi by his side. Although Basi didn't attend cabinet meetings or treasury board meetings, he ushered Collins to those meetings and sat in on a host of other ones.
Specifically, Basi was the person who scheduled when legislation would enter the house and when debates would be held, and was the main link between the government and the New Democratic Party opposition.
Because of his central role, Basi regularly dealt with all cabinet ministers, Liberal backbenchers and the NDP, and he regularly promoted the government's agenda in discussions with reporters.
Collins has said Basi would not have had access to any budget documents, attended no budget meetings and would not have had access to draft legislation.
Collins said the only document Basi might have had, which could be considered highly sensitive, was a list of new laws that are to be introduced in the coming legislature session, which is to start Feb. 10 [2004].
In the halls of the legislature, Basi was gregarious, known to all and highly regarded.
While Basi was the outgoing extrovert, Virk passed through the legislature halls barely noticed. Short, stocky and quiet, Virk regularly flanked his boss, Reid, but rarely stopped to chat.
Known to all as "Bobby," Virk is well regarded by those who work in the legislature who called him friendly, hard-working and likable.
Raised in Victoria, Virk was educated at the University of Victoria and is known as one of Basi's Boys, one of many young Indo-Canadian men who are active in Liberal politics, federally and provincially.
He began working for the Opposition Liberals as a low-ranking political aide in 1997. He later became a legislative assistant, providing support, research and advice to the politicians.
In the spring of 2000, Virk left the Liberal caucus in Victoria and joined the B.C. Liberal party itself, working as an election organizer.
Following the May 2001 election when the Liberals swept to power, Virk became the ministerial assistant to Reid.
Virk's parents, Sudershan and Surinder, own a $427,000 house in Victoria. No other records of real estate owned by the Virk family could be found.
After Gurnam's death, Dave Basi, his wife Inderjit and his mother Sukhbir went on to amass their own real estate portfolio.
Between them, they own four houses in Victoria valued at more than $1.2 million in 2003. However, they are carrying a mortgage on each property.
Basi, who has a young son and daughter, earned about $66,000. His wife is a civil servant who works part-time as a customer service representative in the ministry of community, aboriginal and women's services. His mother is listed in real estate documents as a chambermaid.
When asked how Basi could afford his real estate purchases, Collins, the finance minister, told The Sun "my understanding is his grandfather had a sawmill in Victoria and the family has had resources over the years."
But when reached on the phone Friday, Harjinder Basi, Dave Basi's grandfather, confirmed he never owned a sawmill. He worked for more than two decades at a sawmill in Esquimalt, before retiring in the mid-1980s.
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The 6 ft. 1 in. soccer player -- cousin Aneal Basi -- isn't always mentioned. But he was the 3rd man arrested as a result of the police raids on the B.C. Legislature. At trial, the former Public Affairs Officer will be asked critical questions about the money trail:
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LOBBYISTS PAID $30K TO B.C. OFFICIALS: WARRANTS
Canadian Press - Updated Mon. Apr. 3 2006
VANCOUVER -- Two lobbyists paid almost $30,000 to three B.C. government officials in exchange for government information to help one of their clients, according to search warrant material released Monday.
In another dramatic twist, scant hours after the warrant information was released, one of the three government officials was hit with four new Criminal Code charges. The warrant material was granted by a court in 2004 and is part of an investigation that has resulted in charges against the three.
There were four separate applications by the RCMP in 2004 to obtain search warrants.
In one application, the Crown contends Dave Basi accepted a benefit from Erik Bornman and committed a breach of trust. That application alleges that Bornman "received information and documents from Dave Basi in exchange for payments which were made to Aneal Basi for forwarding to Dave Basi."
Another application alleges that Dave Basi received the money from Bornman in return for Basi's referring clients to him and assisting him with "matters of government."
Dave Basi was a ministerial assistant for former finance minister Gary Collins. Aneal Basi was a public affairs officer in the Transport Ministry.
The warrants allege that Aneal Basi passed funds from Bornman to Dave Basi.
"These funds were in the form of cheques written to Aneal Basi, deposited to the account of Aneal Basi, and it is believed, disbursed to David Basi as part of the arrangement with Erik Bornman," the court documents allege.
{Snip} ...
The investigation, according to the documents, uncovered several cancelled cheques through 2002 and 2003, most of them payable to Aneal Basi.
The court documents alleged the cheques payable to Aneal Basi "demonstrated a pattern of deposits into the accounts of David Basi immediately or shortly after a cheque to Aneal Basi was written and cashed."
Aneal Basi's lawyer, Joe Doyle, said he is confident his client will be acquitted of the two counts of money laundering he faces.
"He didn't launder any money. He denies those charges."
Last week, Justice Elizabeth Bennett ruled the media would be allowed to look through the search warrant information used in connection with a 2003 raid on the B.C. legislature.
The release was delayed because she said heavy editing was necessary to delete some information in the interests of a fair trial.
{Snip} ...
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
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Hansard continued from March 3, 2004:
J. MacPhail: What action did the cabinet take on the CP Rail letter regarding the B.C. Rail sell-off?
Hon. G. Collins: The fairness commissioner has already taken all those issues into consideration and reported on them.
J. MacPhail: Oh, I can just see it, if he were in opposition. They set up their own commission to examine how well they're doing. They limit the parameters of the fairness review, and then they say: "Oh my God, that stamp of approval. We created the stamp. The size of the stamp and the ink the stamp is going to use justifies everything we did." Wow, aren't those high standards?
Is it the minister's point, then, that the fairness commissioner looked at the CP Rail letter?
Hon. G. Collins: I believe so.
J. MacPhail: Did cabinet decide that the fairness commissioner was able to deal with CP Rail's allegations?
Hon. G. Collins: No, I believe the fairness commissioner did.
J. MacPhail: Well, the fairness commissioner said that they didn't deal with the allegations and that it was not part of their review. The fairness commissioner, in its report, said: "We did not have the right to review those kinds of allegations." Did anyone else deal with them?
Hon. G. Collins: That's why the member should be asking the Minister of Transportation these questions.
J. MacPhail: If I want to know who made the decision to cut a $750 million deal with B.C. Rail, with CN …. It ain't one billion, Mr. Chair ... It's $745 million, actually, and the taxpayers are on the hook for the other $255 million in indemnity — $745 million. I'm to ask the Minister of Transportation what went on at Treasury Board, what went on at cabinet. Did the Minister of Transportation sit on Treasury Board at that time? ...
Hon. G. Collins: The current Minister of Transportation did at the time. I don't know whether he attended all the meetings. In fact, I know he probably hasn't attended all the Treasury Board meetings. I've already described for the member, to the best of my knowledge, how this transaction took place. If she wants to pursue it further, she should take it up with the Minister of Transportation. I've also said that the ultimate decision-maker was cabinet. It's always cabinet.
[1600]
J. MacPhail: Yeah. Well, I assert that cabinet didn't make any decision about this deal before the deal was announced — none whatsoever. I also assert that cabinet didn't deal with CP Rail's accusations and neither did the fairness commissioner.
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Note: G West said...
Mary, the gain on the transaction was 199 million dollars.
The details are in note 33 of this pdf:
http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/ocg/pa/04_05/PA_2005_Summ.pdf
Look at page 44 of the pdf version.
Selling this as a billion dollar gain is nonsense.
Oh, Joy! Where are you now??
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Hansard, March 3, 2004
J. MacPhail [at that time, Leader of the two-person Loyal Opposition in the B.C. Legislature]: Is the minister still chair of Treasury Board? Does the Minister of Finance still do that?
Hon. G. Collins [at that time, B.C. Minister of Finance]: Yes, last time I checked.
J. MacPhail: When was the last time the B.C. Rail deal, either the spur line to Roberts Bank or the completion of the sale of the rail line in the north, was brought to Treasury Board?
Hon. G. Collins: I'm trying to recall if and when that would have happened. B.C. Rail was, as I mentioned, a stand-alone transaction that was being led by Mr. Trumpy — and, obviously, led through the Ministry of Transportation. There were analysts, and expertise was sought from both the public and private sectors as part of that. All those issues were presented to the review committee, which was specifically designed to deal with this transaction, and then went to cabinet.
The people and analysts who would have analyzed this as it came through Treasury Board would have been similar people who worked on the file. The comptroller general would obviously have been consulted. The Deputy Minister of Finance would have been involved and any other people within the ministry or Treasury Board staff that the team thought was appropriate.
J. MacPhail: I didn't hear even a month. Can the minister consult with anybody to find out?
Hon. G. Collins: I did consult, first of all. As I said, I don't recall it coming specifically to Treasury Board as such. There was a committee or a team that was putting it together under the leadership of Mr. Trumpy and the Minister of Transportation. There were analysts that were pulled from across government and the Crown, as well as the private sector, to do the analysis of this transaction. It went to a review committee, which I described to the member yesterday. Then the entire cabinet looked at the proposal, made a review,
[ Page 9049 ]
determined what they wanted to do, made a decision and moved forward with it.
J. MacPhail: I'm actually quite taken aback. Is there no Treasury Board decision minute on the B.C. Rail deal?
Hon. G. Collins: We'll try and determine that for the member. I'm not aware of one.
J. MacPhail: It didn't go to cabinet for final approval before the big frou-frou public announcement by the Premier. The cabinet meeting occurred — because I went through these Hansard debates yesterday — before CP Rail made its accusations of unfairness on the bid. The minister doesn't know if there was a Treasury Board minute. Where is the decision point on this deal, and when was it?
[1555]
Hon. G. Collins: I've described the process to the best of my knowledge, as well as the role of Treasury Board and the staff that might have been in the Ministry of Finance. I know the member had that discussion with the Minister of Transportation in the fall. If she wants to pursue that discussion further, she should take it up with the Minister of Transportation in his estimates.
J. MacPhail: No, no. That's not my question. Where is the decision to spend money? Where is that decision point?
Hon. G. Collins: We're actually making a billion dollars on this transaction.
J. MacPhail: No. Oh, honestly. What a ridiculous statement for the minister to make. What an absolutely ridiculous statement. Is it on that basis that he decided not to take it to Treasury Board then — because he can't remember? Isn't it funny? A billion dollars either making or spending, and he can't remember where the decision point was.
Can we just take a pause here, and then the minister can consult with his deputy minister? Is the deputy minister still secretary to the Treasury Board?
Hon. G. Collins: I've described the process to the best of my knowledge. The member had a full discussion with the then Minister of Transportation at the time about the cabinet decision on this issue. I discussed it a bit yesterday with the member, again to the best of my knowledge. It was a decision of all of cabinet. That's the final decision-making body of government. Cabinet said: "Go do this transaction. There are these few things we want you to deal with. If you can make that happen, then make the deal." That was a decision.
J. MacPhail: Was the minister at the cabinet meeting?
Hon. G. Collins: Yes.
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Amazing, isn't it?? This is, no doubt, the stuff well shielded by "Cabinet privilege" from being considered in Supreme Court as relevant to the Basi Virk Basi / BC Rail case. I'll post more of this Hansard debate soon, with special thanks to Lynx who re-discovered it. It's all there in the public record for March 4, 2004.
See also http://pacificgazette.blogspot.com/ -- RAILGATE SIX -- for analysis of how many of these relevant Cabinet ministers have now left the Campbell government. - BC Mary.
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AND ... G West reports in:
G West said...
Mary, the gain on the transaction was 199 million dollars.
The details are in note 33 of this pdf:
http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/ocg/pa/04_05/PA_2005_Summ.pdf
Look at page 44 of the pdf version.
Selling this as a billion dollar gain is nonsense.
Monday, June 23, 2008
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Here's the latest non-news report on former Victoria Police Chief Paul Battershill (who will undoubtedly be a Crown witness at the Basi Virk Trial). The Province published nothing about it today. Vancouver Sun published only the first 3 paragraphs of Rob Shaw's report. This longer version is from Times Colonist but still says virtually nothing while "suggesting" a lot. The private opinion of a seasoned newsman leads me to believe that there's not much to worry about, even if Battershill's whole file were to be fully opened today. Put on your political hat, and it figures, don't you think? - BC Mary.
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MAYOR CLAIMS HANDS TIED ON BATTERSHILL FILE.
Regulations delay action in police chief's suspension
Rob Shaw
Times Colonist - Monday, June 23, 2008
Victoria's mayor says he understands the growing sense of frustration in the community as the case of suspended police chief Paul Battershill continues to drag on without an end in sight.
"Of course, there is frustration because people want to know what's happening and people want to know what the issues are, or to bring conclusion to this," Alan Lowe said yesterday.
"The thing here is I have to follow a process outlined by the OPCC [Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner] and the [Police] Act."
That complex process no longer has any concrete deadlines. Although Lowe had hoped to meet Battershill for a "disciplinary hearing" into the matter by now, he said it may be another 30 days, or more, before that occurs and the case potentially closes.
{Snip} ...
Under the elaborate Police Act rules, just because Battershill faces a disciplinary hearing does not mean he will be disciplined. The range of discipline options begins at no discipline at all. Other options, depending on what allegations might be substantiated, include verbal or written reprimand, counselling, training, suspension, transfer, reduction of rank and dismissal.
Police Act investigations are not public and are exempt from provincial Freedom of Information rules. The full report on Battershill is not expected to be released. Lowe has said he would release whatever information his lawyers said he could.
The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, which is overseeing the entire case, may also call a public hearing or order another investigation if it has concerns. Deputy commissioner Bruce Brown said the Battershill case is "moving forward" as lawyers negotiate future meetings.
rfshaw@tc.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=d1af26ec-f465-4c44-b753-a3fd0b06d78b
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CIVIL RULE OVERHAUL ON HOLD AS LAWYERS BATTLE ATTORNEY-GENERAL AND CHIEF JUSTICE
Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun - Monday, June 23, 2008
B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal and Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Brenner have run up against fierce opposition to planned sweeping changes to the province's civil legal system.
{Snip} ...
Two years in the making and scheduled to go into effect in Jan. 2010, the rule changes are supposed to make the archaic system designed in the 19th century less expensive and more efficient.
But many lawyers and some judges have balked, saying the changes will have the opposite effect.
They fear Victoria is moving stealthily to restrict citizen's rights by giving judges more managerial powers and circumscribing the legal tools available to litigants, which will make it difficult for little people to take on Big Business and Big Government.
In particular, the Trial Lawyers Association, which represents about 1,000 litigators, has been savage, saying the champions of this initiative -- former court of appeal justice Oppal and Brenner -- were going too far, too fast.
The group's efforts, which included hiring political consultant Bill Tieleman, were bolstered earlier this month when the Law Society of B.C. threw its support behind their criticism.
Law Society president John Hunter said "the public has too little assurance that the new measures will actually reduce system costs, or will advance cases through the courts more expeditiously."
He urged the rule-change proponents to examine other options.
It is a stinging rebuke of the chief justice and the attorney general's office, who both have worked hard to win support for the amendments.
{Snip} ...
Citizens will have a hard time accessing the courts and getting justice if the task force gets its way, Frame added: "It will cost more and take longer to have their lawsuits dealt with due to the unreasonable roadblocks built into the proposed rules."
This nasty brouhaha has its roots in a process that began back in early 2002 when the Liberal government launched an ambitious plan to reform the legal system.
A blue-ribbon group of stakeholders called the civil justice reform working group was formed. It issued a report in November 2006 that recommended new rules for civil litigation because lawsuits were too costly and took too much time.
The system was failing ordinary people and the proof was in the numbers -- the number of trials was declining drastically.
Proposed rules were drafted based on the principles outlined in the working group's report and the draft was released in 2007. Brenner and Deputy Attorney-General Allan Seckel stumped the province seeking input.
After hearing from lawyers, judges, bar associations, law schools, experts and the public, they revised the suggested rules and released the supposed final version this spring.
That's when critics began howling.
As a result, the chairman of the task force announced Friday there would be further discussions. William Everett said the consultation period is now being extended until the end of the year.
But Frame said that isn't good enough.
"These rule changes are fundamentally flawed," he insisted. "Delaying the implementation of fundamentally flawed rule changes won't make them any better. We think the attorney-general should step up to the plate and say sorry, but we're going back to the drawing board."
Frame added that there were systemic problems that needed to be addressed but this was not the way to go about it.
"We believe Attorney-General Oppal should now move to put the proposed changes aside and start a new process that includes full public consultation and a cooperative approach to civil law reform," he added.
The trial lawyers have scheduled a special meeting Thursday night at Vancouver's Marriott Pinnacle Hotel to marshal their forces and plot strategy.
The latest draft of the proposed rules and background information are available at www.bcjusticereviewforum.ca/civilrules/.
imulgrew@png.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=bab976b0-3c69-4c7a-b220-ca635a3b1543
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Sunday, June 22, 2008
RCMP lead investigator speaks
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Tonight, Sunday, June 22, at 9:00 PM (check your local listings to confirm times in your area) CBC will broadcast AIR INDIA 182, a 96-minute commercial-free documentary in which one of the RCMP lead investigators speaks about his work on this big, complex case. To quote from Kim Bolan's article ("Air India film has audience in tears", Vancouver Sun June 16, 2008):
Retired RCMP Sgt. John Schneider first worked on the Air India file right after the bombing in 1985.
He later headed the Air India Task Force that brought Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri to trial. Both were later acquitted.
Schneider brought his wife and daughter to see the film in which he explains the difficulties of advancing the investigation of Canada's worst terrorist attack.
"I thought it was an excellent documentary. It was very factual, particularly about what the investigative agencies did and the suffering of the families," Schneider said. "The impact on the general public is going to be dynamite."
Gunnarsson [the film's author], who [Kim Bolan] helped with some of his early research for the film, wants his work to get the Air India bombing recognized as the devastating Canadian tragedy that it was.
He acknowledged the help of families who were willing to tell their stories to him. He also praised Sikh moderates, many of whom were in attendance, for fighting on the front-line in the fight against religious extremism in Canada.
