The Legislature Raids

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One of the last publicly-owned assets in British Columbia -- the Insurance Corporation of B.C. -- was the most vulnerable to privatization by the new 79-member, fiercely anti-New Democrat government elected in 2001. Why didn't that happen? Why wasn't ICBC instantly privatized when the Campbell Gang took over?

It was no secret that private insurance hated ICBC. No secret that the new Premier danced to the tune of private corporate interests. Knowing this caused many people to wonder how ICBC -- the jewel of a hated former government's legislation -- had escaped such powerful hostility. How had ICBC alone survived all Campbell threats of privatization, while other public assets like BCRail, BC Ferries, BC Gas, BC Hydro (and more) had toppled so quickly?

Could it have been the very fact that ICBC was vulnerable with its province-wide car/truck world? Could it have been that unscrupulous people understood that scams could be inserted into ICBC's evaluations, its repair shops, its auctions, its record-keeping and accounting? And that ICBC might be made to provide its own cover-story? Is that why the Campbell government allowed its continued existence under government control?

The basic questions need to be asked -- why was ICBC allowed to survive when BC Hydro, etc., were not? By what criteria were some public assets gotten rid of, while another is kept?

Because, as we read Vaughn Palmer's columns, we can detect some disturbingly familiar patterns. - BC Mary.

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ICBC scandal remains concealed by Liberals' all-purpose stonewall

Vaughn Palmer
Vancouver Sun -- Wednesday, July 30, 2008


VICTORIA - Dropped by the cabinet meeting Tuesday, seeking answers about the Insurance Corp. of B.C.

Ran smack dab into a stonewall erected by cabinet-minister-for-ICBC John van Dongen.

Was any compensation paid to anyone who left the employ of ICBC as a result of the scandal at the research centre?

"I can't comment on personnel matters," replied van Dongen. "There's a body of law around that."

Can't comment for legal reasons. That has become the all-purposes refuge for B.C. Liberals in this, their seventh year in office.

But why can't the minister provide a global figure for compensation?

"ICBC did whatever they felt they needed to do under the circumstances."

Does he approve of a government corporation paying compensation in a scandal like this one?

"I believe that they did whatever they could do and needed to do under the circumstances."

Cannot he as minister give a full accounting to the public of what happened here?

"I don't believe I can do that," he replied. "If I could, legally, I would like to do that. But I don't believe that I can disclose any more than ICBC can in terms of personnel issues."

The minister would like to tell all. He really would. But it is a personnel matter and his hands -- and tongue -- are tied by all the legal advice he's been getting.

I was marvelling at the convenience of this line of defence to a government determined to avoid further embarrassment for a scandal on its watch, when a colleague raised a follow-up question.

{Snip} ...

Should the public be satisfied by a response that discloses next to nothing?

"Personnel matters are covered by freedom of information and privacy issues," the minister explained.

"There is also litigation going on on this issue -- that has been publicly filed -- and I can't make any further comments on it."

So should the public be satisfied with the accounting they've been given?

"PricewaterhouseCoopers reviewed all of the actions of ICBC. They made a full accounting to the public. I think maybe we'd like to disclose more but we're doing -- we're disclosing whatever we legally can."

He thinks "maybe" the Liberals would like to disclose more. I think maybe that is the last thing they would like to do. You decide.

Strikes me, too, that this, the biggest scandal in ICBC's 35-year history, has done more damage to the image of the government-owned auto insurance corporation than any attack mounted by critics in the private sector.

Was anyone punished for it? I asked van Dongen. Did anyone pay any price at all?

"I can't comment on that. As ICBC has said, anyone who was in the line of authority -- that had responsibility for the [research] facility -- is no longer with the organization."

That's been the line, all right. Those responsible are no longer with the organization. But not a word about whether they were paid to go away.

One more try: We had a ferry sinking two years ago. We know the names of the people who were on the bridge, know, too, that they were fired.

Why does ICBC get special treatment, when, in a ferry accident that claimed two lives, we know the names of the people who were held accountable. Why the secrecy for ICBC?

"I don't know that we know everything about the ferries," he ventured.

Well, at least we know the names of the people on the bridge that fateful night.

"I'm relying on the legal advice that I've been given, that ICBC has been given," he said, resuming shelter behind that all-bases-covered legal opinion.

"As I said, there are matters in front of the courts right now involving employees in the line of authority of the [research] facility -- that are in litigation . . . . There is a police investigation going on as well."

Van Dongen made several references to litigation.

Presumably he was thinking of the lawsuit, brought by a former ICBC vice-president, who claims he was made a "scapegoat" for this scandal.

The departed executive is seeking $100,000 in bonus pay and damages atop an admitted severance payout of $300,000, which does tend to confirm that at least some compensation was paid out in this affair.

Was the minister thinking of that case when he referred to litigation?

"No comment," he replied, bringing the scrum to an end and heading off to join his colleagues around the cabinet table.

Van Dongen referred to "matters" before the courts and litigation involving "employees." Were there other lawsuits, as yet unpublicized, involving disgruntled ex-ICBC employees?

No, it turns out. In using the plural, the minister misspoke himself.

His staff says he is not aware of any other litigation arising out of his affair.