Several watching the film, like Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh and Ross Street Sikh Temple president Kashmir Singh Dhaliwal, have continued to receive threats for speaking out.
Dhaliwal said Air India 182 "is the most excellent documentary I have ever seen in my life."
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The Air India 182 documentary will bring together all the elements of an international tragedy with its underlying criminality. This is a rare opportunity to see how the RCMP approach such a complex task and many of us, in following the BC Rail Case, feel the need to know more about police methods.
To measure our expectations, I have pasted below an old news story from Vancouver Sun in which the complexity of criminality in B.C. is almost incomprehensible. You may wonder, as you read it: How do police cope? Where do they start?
I'm hoping that the Air India 182 documentary -- besides making us more aware of the full story behind the tragic loss -- will provide some real insights into RCMP performance in these complex criminal matters. I know that I'll be asking myself, as I watch: are our expectations of police realistic? Can police arrest enough crooks to get rid of all crime or is there something else that needs correction?
I hope others will leave their opinions and impressions here, when they've seen the Air India 182 documentary this evening. - BC Mary. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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| The RCMP's gangster 'hit list' |
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| Chad Skelton, Lori Culbert and Judith Lavoie Vancouver Sun and Victoria Times Colonist September 10, 2004 |
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| The RCMP has compiled a secret "hit list" of B.C.'s 20 most dangerous crime bosses, a list it hopes will help it put more gangsters behind bars and strike a blow against organized crime in this province, a joint Vancouver Sun-Victoria Times Colonist investigation has learned. |
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| And while the RCMP refuses to reveal the names of the individuals on its list -- for fear of tipping off potential investigation targets -- it will reveal which group it considers the province's biggest criminal threat: The Hells Angels. |
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| OMG [outlaw motorcycle gangs] is the top," said Supt. Dick Grattan, head of the RCMP's criminal intelligence section in B.C. |
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| Grattan said biker-gang members make up the largest proportion of people on the force's Top 20 list, an annual ranking known as the Strategic Threat Assessment that the Mounties in B.C. have been producing for the past few years. |
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| Asian organized-crime figures make up the second-largest group on the list, followed by Eastern European gangsters. |
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| "The Top 20 would be the ones who have the most influence over organized crime in the province," Grattan said.
{Snip} ...
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| To prevent leaks, the RCMP's threat assessment has been closely guarded by the force. |
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| Even senior organized-crime investigators in the province have only been allowed to review the list and have not been given their own copies. |
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| According to police, the list represents a shift in the RCMP's approach to investigating organized crime. Until recently, said Grattan, the force was "commodity focused" -- measuring success by the volume of drugs it seized. |
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| The problem with that approach, however, is that it often only ensnared the smaller players, leaving many of the kingpins untouched. The goal now, Grattan said, is for police to focus their investigations on the most influential and powerful crime figures, in the hope that putting such people behind bars will destabilize criminal organizations. |
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| And while the RCMP doesn't have the resources to launch investigations into all 20 figures on its list, Grattan said investigations are underway -- or in the planning stages -- for at least half of them. |
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| When the Mounties decided a few years ago to compile such a list, their first challenge was who to include. A preliminary list of all the known organized-crime figures in B.C. turned up 185 names, broken down into 85 separate groups -- some just small street-gangs of a few people each. |
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| To winnow down the list, crime figures were ranked on 19 separate factors, including use of violence, infiltration into legitimate businesses and ability to corrupt officials. That combination of factors is what landed many of B.C.'s Hells Angels members in the Top 20. A heavily edited copy of the 2003 Strategic Threat Assessment, provided to The Vancouver Sun by the RCMP, indicates how high a priority the Angels have become. |
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| "Within British Columbia, the influence attached to the Hells Angels organization and their symbols cannot be overstated," the report states. "Since their inception in 1948, the Hells Angels organization has evolved into a structure that is designed to facilitate and protect the criminal enterprises of its membership." |
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| Insp. Andy Richards is a biker-gang expert with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, a group within the RCMP that's taken over many duties of the Organized Crime Agency of B.C. |
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| Richards said what makes Angels membership so attractive to criminals is that the gang has a reputation in the criminal world for violence and power -- making it easier for members to collect drug debts and intimidate the competition. |
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| While a gang member with a Hells Angels patch on his jacket may be an easier target for police than an Asian gangster, the association with the Angels is worth the risk, he said. |
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| "It's the power of the patch. Once you have that patch, you have that standing out there in the criminal world that people are afraid of. Violence and intimidation is the gas that runs the engine of the Hells Angels." |
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| A growing police fear is that the Hells Angels are infiltrating the quick-cash businesses, such as cheque cashing and money lending, although none are yet listed as owners of record. |
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| In Vancouver and Kamloops, Hells Angels have bought cellphone stores and are rumoured to be setting up their own phone companies. In Kelowna, Hells Angels from around the Lower Mainland have large real-estate holdings and their business interests range from an up-market clothing store to a tattoo parlour. |
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| Supt. Don Harrison, RCMP district officer of the south-east district of E Division, can drive around Kelowna, where he believes a Hells Angels chapter is about to open up, and point to expensive properties, brand-new condos and businesses owned by Angels. "These people are extremely well-organized. The profits they are making are enormous," he said. |
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| However, while the Angels are powerful, police say they are not hierarchical in the same way as traditional organized crime, where everybody reports to a single boss. While each Angels chapter has a president who looks after club business, police say the criminal activities of the bikers are less formally structured. |
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| "It's not like the Mafia, where everything goes to the top," Richards said. |
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| He said Hells Angels members essentially run their own operations, with their own associates and underlings. "Once you're a full member, you're at the top, if you want to be, of your own little criminal enterprise," he said. |
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| Richards said the Angels in B.C. have grown incredibly rich in recent years, in large part due to heavy involvement in the marijuana trade in the 1990s. "The Angels in B.C. were one of the very first groups to industrialize the marijuana business -- setting up and investing in multiple large grows and producing large shipments for export," he said. "The B.C. bud industry has made the Hells Angels, some of them, extremely wealthy." |
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| But, as pot raids have increased, Richards said, some Angels have stepped back from growing marijuana and have taken on a greater role as brokers and middlemen, helping to ship marijuana into the United States. |
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| One of the main reasons why the Angels are such a high priority for police is that their power and money has allowed them to infiltrate the legitimate economy. From supermarkets to clothing stores, the Angels have a stake in all kinds of businesses. Indeed, many people in B.C. regularly shop at Angels' businesses without even knowing it. |
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| But nowhere is the infiltration of the Angels more apparent than at the ports. |
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| Police in B.C. have often tried to play down the role of biker gangs at the Vancouver and Delta ports. |
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| But The Sun has learned that a secret 2001 report by the Organized Crime Agency of B.C. identified by name five full members of the Hells Angels who work at the Vancouver and Delta ports, along with more than 30 known associates. |
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| And in a speech to a meeting of provincial justice ministers in Vancouver in December 1999, Bev Busson -- then chief of the OCA, and now head of the RCMP in B.C. -- left little doubt about the influence of the Angels at the ports. |
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| "[The] Hells Angels in B.C. . . . control much of the production and export of high-grade indoor-grown marijuana and the importation and distribution of cocaine," said Busson, according to a copy of her speech obtained by The Sun through an Access to Information request. "Millions of dollars change hands in this import-export business. Smuggling methods are diverse and include unchecked containers at the Port of Vancouver, an area under the control of the Hells Angels." |
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| Insp. Doug Kiloh, the RCMP's major case manager at the ports, said he is aware of Hells Angels members working at the ports and said it is possible for anyone employed at the ports -- whether an Angel or not -- to commit crimes. But he played down the Angels' strength on the waterfront. "It's an unfair characterization to say that the Hells Angels run the ports," he said. "In my view, it's absolutely false." |
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| Onkar Athwal, vice-president of operations for the B.C. Maritime Employers Association, said he's not aware of specific Angels members working at the ports, but it wouldn't surprise him. "I don't personally know of any individuals, but I am aware that there probably are some," he said. |
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| However, Athwal disputed the suggestion that the Angels control activity at the ports. "I don't think they're controlling anything," he said. |
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| Athwal said longshoremen are not subject to criminal-record checks or other background checks before working at the ports. However, Transport Canada has proposed new regulations that would require port workers -- like airport workers -- to be subject to background checks before working in restricted areas. |
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| Public consultations on the new regulations -- known as the Marine Facilities Restricted Areas Access Clearance Program -- will begin Sept. 20 and the regulations will likely be implemented early in 2005. |
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| Ciarniello denied five Angels members are working at the ports, saying he's only aware of two -- something he thinks shouldn't be an issue. "What is wrong with having a bloody job?" he said. "These guys are out there working. But because they're Hells Angels, you've got to put a twist on it." |
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| Ciarniello added that people identified by police as "associates" may simply be friends of Hells Angels members. |
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| "Being somebody who . . . knows the Hells Angels is not reason to assume that there is something criminal going on," he said. |
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| After the Hells Angels, the second-highest organized-crime priority for the RCMP is Asian organized crime, which includes both Chinese and Vietnamese gangs. |
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| Chinese gangs known as the Big Circle Boys are involved in a wide variety of activities, including drug importation and human smuggling -- but are also heavily involved in credit-card fraud and loan sharking. |
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| Vietnamese gangs, on the other hand, are primarily involved in marijuana growing -- although they have recently begun to expand into methamphetamine labs. |
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| Eastern European crime groups are a more recent phenomenon in B.C., but have grown steadily in the past 15 years, according to police. According to the RCMP's 2003 report, Eastern European gangsters are involved in a wide variety of illicit activities, "ranging from street-level theft and [drug] trafficking to sophisticated fraud and money-laundering schemes." |
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| Eastern European crime groups have also been implicated in sophisticated debit-card scams. |
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| Perhaps the most interesting thing about the RCMP's Top 20 list, however, is the group that didn't make the cut: Indo-Canadian gangs. |
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| In the past decade, more than 60 Indo-Canadian men in the Lower Mainland have been murdered in a wave of gang violence. |
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| However, Insp. Wade Blizard of the RCMP's criminal intelligence section said that while Indo-Canadian gang members are extremely violent, they are considered by police to be far less sophisticated than other groups, such as outlaw motorcycle gangs or Asian organized crime. |
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| Staff Sgt. Wayne Rideout, head of the RCMP's Integrated Homicide Team -- responsible for investigating many of the Indo-Canadian gang deaths -- said most Indo-Canadian gangsters are relatively small players in the drug trade, often only a few steps above street dealers. |
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| "They're not the millionaire gangsters," said Rideout. "They don't appear to be into the huge shipments. They tend to be low- end. Most of the people we investigate have leased cars. They drive fancy vehicles, but they don't have any assets." |
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| The closest comparison to Indo-Canadian gangsters, said Rideout, is the inner-city street gangs in Los Angeles. "They're drawn by the status," he said. |
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| Rideout said police estimate there are 30 to 40 separate Indo-Canadian gangs in the Lower Mainland, each made up of about three or four key members and maybe a dozen associates. |
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| For the most part, he said, Indo-Canadian gangsters don't have the money at their disposal to move up the drug-trade food chain. "They don't have the cash base to go out there and buy homes like the Vietnamese [gangs]," said Rideout. |
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| Which means, he said, that while Indo-Canadian gangsters are often involved in ripping off growing operations, they rarely set them up themselves. |
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| And many, said Rideout, still live at home with their families. |
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| "They're all mama's boys," he said. "They live with their moms. Their moms wash their clothes. Their moms cook their meals. And they go out and commit murders and then come home." |
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| The violence among Indo-Canadian gangs is also more sporadic than in other crime groups, said Rideout. While Asian gangs or bikers may carry out calculated hits or acts of extortion for economic reasons, many Indo-Canadian killings are over issues of pride or bravado, he said -- sometimes over something as simple as an insult. |
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| "It's done more for passion than economics," he said. |
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| Yet, despite their lack of sophistication, Indo-Canadian gangs are still a concern for police because their violence has greater potential to hurt innocent bystanders than the violence of other gangs. |
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| "The bikers tend to take someone out in the bush," Rideout said. "But the East Indians want to let people know that they're capable of doing it, so they want to do it in the most brazen way possible." |
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| That means shootings in clubs and restaurants -- or spraying homes with gunfire -- all of which increase the potential that innocent bystanders could get caught in the crossfire. |
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| Rideout said police get reports of about three to four drive-by shootings a week in the Lower Mainland that are connected to Indo-Canadian gang violence. "It's miraculous that no one [innocent] has been shot in their bed," said Rideout. "It's going to happen. They're so unpredictable and bravado-driven." |
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| Police admit that, in the past few decades, they haven't had as much success as they'd like in combatting organized crime. |
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| The Mounties' own 2003 report cites an "historical failure" in gathering and distributing intelligence on organized-crime groups to front-line investigators. While police have gathered significant information on organized-crime figures, the report states, "little . . . has been recorded in a consistent manner or in a format and place accessible to intelligence personnel." |
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| Richards admits the track record of police in B.C. is not great. "I've talked about the collective failure of law enforcement to recognize the bikers as an organized-crime threat," he said, noting the Angels arrived in B.C. in 1983. "They ran pretty much unfettered for a long time and became very well established." |
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| But police are hopeful that things are beginning to change. |
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| Police and prosecutors have racked up a handful of successful prosecutions against biker-gang members and Asian organized-crime figures in recent years -- such as the conviction of Hells Angels members Ronaldo Lising and Francisco Pires for cocaine trafficking in 2001. |
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| And they are hopeful things will get better. "I've seen some slow and steady progress in the last few years," Richards said. |
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| "We're beginning to see additional resources and manpower directed towards the fight against the bikers. |
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| "I think we're beginning to get it right in B.C. I think it's becoming enough of a priority for enough people." |
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| B.C.'s Organized Crime Families: |
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| Hells Angels and Vietnamese gangs are considered the most sophisticated groups, while Indo-Canadian gangs rank among the most violent |
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| Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs/Hells Angels |
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| Size: There are 95 members of the Hells Angels in seven chapters in the Lower Mainland and Nanaimo. There are also dozens of "associates" who are trusted friends of club members and assist in criminal activities. Criminal activities: Heavily involved in B.C.'s $6-billion marijuana-growing industry, importing and distributing cocaine, hashish and increasingly, methamphetamine. Extortion, debt collection. Propensity for violence: High. The Angels rule by fear and intimidation and aren't afraid to use violence to protect turf and criminal interests. Police are concerned about the Bandidos, a U.S. motorcycle gang already established in Washington state, moving into B.C. and sparking violence. Level of sophistication: High. This is reflected in the low number of successful prosecutions. Geographic reach: The Hells Angels have a network of chapters across Canada, the U.S., South America, Africa and Europe. Structure/hierarchy: Organized into chapters in various cities, but no single crime boss. Each member works as his own boss, if he wants, and in small cells to elude police detection. "They are disciplined and well led," says Vancouver RCMP Insp. Bob Paulson, in charge of major investigations involving outlaw motorcycle gangs. |
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| Asian |
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| Size: Unknown. Police say there are dozens of small Vietnamese groups operating in B.C. The most prominent Asian gang in the Vancouver area is the Big Circle Boys, also known as Dai Huen Jai. Criminal activities: Vietnamese groups control about 85 per cent of the marijuana-growing operations in the Lower Mainland and most of the drug trade on Vancouver Island, north of Nanaimo. They have recently branched out into methamphetamine. They also use Big Circle Boys connections to export pot to the U.S. The Big Circle Boys have made the Lower Mainland a hotbed of counterfeit credit- card fraud activity. BCB's mainstay is importing and distributing cocaine and southeast Asian heroin. BCB members have been involved in murder, loan-sharking, people-smuggling, extortion, home-invasion robberies and exporting stolen luxury cars to Asia. Propensity for violence: Vietnamese gangsters are known for being ruthless and unpredictably violent during confrontations. Other Asian crime groups are more low-key, not wanting to attract police attention, but will resort to violence and murder to protect their criminal interests. Level of sophistication: High. Vietnamese have developed a marijuana-growing system that has been exported to Vietnamese groups in Ontario and Australia. Big Circle Boys have computer experts for credit-card fraud and use off-shore accounts and shell companies to launder money and elude police detection. Geographic reach: Vietnamese and Big Circle Boys have national networks in such major cities as Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal, and are expanding into smaller cities. BCB has a similar national network in the U.S. Some local Asian gangsters are connected to Hong Kong triads, secret societies of criminals. Structure/hierarchy: Asian crime groups typically organize in small groups with low-ranking members answering to a crime boss, called a Dai Lo (big brother). |
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| Eastern European |
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| Size: Unknown. They are difficult for police to get a handle on because they use so many languages. Members are from Russia and other former Soviet Union countries. Criminal activities: Mainly known for drug trafficking and credit/debit-card fraud. But also involved in people-smuggling, money-laundering, extortion, export of stolen luxury vehicles. Also have infiltrated diamond industry in Russia and southern Africa. Propensity for violence: Medium. Don't usually like drawing police attention, but will use violence if necessary. Level of sophistication: Varies. Often rely on expertise of individuals outside the group to assist in a criminal undertaking. Three members of a Romanian crime group were recently arrested in Vancouver for allegedly being involved in a highly sophisticated automatic-banking-machine fraud. Police say they used a bogus card -reader to download magnetic-strip information from cards and recorded personal identification numbers by using a tiny, overhead camera linked to a remote video monitor. Eastern Europeans are also involved in counterfeit currency, exporting stolen luxury cars, money-laundering and smuggling women, especially from Russia, to work as prostitutes and in massage parlours. Geographic reach: Operate across the country but mainly concentrated in Ontario. Highly mobile with varying levels of presence in B.C., Alberta and Quebec. Structure/hierarchy: Operate in small cells. |
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| Independents and Indo-Canadians |
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| Size: Unknown. Criminal activities: Independents are primarily involved in marijuana-growing operations, where profits are used to fund legitimate businesses. They often cooperate with Asians and Hells Angels to distribute their "product." Indo-Canadians operate many dial-a-dope operations, using pagers and cellphones to deliver drugs on the street. Indo-Canadian truckers are lured by quick cash to smuggle B.C.-grown marijuana across the U.S. border. Propensity for violence: High, mainly because members are young and show poor impulse control. Shifting allegiances lead to violence, usually involving guns, among Indo-Canadian males. There have been more than 60 gang-related murders in B.C. involving Indo-Canadians in the last 15 years. Level of sophistication: Low. Geographic reach: Concentrated primarily in the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley, lower Vancouver Island and Alberta. Structure/hierarchy: Loosely organized in small groups of friends and relatives. |
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| Traditional (Italian-Based) Organizations |
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| Size: Unknown. Criminal activities: Involved in illegal gaming such as sports betting, marijuana-growing operations, drug distribution, overseas lottery-ticket sales, debt collection and stock-market manipulation. Invest profits in real estate and such traditional businesses as construction companies, bars and restaurants. Propensity for violence: Medium to high. Don't like to attract police attention. Level of sophistication: Medium. Most groups have existed for several generations. Geographic reach: Concentrated primarily in Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara region of Ontario. While Mafia members remain low-profile in the Vancouver area, they do exist and have a symbiotic relationship with the Hells Angels in B.C. that is based on "social ties and illicit businesses," says the 2004 Annual Report on Organized Crime in Canada, published by the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada. Structure/hierarchy: Operate in small groups but report to a crime boss known as the godfather.
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Saturday, June 21, 2008
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DEFENCE WANTS WIDER APPLICATION TO PROBE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST PROSECUTOR
MARK HUME
The Globe and Mail - June 21, 2008
VANCOUVER -- A defence application in a political corruption trial has been broadened to include allegations against the special prosecutor.
Michael Bolton, one of the lawyers representing three former government employees facing multiple charges, said yesterday that an application alleging political interference in the case by government officials now also names William Berardino.
{Snip} ...
The defence application alleges that the rights of the accused were violated when a senior adviser to Premier Gordon Campbell was allowed to see confidential documents that police seized in a Dec. 28, 2003, raid on the provincial legislature.
{Snip} ...
He said the defence at this point is not seeking to call Mr. Berardino as a witness, but will attempt to call Mr. Campbell, Mr. Dobell and several other government officials as witnesses.
The court will hear the application July 14.
Mr. Berardino declined to comment on the allegation because the matter is before the court.
The application alleges that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was violated "by virtue of political interference by the provincial government and more particularly the Premier, the Premier's office, agents and staff, and the Cabinet and its agents and staff, with the disclosure of documents critical to the accused persons' right and ability to make full answer and defence."
{Snip} ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080621.BCBASI21/TPStory/National
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Friday, June 20, 2008
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Basi-Virk case sees sparks fly over allegations that special prosecutor "complicit" in political interference by Premier Gordon Campbell's then-deputy minister Ken Dobell
By Bill Tieleman, 24 hours columnist
Defence lawyers are alleging that the special prosecutor in a high-profile case where provincial government aides face corruption charges has “allowed political interference to occur.”
Those allegations Friday in B.C. Supreme Court highlighted a testy exchange between defence and Crown in the case of David Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi, who face charges connected to the $1 billion privatization of B.C. Rail.
Basi’s lawyer Michael Bolton argued before Justice Elizabeth Bennett that a court approved protocol to restrict access to evidence seized in a 2003 police raid on the B.C. Legislature was violated by Premier Gordon Campbell’s then deputy minister Ken Dobell and that the special prosecutor was partially to blame.
“We do allege complicity on the part of the special prosecutor in allowing the protocol to be violated,” Bolton said.
{Snip} ...
The pre-trial hearings resume July 14 with the defence filing a Charter of Rights application that could see Campbell, Dobell and other top government officials testify in court about the alleged breach of the protocol.
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Special thanks to Bill Tieleman for letting me know that Case #23299 was in Supreme Court today, and for providing this report. Bill's full column is at:
http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/
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Thursday, June 19, 2008
Friday June 20 at 9:00 AM ...
.is another one of those Vancouver days when lawyers meet before Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett in Supreme Court for further consideration of the Basi Virk Basi / BC Rail Corruption Case. They will try to decide whether they are ready to proceed with the trial. With baited breath, we await the judge's decision. We always do. It's been 4 years and 6 months of baited breath, waiting.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
-Alexander Pope,
An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733
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And ... in another one of those craptacular Vancouver days where courts stumble over their own feet ... nobody remembered to post the listings for today. You know the ones. You, the Public, are supposed to be able to click on "Vancouver Court Direct" in the left margin ... and after 6:30 AM be taken immediately to the list of cases being heard in Vancouver Supreme Court today. Only you can't. Not today. Not just Basi Virk Basi are left off -- everybody whose life might be changed by an appearance in BC Supreme Court today -- they're all left off. There's no doggone Supreme Court Listing atall for today June 20, 2008.
Does this mean ... ah, forget it.
Lousy stinkin' performance. Some handsome salaries oughta be refunded. Phhhttt.
- BC Mary.
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Undermining the justice system
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To: cruachan@shaw.ca
Subject: Mr Floatie etc, your TC column today
Iain Hunter:
Dung beetles are so predictable.
First, CanWest repeatedly mentions (Dickson, mainly) the possibilities under which a Chief Constable could be suspended. On a personnel matter. Not that Paul Battershill was "guilty" of any of them. But just so we know: here, here, and here again is a list of what he mighta, coulda done. Repeat. Repeat again.
Pause. Hold your fire ... then, Phase 2 begins with your column today:
Suggestions of cowardice ... of bad judgment ... of wrong decisions ... of sneakiness. Bad Battershill. Ba-a-ad.
Plus, of course: oh, ha ha, "I am only kidding."
Perfect.
Thanks for making me look like an astute forecaster of BC media-politics. You've said it, just right:
Paul Battershill -- I found it odd that during the police raid on the legislature Victoria's former chief constable wasn't there, standing in the shadows, as his modesty often dictated during major operations of this sort -- such as rousting unhappy people sleeping on the legislative lawns. It's entirely in keeping with that modesty that he should wish his identity kept secret. As chief, what information he had about bribery and corruption in high places would have had considerable influence on the police investigation. Or so one would think.
- Iain Hunter, June 18, 2008, Mr Floatie column in Times Colonist.
It's non-news. Intimations of darkness. Something ba-a-ad about Paul Battershill, something secret. So that if/when this man gives evidence at the Basi-Virk / BC Rail trial, many people will shake their heads and say "Bad. Ba-a-ad."
Iain Hunter, is this really smart? Clever? Witty? Helpful?
Worse: how safe do you think it is, to keep calling attention to how BAD this top cop is/was/mighta been, in your opinion?
Call me naive, but I'd like to know where Paul Battershill is, if he has responded to the "findings" of the police complaint, if the police complaint was valid or was born out of some personal animosity (somewhat like your column today), what he's doing now, and whether recognition is being given for his service to Victoria. I especially need to know if he is on the list of witnesses to be called when the BCRail Case goes to trial.
Really ... Is that too much to ask?
BC Mary
The Legislature Raids
http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/
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I was beginning to feel like the psychiatrist who gets into the elevator and, seeing another psychiatrist there, says "Good Morning." When the other psychiatrist answers, "Good morning!" the first guy says to himself, "Now, I wonder what he means by that."
So, like the psychiatrist, I might have been wondering what CanWest's capital city newspaper means by producing the following editorial, at this time. The Times Colonist coulda and shoulda said this months, years ago.
In fact ... nothing has helped to detract from the judicial system more than the non-reporting and obfuscation surrounding this important legal case. So maybe the time is exactly right for CanWest to start saying it's time to straighten up and fly right. And, of course, to begin making ham-fisted jokes about the credibility of witnesses for the Crown. - BC Mary.
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NO MORE B.C. RAIL TRIAL DELAYS
Times Colonist editorial - Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The B.C. Rail corruption case is undermining public confidence in the justice system. It has been four years and five months since police raided the legislature and the RCMP warned darkly of organized crime's reach. {Snip} ...
The latest delay comes because William Berardino, the special prosecutor hired by the government, is fighting to bar defence lawyers from a hearing on whether an informant in the case should be allowed to keep his or her identity secret.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett ruled the lawyers had a right to attend. Berardino took the issue to the B.C. Court of Appeal, which is considering its decision. He says he will go to the Supreme Court of Canada if necessary.
The law allows the some informants' identities to be protected. Otherwise, few people would come forward with information against violent criminals, fearing reprisals.
But the protection is not absolute. If the informant played a role in the crime, for example, the defence is entitled to argue that he should be subject to cross-examination. That means defence lawyers and the court must have enough information about the informant's role to make that decision.
Berardino is arguing the Crown should not have to provide any information to the defence lawyers and that they should be barred from a hearing on whether the informant is entitled to keep his or her identity secret.
The prosecutor considers that the delays and costs in taking this to the Supreme Court are justified by the principle.
We don't. Bennett's ruling would not lift the secrecy around the informant's identity; it would simply ensure that all the issues were properly considered. The case should move forward.
This is obviously a complex case; some 300,000 pages of documents have been disclosed to the defence. But Bennett has already criticized the prosecution for slowing the progress of the case by failing to disclose documents to the defence lawyers as required.
The halting pace of these proceedings has been unfair to the defendants and the public, particularly in light of the government's refusal to answer any questions while the case remains before the courts.
The delays have already added to public concern that the criminal justice system is simply not working. The prosecutor -- and all involved -- should be working to get the case to trial.
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=9ab28642-fd5b-4013-8cfa-ed47d7ad36e2
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Monday, June 16, 2008
Conspiracy theories
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THE "MAJOR" PRESS/MEDIA, AND THE MUZZLE ON BC RAIL SCANDAL INFORMATION
By Robin Mathews
Gary Mason started it with a headline about "conspiracy theories" abounding in the BC Rail Scandal/ Basi, Virk, and Basi hearings-to-trial in the B.C. Supreme Court. (Globe and Mail June 14 08 S2) Tumbling out information that he seems only to have been able to acquire from a "secure source" (conspiracy theory?), Mason then conjectures (conspiracy theory?) that it is "astonishing" that Defence has been able to finger "key government documents" - as if, perhaps someone in back rooms "with an axe to grind" (like wanting to see justice done?) is pointing the way.
Then he wonders why Defence "seems so anxious to get premier Gordon Campbell into the witness box. And his chief of staff, Martyn Brown". Pardon? Is Mason kidding? He may not be kidding, but he may be obfuscating.
Saying that, I open a major "conspiracy theory" theme that won't go away. Is so-called "major" press/media muzzling information on the B.C. Rail Scandal and its courtroom face? Looking at the reporting carefully, three things are pretty clear (to this conspiracy theorist). First. The material is often handled badly, as Gary Mason's Gordon Campbell remark is. He should, I believe, be telling his readers that a protocol for handling delicate cabinet documents was set up in 2004, and then was apparently violated by a close Campbell aide. Then in 2007 Campbell unilaterally changed the protocol without consultation - making what some believe is a political act to control documents required by the court. Defence wants Campbell and others on the stand to cross examine on those matters. There's no mystery. Is cabinet documentation that gets into court tainted? Intentionally? No "grandstanding". Nothing "potentially explosive" - except that Campbell's hand in the whole matter is "potentially explosive".
Secondly, serious commentary on the BC Rail Scandal and its courtroom face is miniscule. Mason uses the phrase "B.C.'s political trial of the century". That suggests it is a matter that needs concentrated attention from press and media. But it is getting - at best - slipshod coverage. Are all of the major private corporate press and media outlets (consciously or unconsciously) working for the Gordon Campbell cabinet - darling of privatization forces - and muzzling (when not killing) the story?
It has now become a celebrated conversation starter that The Vancouver Sun is capable of missing and not mentioning major events unfolding in the BC Rail Scandal. Very recently, it missed serious goings-on in the three-day, BC Court of Appeal action by the Crown (in "B.C.'s political trial of the century".)
When, a little earlier, the office of journalist Bill Tieleman was broken into (through the roof), his office chewed up, and a sign left that the break-in was about Tieleman's reporting of the BC Rail Scandal - the Vancouver Sun published not a word of the story. The CanWest communications operation in Canada has been criticized very widely as reactionary, over-bearing, and directive of publishing policy. (Read Marc Edge, ASPER NATION, Canada's most dangerous media company, New Star Books, 2007). CanWest's coverage of this matter has been, I believe - to say it mildly - shockingly irresponsible.
That takes us a step further - let's call it the third thing that's pretty clear (to this conspiracy theorist). The coverage by the major private corporate press and media of the BC Rail Scandal is the kind of coverage big capitalist media folk accord to a big capitalist government. What do I mean? I say with complete confidence that if the NDP were the government around which all the astonishing suspicions, rumours, facts, and allegations are swirling, the private corporate press and media would have devoted hugely more reporting, commentary, and analysis. The Vancouver Sun, I suggest, would have, by now, devoted at least 500% more space to the BC Rail Scandal than it has done.
Not only does Kirk Lapointe, managing editor, "manage" to have no reporters at major happenings, but editorials on the subject are almost non-existent, and the major political columnist for the Sun, Vaughn Palmer, steers completely clear of the issue or writes unimportantly about it. I call Vaughn Palmer "Gordon Campbell's personal representative at the Vancouver Sun", and the Sun failures on the BC Rail Scandal front give some punch to that humourous title.
There are other very, very serious suspicions - supported by the four and a half years of gumbo the BC Rail Scandal has been slogging through without a trial in sight. Those suspicions, by now, should have had investigative reporters from the Vancouver Sun, the Vancouver Province, the Victoria Times Colonist, BCTV (all CanWest operations), the Globe and Mail and other press and media bodies turning over the turf and finding important facts.
One area of suspicion involves the role of the RCMP. Its delay seems to some to have been (and to be) obstruction. Its investigative reach seems to be in question. Press and media could interview and question RCMP with impunity on its scope, structure, command hierarchy, assignment of officers, etc. etc.
The second area of suspicion involves the role of Liberal operatives not in the legislature. That is a huge field the press and media have had to work at to ignore. They have done almost nothing in that area where sub judice matters don't apply.
Of course, there is the matter of involved cabinet ministers past and present - who might well feature in major media with full biographies and reports of activities.
There are, of course, the lawyers involved in the Basi, Virk, and Basi case. By now shouldn't every British Columbian know their resumes, who they've worked for, how they became attached to the case, who their friends are -- and more?
Then there are the judges of the Supreme and Appeal courts. At the recent Court of Appeal action instigated by William Berardino, Special Crown Prosecutor, I was not satisfied with the response of the three Court of Appeal judges. The Crown's action seems to me to be merely vexatious, to be an appeal to take up time. (I, of course, may be wrong.) That the judges stated, according to Mark Hume of the Globe and Mail, that the appeal placed them in a unique dilemma surprised me.
The only thing unique about it to my eyes was whether they would find for the Crown and put the judge's expertise (Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett) in question, or whether they would find for Justice Bennett and put the Crown's intentions in question. But I see no dilemma in the appeal itself. I believe it should be dumped with all haste (in my ordinary layman's judgement) as an offense to the judge, to the Defence, to the concept of fair trial, open courts, and the rights of the accused.
And if the so-called ultimatum of the Crown then followed - that the case would stop unless Defence counsel can be excluded from pretrial testimony of a police officer, possibly involving the identity of an alleged (but by no means proved) "confidential informant"- so be it, and let the Crown answer for that kind of decision.
Who are the judges of the Supreme Court in any way involved in the BC Rail Scandal? Who are the judges of the BC Court of Appeal? What is their past? Where do they come from? Who appointed them? What key trials have they been involved with? We should all be able to refer to our recent press files to learn all we want to know. We can't.
And I say we can't because the private corporate press and media that serve British Columbia are failing the people of the Province in a massive way. Their failure is only a part of the reason (to quote Gary Mason) "there are lots of conspiracy theories as to why the case has become bogged down." A number of the other conspiracy theories may exist simply because a number of the suspected conspiracies, also, exist.
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Thank you, Robin.
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"One area of suspicion revolves around the RCMP ..." writes Robin. In that regard, I'd like to mention a highly-praised documentary which may open a window for us, on the RCMP's methods of handling big, complex cases. On Sunday, June 22, CBC will broadcast a 96-minute documentary entitled AIR INDIA 182 in which one of the RCMP lead investigators speaks. To quote from Kim Bolan's article ("Air India film has audience in tears", Vancouver Sun June 16, 2008):
Retired RCMP Sgt. John Schneider first worked on the Air India file right after the bombing in 1985.
He later headed the Air India Task Force that brought Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri to trial. Both were later acquitted.
Schneider brought his wife and daughter to see the film in which he explains the difficulties of advancing the investigation of Canada's worst terrorist attack.
"I thought it was an excellent documentary. It was very factual, particularly about what the investigative agencies did and the suffering of the families," Schneider said. "The impact on the general public is going to be dynamite."
Gunnarsson [the film's author], who I helped with some of his early research for the film, wants his work to get the Air India bombing recognized as the devastating Canadian tragedy that it was.
He acknowledged the help of families who were willing to tell their stories to him. He also praised Sikh moderates, many of whom were in attendance, for fighting on the front-line in the fight against religious extremism in Canada.
Several watching the film, like Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh and Ross Street Sikh Temple president Kashmir Singh Dhaliwal, have continued to receive threats for speaking out.
Dhaliwal said Air India 182 "is the most excellent documentary I have ever seen in my life."
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Saturday, June 14, 2008
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Raids Prompt Revelations of Martin-Campbell Connections
By Bill Tieleman
Publish Date: January 7, 2004
Information obtained exclusively by the Georgia Straight raises new questions about the drugs, money, and organized-crime investigation that led to police search warrants being executed last week at the B.C. legislature and the homes and offices of several key provincial and federal Liberals.
The information also shows the extensive links between the Paul Martin federal and Gordon Campbell provincial Liberals. It includes: a list of more than 11,000 Indo-Canadian federal Liberal political supporters in British Columbia obtained by the Straight that indicates the potential extent of Liberal membership sign-ups done by the Martin leadership campaign; confirmation that the federal Liberal party in B.C. privately chartered an airliner to fly more than 200 Young Liberals from Vancouver to the November leadership convention in Toronto at a cost of almost $90,000; and extensive links between a money-losing telecommunications company, many of those who were subject to police search warrants, and key provincial and federal Liberal party insiders and supporters.
A key Paul Martin leadership organizer was David Basi, the ministerial assistant to B.C. Finance Minister Gary Collins who was fired in late December after his office and home were searched by police in connection to the investigation. Neither Basi nor anyone else had been charged in that probe at press time, but Victoria police constable Ravinder Dosanjh has been suspended with pay in connection to the investigation.
Others connected include: Mark Marissen, husband of deputy premier and Education Minister Christy Clark; Bruce Clark, Christy's brother and federal B.C. Liberal executive member for party finances; Erik Bornman, a provincial lobbyist and federal B.C. Liberal executive member for communications; and Bob Virk, ministerial assistant to Transportation Minister Judith Reid. The offices of Bruce Clark, Bornman, and Virk were searched by RCMP and Victoria police officers, while Marissen was visited at home by the RCMP and asked to turn over documents of interest, which he says are unrelated to the Martin leadership campaign.
The anonymous source who provided the Straight with the federal Liberal list of Indo-Canadian supporters said it is not a membership list but does include many prominent members, such as Basi. Federal Liberal membership in B.C. skyrocketed from about 4,000 in February 2002 to more than 37,000 today, with most new members coming from the South Asian community. Adult membership in the party costs $10, meaning the Liberals collected more than $300,000 in dues.
The list was reportedly started by former Liberal cabinet minister Herb Dhaliwal and his backers. The names of both Dhaliwal and his wife, Amrit, are included on the list. Martin supporters obtained the list after Dhaliwal lost control of his riding association in November 2002.
In several media interviews, Dhaliwal has blamed Basi for that takeover and also criticized Premier Gordon Campbell and Collins for allowing their aides to undertake hostile political activity at the federal level.
The Straight's source says the list is available to former NDP premier Ujjal Dosanjh if he decides to seek a federal Liberal nomination in the Lower Mainland, a possibility that is already causing major divisions in both the federal and B.C. Liberals.
In another development, Bill Cunningham, president of the Liberal party of Canada in B.C., confirmed reports to the Straight that an HMY Airways jet was chartered at a cost of about $90,000 to fly predominantly Young Liberal delegates to the November 12-15, 2003, leadership convention in Toronto.
Cunningham said in a telephone interview that the Young Liberals did their own fundraising for the flight, with between 200 and 215 people on board the aircraft. He said the effective price for the flight was $419. That would put the cost at between $83,800 and $90,085. In addition, delegates had to pay for hotel accommodations, food, and convention fees that ranged from $785 to $1,100 each.
Cunningham said that despite rumours he has heard connected to the police investigation, he has no concerns about fundraising by the Young Liberals and said the Liberal party would disclose all details as required by law.
"I don't want to say there's no way we could be used for wrongdoing, but I can't see it," Cunningham said.
In July 1997, the Vancouver Sun reported that Young Liberals were the subject of a police investigation when $30,000 raised for federal convention costs went missing. [... Bill Tieleman, in granting permission to reprint this column, has weighed in -- urgently -- to say that he had been misinformed on this point. In his next column, he corrected what he calls "a serious error" about Jim MacLaren. - BC Mary]
Erik Bornman had been president of the Young Liberals during the time the money was raised, while Jamie Elmhirst, one of Bornman's colleagues at Pilothouse Public Affairs Group, a Victoria-based PR and provincial lobbying firm, took over as president after MacLaren's departure. Elmhirst is a former Gordon Campbell aide who also worked for federal Environment Minister David Anderson, as did Mark Marissen.
Another series of strong political connections are all tied to Bruce Clark, who is a key Paul Martin operative. Although these connections are unrelated to the investigation, they show how close top provincial and federal Liberals are in B.C.
Clark was CEO of a money-losing telecommunications company called Canada Payphone Corporation between late 1998 and late 2000, earning up to $115,000 a year.
Patrick Kinsella, the influential cochair of the 2001 B.C. Liberal election campaign along with Christy Clark, was a director of Canada Payphone from 1995 to 2001, as well as buying a private placement and having share options, according to Stockwatch.
The Progressive Group, Kinsella's consulting firm, also bought a private placement in Canada Payphone in 1996 and received shares for debt in 1999. Kinsella and his firm have given more than $50,000 to the B.C. Liberals since 1996.
Bornman was Canada Payphone's communications director in 2000 and 2001.
The Earnscliffe Strategy Group, a powerful Ottawa-based public- and government-relations and research firm, became "consultants" to Canada Payphone in 1995. Earnscliffe was a "virtual parallel finance department" when Paul Martin was minister, according to the Globe and Mail, with the firm winning $1.6 million in communications contracts from the finance department from September 1993 until July 2002.
Earnscliffe partners David Herle and Scott Reid are both senior Martin political advisers who hold enormous influence with the new prime minister.
Canaccord Capital, whose CEO, Peter Brown, is a major supporter of Gordon Campbell, helped Canada Payphone with a brokered private placement of two million units, with shares valued at $1.40 each. Those shares are currently worth just nine cents apiece. Canada Payphone losses for financial year 2003 were $1.8 million while those reported for financial year 2002 were $5 million. Canaccord donated more than $191,000 to the B.C. Liberal party between 1996 and 2002.
Darcy Rezac, executive director of the Vancouver Board of Trade and B.C. Liberal political supporter, was another investor in Canada Payphone.
The Neighbourhood Pub Owners' Association of BC chose Canada Payphone as its official payphone supplier in December 1998. The executive director of the association was then Brenda Locke, now Liberal MLA for SurreyGreen Timbers.
Needless to say, there is much, much more to come on this story. Stay tuned.
Bill Tieleman is a political commentator Thursdays on CBC TV's Canada Now and regularly on CBC Radio's Early Edition. E-mail him at weststar@telus.net.
Source URL: http://www.straight.com/article/raids-prompt-revelations-of-martin-campbell-connections"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Many thanks to "Anonymous" for remembering this remarkable piece of investigative journalism.
Special thanks, as always, to Bill Tieleman for his work, and for his generosity in sharing.
- BC Mary.
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Footnote: Bill Tieleman's warning was kindly meant, I know. So I gladly took his advice and removed that segment about Jim MacLaren, which left an awkward hole in Bill's story. So I went Googling, trying to find out either (a) what had happened to the $30,000., or (b) why MacLaren had been jailed. I still haven't found out ... but what I did find is that the MacLaren information (which Bill advised me to remove before re-posting his column) is readily available to readers all over the Internet, just as Bill originally wrote it.
- BC Mary.
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Not only does Gary Mason say that "there will be a trial one day" but he also says " ... I've been told that an editor at a major Vancouver daily newspaper may also get towed into this affair."CONSPIRACY THEORIES ABOUND AS CORRUPTION TRIAL FAILS TO GET ON TRACKBy Gary MasonThe Globe and Mail - June 14, 2008http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080614.BCMASON14/TPStory/National/columnists""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Elephants in Courtroom 60
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MICHAEL BOLTON, THE BRITISH COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEAL, AND ELEPHANTS IN COURTROOM 60.
By Robin Mathews
[All the other press had left. They started leaking out at least a half hour before the end. Remaining in the gallery was the often-attending Liberal and me. Only. Mark Hume and Bill Tieleman had left, I guess, to file stories. It was about six minutes before the end of the day, when Michael Bolton opened up with Bruce Clark, Mark Marissen and Christy Clark's names. The often-attending Liberal was sitting beside me asleep. At the name of Bruce Clark he leapt into wakedness. The only person in the room with pen to paper, furiously taking the kind of notes I take was me ... Bolton was accosted as I report, got back on acceptable track, and ended the day in a very few minutes.]
- Personal note from Robin to BC Mary.
Missing the Wednesday, June 11, B.C. Court of Appeal session, I am depending on the report by Mark Hume in the Globe and Mail (June 12 08 A6) for that day's events. CanWest's flagship paper west of Toronto - the Vancouver Sun - has nothing, NOTHING, on that key story. (Remember: many, many British Columbians depend upon the Vancouver Sun for all their print news.)
My missing the Wednesday session was unfortunate, but it let me meditate on the full day session I attended Tuesday before Madam Justice Catherine Anne Ryan, Chief Justice Lance Finch, and Mr. Justice Ian Donald. Incidentally, the learned judges, reports Mark Hume, "couldn't give an immediate ruling, and didn't know when one would be ready". Not good enough. They have had days to do their homework and they know the issues are important. The argument before them, moreover, is not mysterious or hard to understand. All three judges, Hume reports, noted that "the court may never have faced a dilemma quite like" this one "before".
There are a number of ways of looking at that statement. One of them is that no one has ever had the brass before to try such a baseless raid on the concept of fair trial, open courts, and the rights of the accused as the Crown has tried by attempting to keep counsel for the accused away from the in camera testimony of an RCMP officer who may (?) disclose the identity of a claimed (but in no way evidenced - even to the trial judge) "confidential informant".
The three Appellate Court judges almost seem to have forgotten that counsel for the accused are Officers of the Court and are fully empowered to accept an undertaking of lifelong silence on the identity of the as-yet so-called confidential informant, should it be revealed. The judges must, in addition, consider whether they have enough information even to believe Mr. X is a confidential informant. That the Crown claims he is so means almost nothing. Defence alleges, for instance, that the seven senior investigating RCMP officers all were aware of his identity. If so, how confidential is "Confidential"?
The three Appellate Court judges appear to have accepted the statement of Special Crown Prosecutor William Berardino that counsel for the Defence might break trust and reveal the identity of Mr. X. By having done so, the judges may be showing bias in the matter. For if counsel for the Defence have to be (by their place and role in society) granted trust in an undertaking of confidentiality, there is not the slightest basis for the appeal lodged by the Special Crown Prosecutor to exclude them from the in camera testimony. Counsel for the accused felt deep insult at William Berardino's suggestion, and they had every right to do so. The surprise here is that the three judges of the Court of Appeal were not, apparently, equally alarmed at the Special Crown Prosecutor's suggestion, for it suggests, I believe, that counsel for the accused are (by definition?) inferior and suspect entities in a court trial.
I suggested in my earlier piece on the Appeal Court that Mr. Berardino's insult to counsel for the Defence may have sparked Mr. Bolton's reference to what I call the "political and turbulent" nature of the Supreme Court hearings before Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett on the Basi, Virk, and Basi matters. The nature of those hearings must, Mr. Bolton seemed to suggest, as I witnessed the moment, have conditioned the quality of the appeal presented by the Special Crown Prosecutor.
And he went on to think aloud about the "political and turbulent" nature of the hearing. By doing so, for a brief few seconds he seemed to say, "there are elephants in the court room. Look at them."
From the first of the hearings in the Basi, Virk, and Basi charges there was an elephant in the courtroom. As years passed, more elephants arrived until, now, there is a herd of elephants in the courtroom. In the larger courtooms used for hearings presided by Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett, people could ignore (or try to ignore) the elephants present. But when the matter moved to the much smaller Courtroom 60, the elephants got in the way.
I thought I saw Chief Justice Lance Finch stretch to try to see over one of them. And I was almost sure I saw one of the elephants put his large foot on the gown of the Special Crown Prosecutor so that William Berardino had to fuss and fumble and wrestle and bend down to get his gown free.
The first elephant was present at the first hearing. For, remember, the Search Warrant "raids" on legislature offices took place on December 28, 2003. Boxes and boxes of material were hauled away from the offices, hard drives of computers were taken away, a list of people in Victoria and the lower mainland were searched or interviewed. The net brought in an enormous amount of information - so much that the RCMP took almost a full year of further "investigation" before it laid charges against the three men, cabinet aides David Basi, Bobby Virk, and Aneal Basi.
But - this is important - almost at the same time as reporting the "raids" on the legislature offices, the RCMP stated unequivocally that no elected person was under investigation or (as far as we can know) would be. How could RCMP know that none of the vast amount of material seized would provide evidence that elected persons were involved in wrongful activity? Were RCMP officers psychic? Or did they know miraculously of the unsullied and unbesmirched purity of Gordon Campbell and his troupe?
They had been (evidence reveals) investigating cabinet member Gary Collins. Investigation stopped abruptly.
A year later three cabinet aides were charged. And since that day the elephant of cabinet wrong-doing in the BC Rail Scandal has been present in the courtroom. All have been asked to look away from it.
Then, we know, Defence counsel ran into a strange phenomenon. When they considered materials possibly relevant to the defence of their clients and asked for the materials, the Special Crown Prosecutor said, "Yes". And then it didn't come from the RCMP, or it came late, or it came in pieces, or it came in packages (electronic or other) that wouldn't open properly. Or all of a request seemed to come only to be proved to be just a part, later, or ... or ... or. As that problem repeated itself and intensified, another huge elephant entered the courtroom and stayed. It is marked "Maintiens le Droit" across its back, and underneath is written "by permission of the Disney Corporation".
I am told (though I don't know if it's true) a sheriff at the door of the courtroom advises anyone who enters that no elephants are present or permitted into the courtroom. If you see elephants in the courtroom, the sheriff tells people (as I hear the story), pretend you don't, he says, for if you say you see elephants, you will be taken for an immediate psychiatric examination and probably be committed to an institution.
Then, as we know, all charges related to drug matters were dropped - and another elephant wandered into the room, and has stayed. Then there was an earnest and powerful statement by an RCMP officer at the time of the legislature "raids" that Organized Crime has reached into the deepest corners and pockets of our society. Organized Crime. And the officer obviously meant that the search warrant raids were related to that terrible development. Rumours abounded that drug money may have been used to purchase bulk political Party memberships. The memberships would then be used, it was said, to make sure certain people became candidates. If that were true, was it possible that any of the accused was involved - and if any was, with whom (giving orders) was that person (or persons) involved? The questions rose and rose in the air until they created a thick fog. Out of the fog two elephants appeared, wandered into court, and have stayed there.
Well then. More elephants have arrived over the period of the hearings that are intended to lead to the trial of Basi, Virk, and Basi. One is the size of a stuffed toy, (quite cute) and it sits (I am told) at the right elbow of the presiding judge (though I have never seen it myself). Another, like a house pet (invisible to most), is led into court by George Copley, counsel for the Gordon Campbell cabinet and careful respondent to the protocol structures that guarantee the integrity of documents involved with cabinet privilege.
There are accounts also, but they cannot be pinned down to any particular person, that the Special Crown Prosecutor was seen one morning, dressed like the Emir of Shala, riding a beautifully decorated elephant towards the Supreme Court building on Smythe Street. Some say he rode right into the court room, got off the elephant, and that it moved into the area where the jury normally sits and hasn't moved since. Personally, I can't believe that story is true.
I return to Mr. Bolton's remarks of June 10 and the elephants in Courtroom 60.
He was in the process of making a clear and strong statement that Defence counsel must be present when the witness gives testimony, that to ask almost "carte blanche" for an exclusive hearing based on almost no evidence is unthinkable. Mr. Bolton seemed to me to be growing in his sense that the appeal by the Crown was unreal. And he seemed to me to be suddenly aware that it was a part (as far as he was concerned) of all the "political and turbulent" behaviour throughout the hearings - that it was, in fact, an extension of the unreasonable conduct there. He referred to the suggestion that Defence lawyers might not be trustworthy. He responded that the trial judge was concerned, as Defence was concerned, about the Crown's request. Look at the Second Supplementary Appeal Book, he said, where the index indicates that the identity of the informant was well known to all seven major investigators.
Then he seems to have connected actions of importance to the case with elephants. He mentioned Bruce Clark. He mentioned the divestiture of BC Rail. He mentioned Roberts Bank port. He referred to the receiving of documents. Then he spoke of a member of an MLA's family, brother of Christy Clark, brother-in-law of Mark Marissen, Liberal Party figure. Marissen and Clark, he said, may well be witnesses in this case.
And then Madam Justice Catherine Anne Ryan asked where this was "going". Mr. Bolton seemed to question as I think of the moment, whether at least some of the elephants in the room might be material to the case. He seemed to suggest that the complexity [to which he only hinted] was what the presiding judge had to deal with - and so, I presume, made her ruling on Defence counsel being present at the testimony of the RCMP officer.
Madam Justice Catherine Anne Ryan appeared to me to lack sympathy with what Mr. Bolton was saying. She asked why these questions were relevant. She resisted acknowledging the presence of elephants. It is as if someone said loudly and clearly: There Are No Elephants in This Room. We Are Dealing With a Crown Request to Overthrow the Ruling by Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett That the Defence Has a Right to be Present at What the Crown Wishes to Be an Ex Parte and In Camera Hearing. There Are No Elephants in This Room. That Is All. All We Care About is the Appeal by the Special Crown Prosecutor. Can His Appeal be Upheld in Law or Must It Be Refused in Law.
And then it is if that same person said in a softer voice: The fact that a troupe of elephants is here in courtroom 60 is irrelevant. The fact that the elephants have shaped the case is irrelevant. The fact that one of the elephants has been lying on key information and won't get up is a matter for the Zoo keepers not for us. Please be reasonable. We are not the keepers of elephants. This, after all, is only the British Columbia Court of Appeal. We aren't able to do everything. Elephants do not come under our jurisdiction. Please.
The silence that followed was brief, was momentary. And then the Appeal Court returned to the real matter before it, the issue of major importance, of substance. And the next day (when I wasn't there) the three judges, Mark Hume tells us, all noted that the dilemma facing the three judges of the appeal court was such "that [appeal] court may never have faced a dilemma quite like it before". That seems to me to be absolutely true.
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Believe me, I'd rather be the wheelbarrow person following a horse parade than the person trying to read the mind of a big-time CanWest managing editor. My friendship with Kirk LaPointe began last September 4, 2007. It ended at about the same time. See "I asked for Basi Virk / BC Rail News coverage. Now he's angry". Well, I knew you were wondering about these questions, too, after that Bill Berardino Show at the B.C. Court of Appeal, the past 3 days, so I took the matter in hand and again asked Mr LaPointe the essential question. The story unfolded today, as follows ...
Hi Kirk,
Yesterday (June 11) marked the end of a "unique" 3-day BC Court of Appeal event in which a B.C. Special Prosecutor demanded additional secrecy in the BC Rail Case.
I have searched Vancouver Sun and can find no mention of it.
I don't understand how British Columbia's "flagship" newspaper can ignore such an issue to a point where even a unique, precedent-setting event concerning BC Rail and BC governance has no place in its pages.
This request will be posted on my web-site. If you reply, please indicate whether I may share your comments with my readers as well.
Kind regards,
BC Mary
The Legislature Raids
http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/
And Kirk did reply. Twice. He did not say I couldn't post his remarks:#1:
We covered it the day before.
Kirk LaPointe, Managing Editor, The Vancouver Sun.
and #2:
The angle on the Globe's front page today was covered by us June 3, by the way.
Kirk LaPointe, Managing Editor, The Vancouver Sun.
So BC Mary, sensing a collective need for further information, wrote again: To: LaPointe, Kirk (VAN_Exchange)
Sent: Thu Jun 12
Subject: Basi Virk / BCRail / Court of Appeal
Hi Kirk,
I saw Ian Mulgrew's article in Vancouver Sun on June 11. Is that it? Is that all Vancouver Sun intends to publish on this dramatic piece of BC history?
Yesterday the BC Court of Appeal wrapped up 3 days of learned arguments as to what the public may be allowed to hear with regard to events (the alleged crimes, the resulting courtroom scenes) which are costing the public millions, may be undermining the provincial ability to govern itself, and affects the lives of every person and business in B.C. And I am not sure that the Managing Editor of B.C.'s 'flagship newspaper' even knows that.
"We covered it the day before" has no substance if we're speaking about the wrap-up for this session.
"The angle on the Globe's front page today was covered by us June 3" isn't convincing, either, when (a) this is hardly an "angle", (b) this case requires careful, detailed explanation, and (c) this historic Court of Appeal session ran from June 9 to 11.
I want to do the right thing here, Kirk, so may I assume that I have your permission to quote your comments?
Kind regards,
BC Mary
The Legislature Raids
http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/
And Pointy replied again! He said: No, it's not all.
Kirk LaPointe, Managing Editor, The Vancouver Sun.
The brilliance and brevity of the Managing Editor's words demonstrate a concern shared by us all, for the proper presentation of the B.C. Rail Case. His words will, I think, strike a chord in every British Columbian heart. I can truthfully say that his words have certainly struck my heart, and I will turn often to them during these troubling times. - BC Mary.
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Defence wants Premier to testify at Basi-Virk trial
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MARK HUME
The Globe and Mail - June 12, 2008
VANCOUVER -- Alleging "political interference" in a case that involves an unprecedented police raid on the B.C. legislature, defence lawyers have filed an application to have the Premier testify at a political corruption trial.
In an application for relief filed with the Supreme Court of British Columbia, the lawyers for three former government employees facing criminal charges have asked that Gordon Campbell, deputy attorney-general Allan Seckel and other officials testify in open court about their actions when an aide to the Premier handled documents that police had seized in the case.
The defence is alleging that the Charter rights of Dave Basi, Bobby Virk and Aneal Basi were violated "by virtue of political interference by the provincial government and more particularly the Premier, the Premier's office, agents and staff and the cabinet and its agents and staff." {Snip} ...
Police seized the documents on Dec. 28, 2003, in a raid on the offices of Dave Basi and Mr. Virk, who at the time were top ministerial assistants involved in the government's pending $1-billion sale of BC Rail.
Although about 300,000 pages of government documents have been released to the defence in the disclosure process, there has been a long legal tug-of-war over which documents are relevant, and which the government can withhold from the courts because they are covered by cabinet privilege.
The application was filed after defence lawyers learned that a court-sanctioned protocol for handling documents was not followed.
"The protocol was ostensibly created to transparently allow the provincial government to review the seized hard copy documents and seized electronic documents ... to determine whether it would assert privilege ... and to prevent disclosure of the documents to anyone, including [the] special prosecutor," the application states.
"The protocol was designed to protect the integrity of the investigation from political interference and also to protect the potential rights of accused persons," it says.
The protocol required anyone reviewing the seized documents to sign an undertaking with the court that restricted them from discussing the material with anyone.
The documents were considered so sensitive they were held in a locked evidence room and prosecutors or police did not read the cabinet material until government officials covered by the protocol had read it and waived privilege.
During the disclosure process, however, defence lawyers learned that in 2004, a government lawyer had asked Ken Dobell, who at the time was Mr. Campbell's chief adviser, to review three key documents because the RCMP wanted to use them in questioning Gary Collins, who was then the finance minister and Dave Basi's boss.
Mr. Dobell told the lawyer that privilege should not be asserted over the documents. However, Mr. Dobell was not among those covered by the court protocol.
"In November of 2004, the protocol was violated in an egregious manner, given the highly political nature of this investigation and its potential effects on elected officials," states the application.
"At no time was Mr. Dobell named as a person who could provide instructions on behalf of the provincial government or cabinet with respect to the documents, nor, most significantly, did Mr. Dobell enter into any undertaking in respect of his review of the three documents. ... Mr. Dobell was not restricted in any way in respect of the documents he reviewed," it says.
The application notes that approximately one month after Mr. Dobell reviewed the documents, Mr. Collins, the minister overseeing the sale of BC Rail, resigned from government, saying he had decided to take a private-sector job.
In the application, the defence lawyers complain that the Premier and other government officials have refused to answer questions about the issue, and about a change the Premier announced in the House, in May, 2007, in which he said Mr. Seckel was the person deciding whether documents were privileged.
The application alleges that George Copley, the lawyer representing the government's executive council and the point man in the disclosure process, was not informed of the change in the protocol process.
The application states: "The political interference in respect of the protocol and the documents over which the government asserts its privilege ... has clearly violated the accused persons' right to make full answer in defence in respect of the documents."
It states that the violation "must be remedied at a minimum" by disclosure of all documents over which the government is asserting privilege, and by calling Mr. Campbell, Mr. Seckel and Mr. Dobell to give evidence on the matter. {Snip} ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080612.BCBASI12/TPStory/National
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COURT RESERVES RULING ON SHIELDING WITNESS
Judges unable to reach decision after three days in unique dilemma over protecting informant's identity
MARK HUME
The Globe and Mail - June 12, 2008
VANCOUVER -- The British Columbia Court of Appeal reserved judgment yesterday on a difficult legal question concerning when and how the state can throw a cloak of secrecy over all information concerning a witness.
After listening to three days of argument in an appeal stemming from a decision in a political corruption trial, Chief Justice Lance Finch said the court couldn't give an immediate ruling, and didn't know when one would be ready. {Snip} ...
... the matter they face is a difficult one, with all three judges noting at different times that the court may never have faced a dilemma quite like it before.
Being appealed is a decision by Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett of B.C. Supreme Court, who ruled that defence lawyers could be present at a hearing when special prosecutor William Berardino presents information concerning a secret police witness.
Mr. Berardino argues that ruling was wrong, and he is asking for exclusion of the defence, saying under Canada's strict laws only the police, judges and Crown attorneys have the right to know the identity of a privileged informant.
He said it will be impossible for him to call any evidence, period, without revealing the identity of the informant.
Michael Bolton, representing Dave Basi, has argued that defence attorneys must be present at the hearing if the accused are to get a fair trial.
He asked how defence lawyers could challenge the assertion of informer privilege, for example, if they weren't allowed to ask any questions about the police source.
"If the witness they wish to cloak with privilege is ... someone with material evidence, such as one of the [government's] political operatives ... the defence will have no opportunity to consider pursuing that evidence," he said.
Mr. Bolton said the defence doesn't want to know the informant's identity, just the circumstance under which the police agreed to grant privileged informer status.
Mr. Justice Ian Donald cautioned, however, that the identity of an informer could inadvertently be leaked through a line of questioning.
"What if a review of the informant would put you on a line of inquiry which would make it obvious [who the informant was] to anyone in the know ... in other words connect the dots," he said.
Mr. Bolton replied that the trial judge would be there for guidance and to steer lawyers away from such questions.
Madam Justice Catherine Anne Ryan said if the Crown is correct, then the identity of the informer might come out no matter how cautious the court was, and wondered whether Judge Bennett's ruling wasn't in effect an order to disclose the identity of the informant.
The court has heard that Canada's laws were toughened up after Sept. 11, 2001, to ensure that secret informants have complete protection from being identified.
But she said excluding defence lawyers is an unusual procedure.
"Our whole system is based on the adversary system, where you have both sides [arguing]," she said. "And that's what [Judge Bennett] wants to hear ... you have to have both sides represented."
Joseph Doyle, representing Aneal Basi, said the Crown has put the judges in a difficult position by insisting that nothing can be said without identifying the informant.
"What do you do with this case? What evidence is there to make a decision?" he asked. "At this stage, there is none."
Mr. Doyle summed up the Crown's position this way: "We can't give you any evidence. We can't give you any evidence about why. We just want you out of the room."
He urged the judges to uphold Judge Bennett's ruling.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080612.BCBASIN12/TPStory/National
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Defence Wants Premier To Testify At Basi-Virk Trialhttp://www.thelinkpaper.ca
VANCOUVER -- Alleging "political interference" in a case that involves an unprecedented police raid on the B.C. legislature, defence lawyers have filed an application to have the BC Premier Gordon Campbell testify at a political corruption trial ...
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008
.Basi-Virk - Update to come later on Court of Appeal hearing - political operatives and new name of witness who unsuccessfully sought anonymity.
Wed., June 11, 2008, 1 p.m. - Just a note to those following the BC Court of Appeal hearing on the secret witness issue in the Basi-Virk case - I am in court today and will file a full report later Wednesday after the expected conclusion of defence and Crown arguments.
For those who can't wait - the defence has raised a new name of a witness who requested anonymity in this case but did not receive it and also revealed that several "political operatives" have sought to keep their names out of the public and media eye.
More on this later at Bill's place: http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/
Bill Tieleman reports that there were only two media -- himself and Mark Hume -- attending Day #3 of the Court of Appeal. Here's a preview of Bill's report on his own blog: Political operatives, new witness tried to shield identities in BC Legislature raid case; BC Court of Appeal reserves judgment on secret witness issue
By Bill Tieleman
24 hours columnist - June 11, 2008
5:30 p.m. - Several “political operatives” and an individual with information about key Crown witness Erik Bornmann and the Liberal Party have all tried to shield their identities from the public in the B.C. Legislature raid case, the B.C. Court of Appeal was told Wednesday.
The new information came from defence counsel testimony in a hearing over a secret witness in the trial of three provincial government aides facing corruption charges.
Special Prosecutor Bill Bearardino is asking the court to overturn a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that defence lawyers be present to hear the testimony of a secret witness in the trial of David Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi.
Basi’s lawyer Michael Bolton told a three-judge panel that several potential witnesses have attempted to remain unnamed. {Snip} ...
“Mr. Jas Sekhon wanted to be a police informant,” Doyle said. “He goes on to describe details about the Liberal Party and Bornmann – I won’t go into that.” {Snip} ...
BC Supreme Court Justice Bennett will hold a case update on June 20 and is scheduled to reconvene the pre-trial hearing on June 30. It is unclear whether the Court of Appeal will issue a decision before either date or whether it could have an impact on the BC Supreme Court proceeding.""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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INFORMANT MAY NOT QUALIFY FOR IDENTITY PROTECTION, COURT TOLD
MARK HUME
The Globe and Mail - June 11, 2008
VANCOUVER -- The British Columbia Court of Appeal was told yesterday that a secret police source, whose identity is being protected by the Crown in a political corruption case, may not deserve to be covered by Canada's sweeping privileged informant laws. {Snip} ...
[Special Prosecutor] Berardino has said that it is impossible for him to present any information at that hearing without identifying the informant, so he is asking the Court of Appeal to overrule Judge Bennett, and bar the defence. He argued that under Canada's privileged informant laws, only the police, the Crown and a judge are allowed to know the name of a police source.
However, Jim Blazina, who is representing Mr. Virk, said that while it is clear the courts have a responsibility to protect the identity of a privileged informant, that status is not automatically granted just because the Crown asks for it. A hearing must be held first, he said, at which a judge must hear evidence to justify the granting of privileged informant status.
Mr. Blazina said the law makes clear that a privileged informant can be named only if it is the only way to establish the innocence of an accused. The right of the accused to a fair trial and the right to full defence are not enough to trump the right of a privileged informant to protection, he acknowledged.
"But that doesn't mean the accused have no rights," he told a panel of appeal court judges.
"There is a right to hear the evidence, a right to challenge that evidence ... [and] a right to make submissions to the trial judge about whether that privilege exists or not," Mr. Blazina said. He said the procedure for which the Crown argued would deny the accused those rights.
Mr. Blazina said Judge Bennett ruled correctly when she ordered a hearing that the defence could attend. He said it would be possible to ask questions "around the periphery" of the informant issue, without getting to the substance of who the source was.
That questioning, he said, might help Judge Bennett decide whether privileged informant status is really warranted in this case. He pointed out that Judge Bennett already had concerns about that issue, because in her ruling she noted that "it's not clear cut in this case whether privilege applies."
Mr. Blazina said that in ordering a hearing Judge Bennett wasn't telling the Crown to identify the informant, but only "to go as far as they can" without revealing the identity. Mr. Blazina said the judge could always order the defence counsel to leave the courtroom if any evidence was to be presented that might identify the informant.
He said the hearing should go ahead for however long it could, "be it three minutes or three days," with the defence present. "To exclude defence counsel completely ... with defence counsel having no input whatsoever, is certainly going too far," he argued. {Snip} ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080611.BCBASI11/TPStory/National
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DISPUTE OVER INFORMANT'S PRIVILEGE BROADSIDES RAIL TRIAL
Special prosecutor has concerns over identity disclosure in Basi, Virk trial
Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun - Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Five years after the unprecedented raid on the B.C. legislature, the resulting criminal trial on corruption charges may turn on the special prosecutor's objections to a planned in-camera hearing into the role of a key police informant.
Special prosecutor Bill Berardino this week asked B.C.'s highest court to block the trial judge from examining the validity of the informant's claim of privilege in the presence of lawyers representing the three ex-government aides accused of influence peddling. {Snip} ...
Berardino told the B.C. Court of Appeal, however, that any attempt to examine the circumstances surrounding the informant's relationship with the police could reveal his or her identity.
No evidence can be called, he told the panel of senior jurists, including Chief Judge Lance Finch, because even the most benign piece of information could pierce the informant's privilege. He said he cannot allow that to happen.
Defence lawyer Joseph Blazina, though, told the three justices Tuesday that the special prosecutor was issuing an "ultimatum" to the trial judge and trampling on the rights of the three accused.
B.C. Supreme Court trial judge Elizabeth Bennett made two decisions in December that would allow defence lawyers to attend an in-camera hearing she will conduct to determine whether informant privilege should apply in this case.
At the appeal proceedings, which are expected to finish today, Berardino said not only should the accused be barred from such an in-camera hearing but their lawyers should be prohibited as well. He said only the judge and prosecutor should be involved.
In the case of confidential police informants, the law in Canada is clear: Their identity must be protected and cannot be revealed unless innocence itself is at stake.
This is a long-standing rule that goes back centuries in British common law. [See also/scroll down to Bill Tieleman's research quoted below -- "Named Persons vs Vancouver Sun" 2007 -- and Berardino's reference to an Air India witness. - BC Mary]
The reason is fairly obvious.
The identity of an informer must be concealed both for his or her own protection and to encourage others to divulge to the authorities any information pertaining to crimes.
In this case, though, Bennett is concerned about some of the murkiness around the informer's role.
"I have at this juncture been told no circumstances regarding how this person came to the police," she said.
"I appreciate that even the most innocuous disclosure could breach the privilege.
"However, I have not even been told if the witness came to the police in confidence."
She explained these were uncharted waters because normally the prosecution can explain why a confidential witness enjoys such privilege in a sentence or two.
"The Crown [here] says that the privilege will not be apparent to me by simply reviewing the documents and that I need to hear approximately an hour's testimony from a police officer to put everything in context," Bennett said.
She went on to add that it also did not appear that this informant is known only to a single police officer who is his or her handler.
That's odd, too.
"In such [normal] situations, the informant's identity is jealously guarded by the handler," Bennett said.
"It appears that a number of police involved in this investigation are aware of the informer's identity, as are all of the lawyers hired as part of the special prosecutor's team."
The defence said they are not really all that interested in finding out who the informer is, but are more interested in the circumstances in which the informer came to the police.
"The issue I have to wrestle with at this point," Bennett concluded, "is whether the privilege applies at all and how to determine that without violating the privilege.
"Further information is necessary."
She decided to hold the in camera hearing excluding the accused, but allowing their lawyers to remain under vows of secrecy.
But Berardino says even that puts the informant at too great a risk.
If the Court of Appeal won't step in, he says he'll go to the Supreme Court of Canada.
{Snip} ...
imulgrew@png.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=caf503bc-939d-4c9c-8793-05cb766d28be
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Berardino's wild appeals court action
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The BC Rail Scandal in the Courts. The Wild Appeals Court Action of Special Crown Prosecutor William Berardino, and the Growing Repression of Freedoms in Canada. June 10, 2008.
Robin Mathews
The "small" story in Vancouver, B.C., is close to incredible. On November 23, 2007, William Berardino told Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett, presiding judge on the cases of Dave Basi, Bobby Virk, and Aneal Basi, that he would bring before her on December 3 a request to have some witnesses appear in camera to give their testimony. (The three men accused - Basi, Virk, and Basi are former cabinet aides of the Gordon Campbell cabinet - charged, variously, with fraud and breach of trust.)
As the weeks have passed Berardino requested that one of the witnesses (a police officer) give testimony to put matters in context - not only in camera but, as they say, "ex parte" which means in this case without the accused or counsel for the accused present. Normally, such a request would be squashed out of hand as being contrary to the primary principles of fair trial, the rights of the accused, and the principle of open courts as fundamental to democratic society.
But (apparently arising out of the Air India trial) the Supreme Court of Canada has made a ruling that may be argued (but not necessarily convincingly) that an informer has an almost absolute privilege to disguise identity - once evidence shows he/she is an informer in danger. That "informer privilege" may be argued to trump all other principles mentioned just above. And so William Berardino argues that the witness to give testimony must be heard "ex parte" and in camera to protect the identity of an informant in danger who might be identified in the testimony. He apparently told the presiding judge that documents as evidence would not be sufficient; an hour of direct police officer accounting would be necessary. And during that accounting, the identity of the informant might become clear.
Defence made some efforts to compromise. Counsel would be present, but not the accused. The event would be in camera (press and public excluded) and Defence counsel would guarantee absolute confidentiality. That did not satisfy the Special Crown Prosecutor. Madam Justice Bennett carefully examined precedent and practice and declared that counsel for the accused had to be present. William Berardino then appealed to a three person Appellate Court to have Madam Justice Bennett's ruling struck down. (Appeal Court Judges Anne Ryan, Ian Donald, and Chief Justice Lance Finch hearing the appeal, June 9 to June 11.)
Berardino argued (June 9) that the Madam Justice Bennett had made a serious error. Her ruling he said is "completely incorrect". Disagreeing strongly with Defence, he argued that "informant privilege" means that only the judge, the police, and the Crown have the right to know the identity of the informant. On June 10, Defence (Jim Blazina and Michael Bolton) argued that the privilege in no way excludes counsel for the accused - the final and basic point at issue.
William Berardino's position on June 9 appears to have been, to quote Mark Hume (Globe and Mail, June 10, 08, A1), "that the Crown will not proceed if courts demand defence lawyers be given the indentity of an informant". The position stands almost as an ultimatum, and one has to ask from whom it comes, ultimately.
I wrote in another piece on the BC Rail Scandal in the Courts that since Gordon Campbell unilaterally changed the protocol for deciding if cabinet materials would be claimed as "privileged" documents, all court activities on the matter are political. Campbell unilaterally changed a nearly four year protocol that was working and named a Deputy Attorney General as arbitrar of privilege for cabinet materials. He did that, apparently, without any consultation of the kind one might expect. (Campbell also apparently, earlier, permitted his uncleared Deputy, Ken Dobell, to violate the protocol in place.) Gordon Campbell, I allege, thereby entered the legal process as an actor. As the political leader of a government out of which charges against the accused have come he has, I allege, tainted all further court processes.
That action by the premier of the province throws into highlight the fact that the BC Rail Scandal has been a part of the charges against Basi, Virk, and Basi, inevitably, from the beginning. Charges of political behaviour have dogged the hearings leading to trial. The Gordon Campbell cabinet alienated BC Rail from the people of the province corruptly, and parts of the agreement which alienated it are still secret. The charges against the three men arise directly out of the processes by which BC Rail was "sold".
Michael Bolton (June 10) attempted to suggest that the strange demands of William Berardino must be seen in the context of the political and often turbulent milieu in which the years of hearings have been conducted. He was quickly silenced. The problems that faced Madam Justice Bennett (and the Defence) specifically in relation to the "confidential informant" are that
(a) there is no factual evidence to support the claim the informant's identity will be revealed.
(b) The so-called confidential informant appears to have been well known to the seven major investigators (a strangely wide area of confidentiality).
(c) Crown would not write an affidavit for the judge's eyes only to provide a very basic ground of evidence. She said, quite simply, that she needed evidence to make a determination, otherwise Defence would have to be present. Moreover, she believed that there was merit in the presence of Defence counsel.
(d) The so-called "confidential informant" may not be an informant at all. He may be a Liberal of significance whose identity released would explode the political container in which the case is being carried - and so must be hidden. In fact, candidates are being put forward as the Mr. X. Wild rumour offers him as a highly placed federal Liberal then, no longer a Liberal now, who may be a Citizenship Court Judge. He may, wild rumour speculates, have known Dave Basi in the context of work he did for the federal Party. Etcetera.
(e) Finally (for now), continuing problems with the RCMP make the hearing of testimony from an RCMP officer without Defence present a matter of deep concern.
That last opens the issue which the three Appellate Court judges almost openly refused to hear. And for good reason - which will follow a short description of the "political and turbulent" milieu of the hearing process thus far. From the beginning Defence has loudly maintained that the Special Crown Prosecutor has been lax in providing disclosure of evidence to the Defence. A part of that alleged delay, inadequacy, obstruction (?) has originated, it is alleged, with the RCMP. In fact, Defence has conveyed the idea, I believe, that the RCMP "decided" what would be disclosed, often. I have said, in other reports, that I believe Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett (consciously or unconsciously) has abetted delay by failing to demand and to insist upon prompt, clean, full disclosure of materials from the RCMP and the Special Crown Prosecutor. I believe she should have presented them with the possibility of being charged with contempt of court.
But the problem with that may be
(a) the problem of "the club" refusing to see imperfection in its own members. It may be more darkly
(b) the result of a hidebound hierarchy with political loyalties that prevented necessary action. It may be
(c) that I don't understand proper court procedure.
Whatever the case, Michael Bolton (June 10) made two kinds of argument. The first was argument supporting the claim that the Supreme Court ruling in no way absolutely invalidates Defence knowledge of a confidential informant. Then, secondly, Bolton moved to the "political and turbulent milieu" out of which, he apparently believes, the appeal of the Special Crown Prosecutor must be seen to have come - and believed the judges should know of that milieu, too. He was apparently vexed that the Special Crown Prosecutor should have suggested the Defence counsel might not be trustworthy enough to have confidential knowledge of the informant's identity (a political and turbulent suggestion?).
Bolton began to speak of the complexity of the issue, in which Bruce Clark might be a key witness against the accused, a member of an MLA's family, brother of Christy Clark, brother-in-law of Mark Marissen, high profile Liberal Party figure. Asked by Madam Justice Anne Ryan where he was "going", Bolton asserted that the information was material because it showed what the judge is dealing with. What more he wanted the judges to recognize was lost in obvious protestation.
I say above that the Appellate judges refused to hear such matter, and I say that is so for good reason. If Michael Bolton had been allowed to continue, to describe the political and turbulent milieu in which the Basi, Virk, and Basi hearings have existed, he might have forced the judges to consider the astonishing delays that have dogged the process. And they might have had to ask themselves what role the Special Crown Prosecutor has had in the delays of disclosure. And they might have discovered they had to find him at fault in the matter. Then what would they do? Better to close off that line of thought altogether, and fast.
That brings to mind the "biggest trial against police officer corruption" in Canada which recently was thrown out of court (because of delays, etc.) by a Toronto judge - who, it seems, did not discipline disclosure and who permitted a Special Crown Prosecutor room for endless delays.
The story told here brings to mind, also, movements against democratic society in Canada which are appearing on all sides. Stephen Harper government action against effective Freedom of Information structures are, in fact, increasingly obstructing information (which the public has a right to acquire) in a way that is destructive of our freedoms. Information control by that government (Lawrence Martin, Globe and Mail, May 5 08) has created what can only be described as a semi-fascist "enemies' list". Donald Savoie's recent book, Court Government and the Collapse of Accountability in Canada and the United Kingdom, describes a federal government gagging elected representatives on behalf of "courtiers" - unelected power figures making policy outside of parliamentary space. My own experience of RCMP inadequacy in Alberta is shocking and reaches from the lowest levels into the top national echelons of the force. I write of it in a forthcoming vivelecanada column. What I write about and reveal there may be related to alleged RCMP behaviour in the BC Rail Scandal.
In B.C. the Gordon Campbell government is being hit and hit with revelations of insider favours, and lobbyists working without registering and without reporting their activities. Two of Campbell's closest political allies, Patrick Kinsella and Mark Jiles, have been working on behalf of huge corporations such as Alcan, Accenture, and B.C. Motion Picture Production Industry Association from resumes that list strong relationships with B.C. politicians like Colin Hansen, Kevin Falcon, and Olga Illich as well as federal cabinet minister David Emerson (who has worked closely with Gordon Campbell). All this information from Sean Holman, independent net writer. Both Alcan and Accenture would be judged by many British Columbians to be working actively against B.C. interests.
A further test of the state of justice in the country, and especially in B.C., will be provided when the three judges of the B.C. Appeals Court hand down their judgement on William Berardino's appeal to reject the decision made by Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett that Defence counsel must be present at the in camera testimony received from a police witness in the Basi, Virk, and Basi case. If the judges find for William Berardino, we may be sure they are forging a precedent that will continue the destruction of fair trials, open courts, and the rights of the accused in Canada.
for vivelecanada.ca
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Tuesday, June 10, 2008
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LAWYERS IN LEG RAID CASE TELL BE APPEAL COURT DEFENCE HAS RIGHT TO FACE INFORMANT
Canadian Press - June 10, 2008
VANCOUVER — Lawyers for three men charged with breach of trust following an unprecedented raid on the B.C. legislature have told the B.C. Court of Appeal that defence lawyers have a right to challenge the case involving an informant.
Jim Blazina told the appeal court panel that the right to challenge means defence lawyers have to be allowed into an in-camera hearing. {Snip} ...
The Crown is appealing a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that defence lawyers for the trio could be present at in-camera hearings where the informant's identity could be disclosed.
The special prosecutor in the case has argued that the informant privilege rule excludes defence lawyers from the court if there's any chance the informant's name could be revealed.
But Blazina said invoking informant privilege and thereby excluding defence lawyers is not the law.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hZV2cVBHuZ4Ea5GbmJXcnHQs_0XQ
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Special Prosecutor suggests case could be dropped if secret witness not allowed
By Bill Tieleman, 24 hours columnist
Read more: http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/
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BASI-VIRK TAKES A BIZARRE TURNBy BILL TIELEMAN
The strangest twist in the long-awaited B.C. legislature raid case has seen the Crown apply to have
three secret witnesses testify in the breach of trust, fraud and money laundering trial.
And special prosecutor Bill Berardino wants the application for one of the witnesses to be heard without even defence lawyers present - a highly unusual situation last seen in the Air India bombing trial when a police informant wanted on criminal charges in a foreign country wanted to avoid identification.
Berardino asked B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett to hold a secret hearing that would exclude defence lawyers, the media and the public in the trial of three former provincial government aides.
Lawyers for David Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi seemed stunned Friday when Berardino said he wanted even the defence absent from a hearing Dec. 3 to consider hearing testimony from a witness without identifying them.
There was no discussion on why the defence would be excluded and outside court Berardino and defence lawyers declined comment.
In court, Berardino referred Bennett to "paragraph 46" of an unidentified judgment that is likely
Named Person v. Vancouver Sun, where a criminal informer in the Air India bombing wanted to testify without being named ... The secret witness issue drew an immediate reaction from the defence.
McCullough told Bennett that the application to exclude defence lawyers from the in-camera hearing would be opposed.
"If he [Berardino] intends to go in-camera without defence counsel, you'll hear arguments from me," he said.
Then a very interesting interjection occurred.
Bolton said to Bennett: "We'll deal with defence counsels' right to be present."
McCullough then said: "I think we've figured it out...."
But Bennett cut him off: "No, just don't say anymore."
Will the public ever learn who wants to testify without being named? Or why?
Stay tuned for "I've Got A Secret" at B.C. Supreme Court starting Dec. 3.
http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/2007/11/basi-virk-trial-takes-strange-twist.html
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Special thanks to G West who remembered the original police informant as "a threat to national security" who was, in fact, the precedent-setting police informant in the Air India Case, wanted for a crime in another country so "needed" the secrecy ... hardly the kind of unshakable precedent Berardino is talking about ... or an example of using the Canada Evidence Act in its traditional role. This decision should be available online.
Special thanks to Bill Tieleman who knows that the BCRail case it isn't easy to follow in detail and who helps us follow the cast of characters, the document count, the schedule, and now the courts (BC Supreme, BC Court of Appeal, plus the hint of Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa).
Commentors have been outstanding too. Thanks, all. - BC Mary.
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CROWN EASES OFF IN BASI CASE TO SHIELD POLICE INFORMANT
Mark Hume
The Globe and Mail - June 10, 2008
VANCOUVER -- The special prosecutor in a high-profile political corruption case in British Columbia indicated yesterday that the Crown would abandon key evidence rather than risk giving up the identity of a secret police informant.
It is unclear whether the prosecution of Dave Basi, Bobby Virk and Aneal Basi could continue without the evidence, which is contained in several restricted documents drawn from the notebook of the lead RCMP investigator in a case that involved an unprecedented police raid on the B.C. Legislature in 2003.
"This Crown will not breach this [informant] privilege in this case ... we will not resile from this position," William Berardino, the special prosecutor, told three judges of the Appeal Court of British Columbia yesterday. {Snip} ...
Madam Justice Bennett ruled that although the public and media were banned from the hearing, defence lawyers could attend after giving an undertaking that they would never reveal the name of the informant to anyone.
The hearing - which hasn't gone ahead because of the appeal - was to determine whether documents held by the Crown should be fully disclosed to the defence, even if the identity of an informant might be revealed in the process.
However, Mr. Berardino argued the judge had committed a serious error by agreeing to a procedure that could identify the informant. He said under Canada's strict laws protecting informant privilege, only the police, the Crown and a judge have the right to know the identity of a police source.
Mr. Berardino said Judge Bennett did not have the authority to broaden that small circle. "The judge has made a finding here which, with respect, is pretty remarkable," he said. He described her ruling as being "completely incorrect," and said if it stands it would change the law "in a very dramatic way."
The prosecutor said he had offered to give Judge Bennett a three-minute synopsis which would have made it "crystal clear" to her why the defence should not attend the hearing, but she had rejected that in favour of a closed session, with defence present.
Mr. Berardino said that while the principles of an open court and the right of the defence to make full reply are important, those concerns are trumped by the court's responsibility to protect informants.
"There is no justification for breaching the informant-privilege rule," he said. "The negative consequences of disclosure ... are too great."
He said the Crown has so far disclosed 260,000 pages of information to the defence. But prosecutors drew the line when it came to several documents that were identified only by code numbers.
In response to a question from Mr. Justice Ian Donald, Mr. Berardino agreed those documents came from the notebooks of RCMP Inspector Kevin DeBruyckere, the lead investigator in the case.
In questioning Mr. Berardino, Judge Donald said defence lawyers can make a strong argument for being present at closed hearings, in order "to prevent the court from being bamboozled" by prosecutors, who might claim privileged-informant status for individuals who didn't warrant it.
However, Mr. Berardino objected to that characterization, saying "the Crown wouldn't bamboozle a judge" on such an important issue.
The appeal continues. It is expected that however the B.C. Court of Appeal rules, the issue will subsequently go to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The investigation of Dave Basi and Mr. Virk began in 2003, when police began to suspect the two men, then top ministerial assistants, were trading confidential government information related to the sale of BC Rail. The two are charged with breach of trust and accepting a benefit. The third man, Aneal Basi, is charged with money laundering.
The case has political overtones because at the time Dave Basi and Mr. Virk were key operatives in British Columbia for both the provincial and federal Liberals.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080610.BCBASI10/TPStory/National
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PROSECUTOR APPEALS RULING IN GOV'T AIDES CORRUPTION CASE
Keith Fraser
The Province - Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The case of three former B.C. government aides facing corruption charges went to the B.C. Court of Appeal yesterday for the first of three days of legal arguments.
At issue is a decision by the trial judge to allow defence lawyers to attend a hearing to determine whether informant privilege should apply to a person alleged to be a police informant.
Special prosecutor Bill Berardino is appealing the December ruling by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett. He said the judge erred by setting up a procedure that breaches the law.
He said only in cases where the innocence of the accused is at stake can the name of a police informant be revealed to third parties.
Berardino had offered to tell Bennett the informant's name in confidence but the judge declined. Instead, she said she had the discretion to release the information to the defence on an undertaking they would keep it confidential following an in-camera hearing. {Snip} ...
kfraser@png.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=aac0e4a1-7564-40b1-9adb-d13604350243
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Monday, June 09, 2008
.
Legislature-raid prosecution says high court must protect informants
Canadian Press - June 9, 2008
VANCOUVER — A B.C. court ruling that would reveal to defence counsel a police informant in the case that led to a police raid on the B.C. legislature violates the Evidence Act, says the special prosecutor at the high-profile trial.
Bill Berardino told a B.C. Appeal Court panel that he will not back away from protecting the police informant.
"The Crown will not breach this privilege," Berardino said as he thumped his finger on a podium in the courtroom.
The Crown is appealing a decision by the trial judge, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett, allowing defence lawyers for three former B.C. government workers to attend an in-camera hearing where the informant will give evidence.
"The trial judge was told the in-camera hearing would identify the informant," he said. "The judge took a fundamental legal rule and changed it in a dramatic way." {Snip} ...
Berardino argued Bennett's decision violated the informer privilege rule that protects a police informant from being identified.
He said if the ruling was allowed to stand it would have a "chilling effect" on all police informants.
"The negative consequences are too great," he told the appeal court.
Berardino said asking defence lawyers to sign an undertaking to ensure confidentiality isn't good enough.
He told the panel about classified documents in a separate case that defence lawyers received after signing a similar undertaking. A few week later those papers - stamped confidential - were being used as part of another lawsuit, he said.
The transcripts of an in-camera hearing involving the informer's information before Bennett last December have been sealed until a decision is made by the appeal court.
Berardino said the Crown was prepared to give defence lawyers a synopsis of what the judge heard, but it didn't want them at the hearing.
"The court has a duty to protect and enforce the informant privileged and not to disclose any information which might tend to identify a police informant."
When someone even raises the question of informant privilege, Berardino said the court has to tread cautiously.
"The judge has made a finding here which is, with respect, pretty remarkable," he said. "She questioned if the person was even an informant."
Appeal Court Justice Ian Donald wondered if defence lawyers in a criminal case didn't have a stronger claim to attend such in-camera hearings and give the judge another point of view.
"It's the opportunity to prevent the court from being bamboozled," he suggested.
Berardino responded that a second opinion would come from another lawyer appointed by the court.
He said the appeal court had two choices, to uphold the informer-privilege rule or "disembowel" the court protection of informants.
Three days have been set aside for the appeal hearing.
The start of the breach of trust trial has been delayed repeatedly, in part because of this appeal.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5i98tvz7k9_e9kqoXnmFbwXCcZ1PQ
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From BC Court of Appeal
.
here is a contributor's unsourced, unverified report:
MEDIA ARE ALLOWED TO REPORT ON THE APPEAL DESPITE BERARDINO TAKING NO POSITION.BERARDINO SAYS JUSTICE BENNETT IS WRONG.
MORE TO COME
Prosecutor in leg raid case wants defence barred from informant hearing
12:30 pm
VANCOUVER — The special prosecutor in the B.C. legislature raid case is fighting to protect the identity of a police informant.
Bill Berardino told an appeal court panel that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett made a mistake when she ruled earlier that defence lawyers could be present during in-camera hearings.
Berardino says the ruling breaks the Evidence Act and has a chilling effect on potential informants.
He told the panel that a court order for confidentiality from the defence lawyers is not enough.
The special prosecutor had wanted to call the police informant to a closed hearing with only the judge and Crown lawyers present.
Former ministerial aides Dave Basi and Bobby Virk are accused of breach of trust and fraud over the privatization of B.C. Rail in 2003, in the case that triggered an unprecedented police raid on the B.C. legislature.
# posted by : June 9, 2008 1:40 PM
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Further details to follow. Thank you to our diligent friend, Anonymous 1:40.
- BC Mary
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APPEALS SET FOR HEARING
WEEK OF June 9-13, 2008
PLEASE NOTE: THESE LISTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.
Division 1 – Finch CJBC, Ryan, Donald JJA
R. v. Basi, R. v. Virk, and R. v. Basi – CA35614, CA35615, CA35616
Criminal Law - Other
Counsel for the appellant (Crown): W.S. Berardino QC
Counsel for the respondent, U.S. Basi: Michael Bolton QC
Counsel for the respondent, B.S. Virk: Kevin C. McCullough
Counsel for the respondent, A. Basi: Joseph Doyle
The Crown appeals from the order of the Supreme Court judge which permits defence counsel to learn the identity of a person in respect of which the Crown has asserted a claim of informer privilege.
Day 1 of 3
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Click on http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/ca/ and Central Registry.
Then scroll down to Weekly Hearing List, and see June 9, 2008.
For general inquiries, phone (604) 660-2468.
This is all the information I have at the moment. For example, it doesn't say: Session closed to the public, does it. - BC Mary.
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.On this day - June 9, 2008 - as the special prosecutor in the case of HMTQ (i.e., the people of B.C.) versus Basi, Virk, Basi (the BCRail Case) goes to the B.C. Court of Appeal to plead for absolute secrecy - The Province newspaper editorial asks: WHY DO WE ALLOW OUR GOVERNMENT TO ACT LIKE A THIRD WORLD POLICE STATE?Ethan Baron, The Province: Monday, June 09, 2008 {Snip} ... We have evolved a culture of docility, and politicians, bureaucrats, justice officials and police take full advantage. We pay them, but when we want to see how they're working, they shut their doors in our faces. Just the other day, the board of TransLink, the regional transportation authority, debated options for the Pattullo Bridge, notorious killer of motorists. The public and the media were banned from the meeting. The board issued a news release after its decision. At all levels of government, officials throw up barriers to public oversight, so they can operate with a minimum of scrutiny and accountability. Canadians sit and take it. Police hide behind media spokespeople who give the press and the citizens as little information as possible. Judges impose publication bans, with prosecutors' consent, at the drop of a defence lawyer's hat. Bureaucrats witRating 2 old [sic ... it probably means "withhold" - BCM] information about their agencies' actions, abusing privacy legislation intended to protect, not obscure. In the United States, the people wouldn't stand for this. In Canada, Big Brother knows better. Want to read the shocking truth about two of the 20 more women Willie Pickton is accused of killing? Sorry, the judge says I can't tell you, even though the Crown has decided already those 20 victims' cases will be dropped if Pickton loses his appeal. Want to know which electric-car maker hoping to sell to Canadians failed spectacularly in its government crash test? Sorry, Transport Canada won't reveal that, because this "model corporate citizen" asked it not to. Want to know why the Crown released Peter Lee on bail a few weeks before he killed his wife, son, parents-in-law and himself in Oak Bay? Sorry, the provincial government is fighting to keep the prosecutors in question from testifying at an inquiry into the slaughter. Want to know which B.C. companies operate the most unsafe trucks? Sorry, my request to the transportation ministry for that information has been tied up for months by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. This absurd state of affairs continues, and worsens, not only because we the people accept it -- but because the government, too, is full of docile, obedient Canadians. Police, prosecutors, bureaucrats and government scientists receive orders not to speak without permission about the workings of our public institutions. With rare exceptions, they do what they're told, and keep their mouths shut. We live under an information-control regime that rivals that of a Third World police state. Do we get outraged? Do we demand change? Do we order our elected representatives and public servants to operate more transparently? No, we ... [Excuse me, but I profoundly disagree that it's the fault of the people -- that it's our failure and not the fault of a captive, corporate media -- that I ask the readers to provide their own concluding sentence to this editorial ... then, please click on the URL below to see The Province's conclusion.
- BC Mary. ]
ebaron@png.canwest.com http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/editorial/story.html?id=2d02d18b-7b1c-4d38-96ed-ccd82603683a
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British Columbia has dozens and dozens of Media Monitors and Public Affairs Officers on the public payroll to perform work over which we appear to have no control; and which, according to one of the Dave Basi - Gary Collins transcripts - may be distorting the media and, in fact, the democratic process. There were 185 new government employees hired in September 2006 under Order-in-Council #656 in addition to those already on staff and others hired later. So shouldn't The Province take this into consideration before blaming the public for accepting the status quo?
Which means, in the end, shouldn't The Province begin seeking out less biased information? And by informing the public, put a stop to what they are calling Third World police tactics? - BC Mary.
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This may be an appropriate corner to add something about Victoria's former Chief of Police. It comes from a thread on Bill Tieleman's blog. - BC Mary.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Some days it's tough being a British Columbian trying figure out what's normal anymore. I mean, Kinsella & Jiles (with a J) are no big surprise -- the surprise is that they've been so well hidden for so long, right under our noses.
Surprise is today's Globe and Mail's big fat exclusive interview describing the underworld of the ex-girlfriend of our Minister of Foreign Affairs', Julie Couillard ... imagine! Front page news in Toronto's Globe and Mail! Read all about how Ms Couillard scares the hell out of the biggest, baddest biker of them all ... Mom Bouchard!! Which side are we on, again??
Oh yes. And that's where we need to keep our eyes on the G.P.S., because we too are immersed in an underworld where organized crime may very likely have insinuated itself into our affairs in British Columbia. That's where the fascinated horror comes in: provincially, this could be us; federally, apparently this already is us.
We should re-visit that intriguing scene at Hy's restaurant in Ottawa, when Stockwell Day (Member of Parliament for OK-Coquihala) dined out in a cozy domesticated foursome with his adored wife ValOrie, with the still-Minister of Foreign Affairs (Mad Max Bernier), and with Julie Herself. Our OK member was probably at Hy's on special assignment. Yeah, that must be it. Naturally, brave ValOrie was there as cover. And in actual fact, it was Julie -- not Mad Max -- who was under the personal surveillance of our Minister of Public Safety. [Haha. Choke.]
That must be it: Stockwell was protecting us from Julie. That's why big (big-around-the-middle) Stephen said it was none of our business! Of course! And it's all turning out just the way Stockwell's big ideas always do turn out.
Naturally, the OK-Coq Minister for Public Safety was wired; also brave ValOrie. So naturally we'll be hearing all about it as soon as Stockwell turns the tapes over to the media. So will Stockwell maintain his cover until after the Public Inquiry is over and done with? I do not know. But I guess: yes. No surprises there.
The Globe and Mail says about Lady Julie, today:
'If I didn't marry you, you'd be dead'
'I had the balls to defend her - look where I am now,' former biker Stéphane Sirois says of his ex-wife Julie Couillard. From the witness protection program, he says the Hells Angels suspected she had ties to police. This led him to eventually become a police informant.
JULIAN SHER
[Sher, with William Marsden, wrote the book, The Road to Hell, How the Biker Gangs are Conquering Canada. - BC Mary]
Globe and Mail - June 6, 2008
The Hells Angels biker associate who was married to Julie Couillard for nearly two years has emerged from a decade in hiding in the witness protection program to give a rare insider's portrait of the woman to whom he was married - and the dangerous criminal biker world of betrayal and suspicion she frequented.
In an exclusive interview, Stéphane Sirois gave his take on Ms. Couillard's life, and the details will only add to the questions now before Parliament about how she was able to become a partner of the now-disgraced former foreign affairs minister, Maxime Bernier.
Further, The Globe and Mail has learned that Ms. Couillard was known to the RCMP a full decade before she appeared in public with Mr. Bernier because they ordered a surveillance operation on her home in 1998 as part of a drug investigation, court papers show. This is the first evidence showing that Ms. Couillard was known to the RCMP, the force responsible for protecting cabinet ministers.
Opposition parties have been informed that officials from the RCMP will be the first witnesses to appear Tuesday when the public safety committee of the House launches its inquiry into Mr. Bernier's misplaced classified documents at Ms. Couillard's home.
Court documents also show that by 2004, Ms. Couillard wanted to be involved in politics. In a February, 2004, application to have her driver's licence reinstated, she said she was the president of a numbered company where she got to do promotional work "and see to the organization of special events such as volunteering for federal elections."
Last night, Radio-Canada reported that Ms. Couillard was seen in 2006 dining with Normand Descôteaux, a loan shark who was an associate of the criminal figures she knew in the 1990s.Jean-Claude Hébert, a prominent defence lawyer representing Ms. Couillard, declined comment to The Globe and Mail yesterday, saying he would wait to read what Mr. Sirois had to say.
Mr. Sirois, a police informant who lives in an unknown location under the auspices of the witness protection program, gave pointed, if tardy, advice to Mr. Bernier during a four-hour interview with The Globe and Mail at a prearranged neutral venue.
"Stay away from her."
Ms. Couillard has been at the centre of the sex and security scandal that has swirled around Ottawa - a scandal that forced Mr. Bernier to resign last month and will be the focus of parliamentary hearings next week.
"I came here to set the record straight," Mr. Sirois said. "I ain't no saint - but neither was she ... She's attracted to people with money and power."
It is the first time Mr. Sirois has spoken since he testified in 2003 that Hell Angels leader Maurice (Mom) Boucher had considered having Ms. Couillard murdered because he suspected she had close ties to police.
Mr. Sirois is also the first of those close to Ms. Couillard to speak out - and few people were as intimate with her as he was. Of the five men she has been recently revealed to be associated with - a convicted Mafia gangster, a loan shark, a biker, a security consultant who trafficked in stolen goods and finally a former Tory cabinet minister - Mr. Sirois is the only one she married.
Now working as a self-described "successful businessman," Mr. Sirois - praised by police as one of their best undercover agents and trial witnesses - spoke in fluent English, occasionally slipping into Québécois joual to describe his crime years. Throughout the four-hour interview, he wore dark sunglasses and a baseball cap to hide his face and agreed to be photographed only in silhouette. The bikers have killed several informants in the past.
Details of his life with Ms. Couillard are difficult to verify, because she has so far given only two carefully scripted interviews to the Quebec media and has declined all further inquiries. But much of what Mr. Sirois says can be corroborated by court testimony, police wiretaps and his police handlers.
DIFFERENT KIND OF WOMAN
However, this is Mr. Sirois's version of events. To this day, Mr. Sirois says he remembers the first time he set eyes on a young Julie Couillard when she strolled into a bar in Montreal's north end on a Tuesday night, in the middle of 1997 ...
Full story, about 6 pages, at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080606.wsirois06/BNStory/National/home
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Thursday, June 05, 2008
.
"The inner circle" is an understood reference to political players in the governing style of Premier Gordon Campbell. Michael Smyth provides an inside look at that powerful group. See also Bill Tieleman and Sean Holman in 24 HOURS. - BC Mary.
SENIOR LIBERAL AIDES IN NEW CONTROVERSY
Michael Smyth,
The Province: Thursday, June 05, 2008
Another day, another lobbying controversy to rock Premier Gordon Campbell and his government.
Last time, it was Campbell's right-hand-man, Ken Dobell, getting rung up on a guilty plea for secretly lobbying Campbell on behalf of the city of Vancouver. (Dobell is the only lobbyist I know who actually had a desk in the premier's office!) {Snip} ...
Patrick Kinsella was the co-chair of the B.C. Liberal election campaign in 2001 and 2005. Mark Jiles was Campbell's personal campaign manager in Vancouver-Point Grey in 2005.
Now the two men are in business together at the Progressive Group, a powerful government-relations company in Vancouver. And according to documents newly released by our neighbours in Washington state, they're doing very well for themselves.
Kinsella and Jiles have been paid by the state government to help the Americans cash in on our Olympic Games by boosting cross-border tourism and business deals. They had to supply the state with a detailed resume, obtained by hard-digging Internet blogger Sean Holman under Washington's freedom-of-information law.
It turns out the duo's long list of clients include companies that have cleaned up with huge government deals and contracts in British Columbia: Accenture (which landed a $1.45-billion privatization contract with B.C. Hydro), Alcan (which won B.C. approval for an expanded smelter and power deal), the B.C. Motion Picture Production Industry Association (which scooped $65 million in government tax breaks) and many others.
The resume unashamedly brags about Kinsella's and Jiles' ties to B.C. politicians and their parties.
The resume says the pair have "strong relationships" with B.C. cabinet ministers Colin Hansen, Kevin Falcon and Olga Illich and with federal cabinet minister David Emerson.
The resume details a glowing list of accomplishments over the past six years. It notes, for example, the motion picture association hired the Progressive Group "to convince the provincial government to extend foreign tax credits" to the organization. Companies such as Alcan and Accenture hired them to "promote and educate" the B.C. government on behalf of their clients. [Remembered: David McLean. Use the SEARCH box at top left of this page; type in the name of David McLean, CN boss at the time of the BC Rail deal, to read more about him. -BC Mary]
Just one problem with all of this: Just like Dobell, Kinsella and Jiles did not publicly register as lobbyists working in B.C.
Under the law, lobbyists must register and publicly disclose their activities. Failure to do so can bring a fine of $25,000.
Kinsella has never registered as a lobbyist. Jiles registered on behalf of several clients beginning in December but did not register for any of the clients listed on the resume.
Kinsella and Jiles did not return my phone calls yesterday. But NDP Leader Carole James said she will launch formal complaints about their activities with both the provincial and federal lobbyist registrars.
"You'd think the premier would have learned by now," she said. {Snip} ...
They clearly get the concept of power, however: It's an insiders' game.
msmyth@direct.ca
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=4b44e6e1-dbef-4e04-9d83-7c9d2e626313
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Then
Express Collision Shop left a comment:
SCRAP YOUR BEATER AND GO GREEN. WHO'S GETTING ALL THE GREEN ?
From the "Friends of Friends of Friends File"
Mary you can't make this stuff up. After reading Smyth's article this morning(Wow) I could not believe my eyes. The Province has an article about the new
Scrap it program.
"It's going to provide rewards on the basis of greenhouse-gas reduction," said Scrap-It director
Glen Ringdal, CEO of the
New Car Dealers Association of BC.
Wow!!! Now there is some good stuff here and it is early however in the last 40 minutes I have recieved three phone calls from dealers not on the program and they are pissed. Yes the Scrap-It director is Glen Ringdal. Guess who Glen hired to "educate" the liberals on going green "New Car Dealer Style" ? None other than the "Sports Marketer" of the year
Mark Jiles. Mark started working on this enviromental issue with the dealers Jan. 1, 2008. You don't have enough memory or space to see who Mark has met in government since then, a total of 38 plus liberals. Go to BC gov then search Lobbyist registry- new car dealers.
Now cars and pollution, there's something I know a little about. I and a few armchair quarterbacks are going to do some environmental and steer the work to me research. Do you all remember from the leaked
Paul Taylor/Brian Kieran emails and something about a "Used Car Registry" and the New Car Dealers wanting to administer this program ?
It looks like the Scrap-It program has an address very close to the Richmond Auto Mall, how about that ?
From the Scrap-It website,
Q: How do the vehicle incentives work ?
A: Call us today to find out what incentive you qualify for. You will be provided with a list of participating dealers once your application has been approved. Wow! Provided with a list, scary.
Mary, these "Sports Marketers" sure do educate this government, a lot, all the way to the bank. Much more later on our green team.
# posted by : June 5, 2008 10:02 AM
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From The Province:
PROVINCE OFFERS $2,000 FOR YOUR PRE-1996 BEATERJohn Bermingham,
The Province - June 05, 2008
The B.C. government is to spend $15 million over the next three years to take at least 15,000 older vehicles off the road under the Scrap-It program.
More than 6,300 vehicles have been scrapped to reduce air pollution by the Scrap-It program since it started in the Lower Mainland a decade ago. Now it will be expanded around B.C.
"It's going to provide rewards on the basis of greenhouse-gas reduction," said Scrap-It director Glen Ringdal, CEO of the New Car Dealers Association of B.C.
The program offers incentives to people who scrap their vehicles, 1995 and older. In B.C., about a million vehicles fit the criteria.
Those trading in their clunkers can get up to $2,000 to buy another car, transit passes, or even bicycles.
More than 1,800 people have already used their incentives to buy new cars, 600 bought used cars, 2,700 opted for transit passes and 480 got bicycles.
Another 140 went for West Coast Express passes, or joined a car co-op.
Ringdal said taking 5,000 old cars off the road will save the equivalent in air pollution of 165,000 new cars.
Marc Blouin of the B.C. Automotive Recyclers said each car is stripped down, and most parts and fluids are recycled.
Also yesterday, the federal government announced a $92-million vehicle scrappage program for 1995 models or older. Under the expanded Car Heaven program, which starts next January, incentives include transit passes, bicycles and rebates on a new car. {Snip} ...
[Amazing comments tacked onto the Province story, too! - BC Mary.]
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=d60ee704-3a34-44fb-b636-22320462f12e
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Tuesday, June 03, 2008
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Premier Campbell's administrative style was probably at its zenith with his decision to privatize BCRail. There's no doubt in my mind that Gordon Campbell, who apprenticed in the workshops of Marathon Realty (a CP subsidiary), felt he would know best why and how to conduct the details of such a transaction.
Adding to his self-confidence at the time was his unique position as leader of a 77-seat majority government facing a 2-woman Opposition.
Therefore, it's possible and probable that Premier Campbell has left paper trails which are now taking form as Disclosure applications -- the very Disclosure applications which are delaying the Basi Virk / BC Rail trial.
For that reason, Vaughn Palmer today is especially revealing, in his Vancouver Sun column at: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=5cf9db3f-55e8-410a-9270-11e92252dcde
THE INTERFERENCE FACTOR GIVES OPPAL SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT STAYING
Vaughn Palmer
Vancouver Sun - Tuesday, June 03, 2008
VICTORIA - Attorney-General Wally Oppal is still hesitating over a second term in the Gordon Campbell government ... {Snip} ...
Halfway into his first term in the B.C. Liberal government, Oppal said he was definitely running again. He repeated those assurances, even after surgery for prostate cancer last year.
But after his friend and political "soulmate" Carole Taylor announced late last year she was bailing out, Oppal allowed as how he was having second thoughts.
Those reservations multiplied after he began to run into the problem that contributed to Taylor's premature retirement, namely interference from the premier's office.
In her case, it was spending decisions taken and announced without consultation with her or the ministry. In his case, it was having to carry the can publicly for legislation not of his making.
The most notorious instance unfolded last month as Oppal was sent out to justify the government's ill-conceived decision to impose a sweeping ban on political advertising by unions, business and other third-party interests.
He tried to rescue the "gag law," scaling back the third-party restrictions to 60 days before an election campaign, from the original 120 days.
In doing so, he didn't deny what was already an open secret, that the 120-day limit had not been his idea in the first place.
Nor was there any disguising Oppal's dismay as the gag law was ramrodded through the house without debate via the parliamentary bludgeon known as closure.
The A-G was on record as promising "a full opportunity for debate on the bill." He also denied it would be subject to closure. "Nobody's called closure," he insisted. "I haven't signalled anything of the sort."
At the same time, Oppal clearly likes some aspects of the job, particularly the public side of it.
He revels in media scrums, ending a recent one by telling reporters "see you again soon . . . you know I am at your disposal."
He's keen on the policy side, as well. For instance, he made Monday's comment about his future after a telephone interview on the appointment of a special prosecutor -- the third -- in the running controversy over the polygamous commune at Bountiful.
Oppal is determined to pursue the case, breaking with a string of his predecessors who concluded a prosecution was probably futile.
But whether those considerations are enough to keep the former appeal court judge at his new job in his 66th year probably depends on what he hears in that sit-down session with the premier.
He has some leverage, because replacing him would be tough. Cabinet has other lawyers -- Tom Christensen, Barry Penner, Mike de Jong, Bill Bennett, Sindi Hawkins -- though none to rival Oppal in terms of stature.
As Oppal's friend Taylor could tell him, any assurances from the premier will only go so far.
She had a face-to-face session with Campbell last summer and came away still inclined to leave after one term.
As it happened Monday afternoon, Taylor was cleaning out her office in the provincial capital in anticipation of the coming cabinet shuffle.
I and my colleague Les Leyne of the Victoria Times Colonist stopped by as her husband, Art Phillips, was loading the car with a large folk art statue of a Mountie that has adorned the ministerial office for the past three years.
No jokes, please, about the last time a cop was involved in carting things out of the finance minister's office, i.e., the raid on the legislature.
"Beating it out of town early?" I asked Philips. "Well ... yes," he replied.
Taylor explained she has no knowledge of the exact timing of the cabinet shuffle. But she assumes it will be later this month.
She and Phillips have already scheduled family time with their daughter for the second half of June. By the time she returns, she's expecting a new minister of finance will be redecorating the office.
She'll spend her last months before the election as an ordinary MLA, though ordinary doesn't really capture her time in public life or the scale of the loss to the government.
It's still an open question whether her friend Oppal will be joining her on the backbench.
vpalmer@direct.ca
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Interesting.
"I know no more than you know ..." Premier Campbell assured the B.C. public when police raided offices in his Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Transportation.
But someone else said, "Rail spelled backwards is Liar."
- BC Mary.
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Corruption case may begin later this summer
Neal Hall
Vancouver Sun - Tuesday, June 03, 2008
The trial judge in the BC Rail corruption case heard Monday that the defence wants to call Premier Gordon Campbell as a witness, along with other key staff such as the premier's former deputy minister and cabinet secretary Ken Dobell.
The New Democrats have repeatedly asked questions in the legislature about Dobell's role in assessing privilege concerning cabinet documents related to the privatization of BC Rail. At the time, he had not signed an undertaking that was required by a protocol established by Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm after the documents were seized by police in a raid on the legislature.
The application concerning this issue is set to be heard starting July 14, the court decided Monday.
The court was also told that on June 10 the defence plans to file an application setting out its argument challenging claims of cabinet privilege over a number of documents.
The trial judge, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett, has decided that on June 30 the trial will finally get rolling and will sit continuously to sort out the remaining pre-trial issues.
The trial, which may begin hearing witnesses later this summer, was originally scheduled to start in 2005, but has been been repeatedly delayed by problems of disclosure to the defence. {Snip} ...
"On one of the applications, there are 2,200 documents [about which] the Crown is asserting some form of privilege, which is an absolutely astounding number," [Leonard Krog, Opposition justice critic] said.
Boxes of documents were seized during a raid on the legislature on Dec. 28, 2003, by the RCMP and Victoria police.
Basi and Virk are accused of fraud, accepting a benefit and breach of trust for allegedly leaking confidential information about the BC Rail bidding process.
The defence still is awaiting the outcome of an appeal of the trial judge's decision involving a secret witness. The appeal is set for three days next week, starting June 9.
nhall@png.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=5d237f3a-b626-42cd-806f-769501e2ea59
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Lawyers turn to Charter
Defence claims trio's rights violated
Keith Fraser
The Province - Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Lawyers for the three men accused in the December 2003 police raid on the legislature say their clients' rights have been violated by the B.C. government's handling of documents associated with the case.
Kevin McCullough, who represents Bobby Virk, yesterday told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett for the first time that he plans to file a Charter-of-Rights challenge.
The defence lawyers are alleging, among other things, that Ken Dobell, a key aide to Premier Gordon Campbell, improperly gained access to confidential documents relating to the case, violating a protocol set up by the court. They will seek to call a number of government witnesses. {Snip} ...
kfraser@png.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=c425f735-899f-4bc8-aa02-99909b313e7f
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Monday, June 02, 2008
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Basi-Virk: 2,200 more privileged documents, more delays
The long and winding road that is the BC Legislature Raid case turned another corner this morning, a corner that sees 2,200 more documents where privilege is being claimed and more delays coming before getting to the actual trial.
Defence lawyers for David Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi - the three former provincial government aides facing corruptions charges related to the $1 billion privatization of BC Rail - joined with Special Prosecutor Bill Berardino in asking BC Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett to accept further delays in dealing with the 4-year old case.
There will also be a Charter of Rights application coming from the defence this month on the issue of calling witnesses such as BC Premier Gordon Campbell and Deputy Attorney-General Allan Seckel to testify about their roles in the disclosure of evidence in the case. The defence has previously alleged political interference in the case by the premier. {Snip} ...
Read the full story at: http://billtieleman.blogspot.com
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Special thanks to Bill Tieleman for the court dates which I have posted in the banner at the top of the page. None of us will be allowed to observe the Court of Appeal sessions (3 days beginning June 9) because they will be closed, even to the media. So our next opportunity to see and hear what's going on with the BCRail Case is a brief update on June 20 at 9:00 AM. Full-scale pre-trial hearings resume on June 30 for 3 days, stop and start again on July 14 and run until August 15 (a whole month!), stop for holidays (3 weeks) and resume September 8. Thanks again, Bill. - BC Mary.
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Those who are watching the "Deal-Breaker" clauses CN signed when taking over BCRail, might wish to add this June 5/08 Reuters news item to their file:
CANADA WARNS FAULTY RAIL WHEELS STILL IN USEThu Jun 5, 2008
By Allan Dowd
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 5 (Reuters) - Canadian safety inspectors warned North America's railroads on Thursday to find up to 12,000 freight car wheel sets that remain in use, despite having been recalled years ago for safety problems.
The wheel sets, made by Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) between 1998 and 2001, have been blamed for at least 15 derailments in Canada and an unknown number of accidents in the United States, according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
Twelve of the Canadian derailments occurred after Canadian National discovered the problem, and the Association of American Railroads alerted other carriers that the defective wheel sets should be taken out of service.
Thursday's TSB warning stems from an investigation into a 2006 derailment of a Canadian Pacific Railway (CP.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) freight train in Buckskin, Ontario, that was caused by a broken CN-built wheel set on a CP freight car.
That wheel set was among some 43,800 produced by CN's Transcona shops between April 1998 and February 2001 using a process that made them susceptible becoming loose on curving track and derailing, the TSB said.
CN noticed a problem with loose wheels in 2000, but did not figure out the cause until 2001 and, along with AAR, warned carriers to remove the faulty wheel sets -- something that was supposed to have been completed by July 2006.
The TSB warned that "shortfalls" in the recall process meant some 25 percent of the faulty wheels sets are still rolling down North America's tracks. {Snip} ...
It also chastised the industry for requiring data on critical components like wheels to be kept only five years, saying flaws can take longer than that to develop and computers made that archive standard, laid out by the AAR's guidelines, outdated.
A spokesman for the AAR said he could not comment on the TSB's report because he was not familiar with the case.
The group, whose members include all of North America's largest railroads, has authority to set safety standards for freight cars as they are transferred between different carriers.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN05477131
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BC RAIL CORRUPTION CASE TO START AT MONTH'S END
Neal Hall,
Vancouver Sun - Published: Monday, June 02, 2008
VANCOUVER - It looks like the BC Rail corruption trial will finally get rolling at the end of the month.
The case, involving three former government aides accused of corruption in relation to the sale of BC Rail in 2003, was in court briefly today before the trial judge, Justice Elizabeth Bennett of the B.C. Supreme Court.
The judge set June 30 as the date when lawyers for the Crown and the accused will finally get down to sorting out all the trial issues still outstanding.
The trial is expected to sit continuously after June 30 and is expected to begin hearing witnesses this summer.
"It is pretty shocking that Mr. Basi and Virk have had four and a half years without even starting a day of trial," said New Democratic Party attorney-general critic Leonard Krog, who attended today's pre-trial hearing.
"On one of the applications, there are 2,200 documents that the Crown is asserting some form of privilege, which is an absolutely astounding number," he said. {Snip} ...
A key issue at the pending trial will be the government's $1-billion privatization sale of BC Rail freight operations to Canadian National Railway.
The trial, originally scheduled to start in 2005, has appeared it might derail at times. It has been been repeatedly delayed by problems of disclosure to the defence.
The defence is also awaiting the outcome of an appeal of the trial judge's decision involving a secret witness. The appeal is set for three days next week, starting June 9.
nhall@png.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=cedbbcd7-f68d-4575-ba7c-ab225c98cf55
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Confirmed: Basi Virk in Supreme Court today, June 2, start-time 10:00 AM
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Case #23299 - HMTQ vs Aneal Basi, Dave Basi, Bobby Virk -- BC Supreme Court, 800 Smithe Street, 10:00 AM.
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Dang!!!
Anonymous has left a new comment ...
I arrived to the courthouse at 10 am. I looked at the court listings posted there only to discover much to my horror that the Basi, Basi, Virk trial was listed as starting at 9 am in courtroom 73. At 10 am another trial was listed as starting. This is not the first time that the time has been changed after it was listed on this website. What are they trying to hide?""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Overwhelmed with information.
BC Mary asks the question "Does it really take 8 months to look into "a personnel issue"?
My daily "rounds" start off with BC Mary, then Bill Tieleman and then I drift back to my roots, North Van (where they wear horse blinders to only focus on north vancouver issues... the rest of bc doesn't exist). Then I go down the list of BC Mary's links. For example, Pacific Gazetteer had "RailGate Revisited - Hansard's Revenge, The Prequel" which led me to Andrew Thomas Cowan and his status as an "Informant"...... he along with Harriman, Chouinard, Reece, Clarke, Hartwig, Gresham, Callens were all involved in Everywhichway which started off the BC Rail breach of trust charges involving Basi\Virk.
I've got to tell you, I'm a relatively newcomer to this blog topic, and all the other blogs which are joined at the hip on the same subject matter.
BC Mary has this great huge long list of archived Posts and I just don't have the time to look through a data base that goes back almost five years. Thanks to BC Mary I may search for keywords, but what are those keywords.
The names listed above were the RCMP officers that stormed our legislative buildings, along with the Victoria's Battershill police forces. How do all these "items" tie together? How does a Ken Dobell, as Cabinet Secretary, as a Deputy Premier, think he has a free rein to determine which documents are for the Courts to see or should be hidden by Cabinet privilege from public view, and why should he appear ???? to have passed along to the premier, and his fellow cabinet ministers, which documents that the Special Prosecutor and the RCMP are interested in, specifically?
We live in the Worl Wide Web; we communicate via the www; and yet there is no one place on the internet that takes all of the archived data, all of the comments written by blogger Bill Tieleman et al; that gives a clear indication of why the BC Liberals didn't stick with their election promise of not selling BC Rail. If they had, we wouldn't be spending hours of time writing about Wally Opall repeatedly saying "No Comment".
In regards to David Basi being charged, RCMP Cst. Cowan's statement as an Informant is very concise, very enlightening, even with parts of it heavily censored with black ink. There are several other statements made by the same officers on others who are involved in the BC Rail breach of trust which is before the courts. He's even included Frank ...oops... Erik Bornman(n) and Brian Kieran of Pilothouse where they paid out $30,000 (twice???) indirectly to two of those named in the corruption charges.
To answer BC Mary's question if it really takes 8 months, well, "Yes, it does". As of April 30th of this year, the RCMP were into a 9 month background check on their boss, former Solicitor-General John Les, and the meter is still running almost two months later without even a whisper of a result being announced.
The "$64,000 question" is not so much as who reimbursed the singular VISA account for the plane tickets so that the Basi/Virk husband and wife teams could fly down to Denver to sit beside track Executives who were busy lobbying their favours via Bornman(n) and Kieran.....What I would like to know is what was the score at the football game and were they betting on a rigged sport.
June 24, 2008 7:35 AM
North Van's Grumps,
Every blogger should be so lucky as to have Commentors like you! Thank you immensely, especially for your encouraging words.
If you don't mind, I'm going to re-post your comment on the main page.
BC Mary gently requests, however, that you re-visit one segment of your comment, namely, the part about Paul Battershill. I must repeat: I have never met Battershill, he is not my cousin or my brother-in-law. But the fact is that his career stands up outstandingly well to scrutiny; he can't imo be compared right across the board to lobbyists or political hires, as you are suggesting here.
And so my question: does it really take 8 months to check out a genuine PERSONNEL issue? A personnel issue being quite unlike a POLITICAL, or a potentially CRIMINAL issue.
I really don't think it takes 8 months. I think we're watching the Berardino Plan repeated: delay, delay.
I think 30 days max. would've revealed "the personnel issue", if any. I've started to believe that the other 7 months is intended to allow for the build-up of this un-subtle brown cloud of innuendo. Is it a fair guess?
Because, if I'm correct, we're guilty of sitting with folded hands watching an excellent police officer being hounded, wounded, and knocked out of contention. How Mugabe is that.
Promise me, NVG, you won't be annoyed by my question -- as your contribution is so wonderfully welcome.
Because: if I am correct, Paul Battershill is exactly the calibre of police officer we so desperately need.
Plus, we need him on the witness stand at the trial of Basi, Virk, Basi because he was Chief of Police when the Victoria Police Department conducted their 20-month investigation leading up to the raids on the B.C. Legislature. OK?
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