Mind, even if he were aware, he wouldn't be able to comment, because . . . well, you know the rest.

vpalmer@direct.ca

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=7a60a124-71ee-4b23-92e6-dbfd43ddd336

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I'd like to thank Vaughn Palmer and The Vancouver Sun for these ICBC stories. We may argue that it's too little, too late. We may say that a partisan media has contributed to the problem. But now is now, and the old saying is: "Better late than never." It would be unthinkable, really, that Palmer and the Mainstream Media would never catch on ... and would never raise these questions. Heaven forbid. So, thank you, Vaughn, and Kirk. Just keep the stories coming, OK? - BC Mary.

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BCRAIL COURT CHARADE LEAVES ONLY THE PUBLIC IN THE DARK

Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun - Monday, July 28, 2008


Victoria lawyer Kevin McCullough looked as if he wasn't sure whether to fulminate or tap-dance as another make-work hearing over the unprecedented and infamous 2003 raid on the B.C. legislature wound down.

"I'm not being critical," the senior defence lawyer tentatively said as he moved to the lectern.

He didn't get any further.

"That's my ruling," B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett shot from the bench, "and I'm not changing it! This is the only way this can be analysed under the case law."

She had decided key provincial cabinet documents protected by a cloak of privilege could be shared with the defence without her having to rule on whether the curtain of secrecy will be ultimately lifted on them.

{Snip} ...

Justice Bennett maintained she understood the public's concern and need to know what happened in this case, but well, you see, there were processes.

Fair enough; she should also understand why everyone's patience is threadbare.

Justice Bennett looked as if she were treading water Friday, like someone awaiting a legal life-preserver -- perhaps a Supreme Court of Canada decision against the Crown that will result in a stay of proceedings or the expiration of the looming deadline of the right of an accused to fair and speedy justice.

The raid on the legislature is fading into memory -- five years this December -- and the trial remains a will-o'-the-wisp. Who even remembers the billion-dollar BC Rail privatization auction that triggered it? The concern about ties to former prime minister Paul Martin's federal Liberal campaign machine? Paul Martin?

Justice Bennett accomplished little with her ruling on roughly 90 jealously protected e-mails and correspondence seized by police from government offices and computers.

Former Liberal insiders and government aides Dave Basi and Bobby Virk, accused of corruption in connection with the sale of BC Rail assets in 2003, now are receiving copies of those documents. After interminable squabbling, the government agreed to allow the defence to have copies of the documents on the condition cabinet's claim of lawyer-client privilege remain in place.

Justice Bennett agreed with that idea.

The cabinet and BC Rail, she said, don't want their cooperation to "come back and haunt them" so it was important to keep the documents beyond public purview and access-to-information requests. The defence can't do anything with the material, Justice Bennett added, unless the government and BC Rail waive their privilege or the accused persuade her a document is crucial to determining guilt or innocence.

"At this juncture at least, you have the documents," she told the lawyers. "At least you are in a better position to ascertain their usefulness. I've read the documents and I can anticipate to some degree what's going to be used in open court."

McCullough, who is Virk's lawyer, and Michael Bolton, Basi's lawyer, both nodded. They, too, are familiar with the material: Their clients authored most of it, which is part of the irony of this ongoing charade. Two documents alone are likely relevant, they have told the court, and another may be critical.

The only people in the dark here are the public.

Virk, who was an aide to then-transportation minister Judith Reid, and Basi, Collins's right-hand man, know what happened; the Liberals know what happened; the cops and the special prosecutor, presumably, know what happened.

But the rest of us are being treated like mushrooms.

With special prosecutor Bill Berardino off to the Supreme Court of Canada to protect his star witness, which will certainly continue to delay and possibly derail the trial, who knows when we will see the light? Even before then, the defence may successfully halt the process because of the length of time it is taking.

Years ago these accusations of political corruption were the talk of the town and fuelled fears that organized crime had infiltrated the highest echelons of provincial power. In spite of such rhetoric and more, the substance has yet to emerge.

The lawyers will be back spinning their wheels Sept. 17.

imulgrew@vancouversun.com

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=6579d3a9-812a-4668-aa14-c5e79798b137

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One of the more notorious examples of bribery in Canadian history
took place in the 1950s in the province of British Columbia. Robert
Sommers, then Minister of Lands and Forests of British Columbia,
was charged in 1953 with receiving bribes in connection with the issuance of
forestry management licences. The licences were issued to forestry
companies to regulate the amount of timber that could be harvested.
These licences were extremely valuable, so much so that companies
were accused of making huge profits based on the sale of shares issued
after the licence was granted, but before a single tree had been cut.

These companies made substantial donations to the coffers of Premier
W.A.C. Bennett's new-fangled Social Credit Party.

It was considered a long drawn-out affair, with the premier trying every tactic including election calls, to protect his Minister of Forests or to delay the inevitable. Even in those days before the Charter of Rights when trials moved more quickly, it was 5 years before the Sommers case was closed.

A number of representatives from forestry companies were eventually charged with giving bribes, and Sommers was charged with receiving bribes. Under the intensive public scrutiny of the media, the case was prosecuted over a lengthy period with prolonged political and legal wrangling in the Legislative Assembly and the courts. Eventually, after 5 years, Sommers was convicted on five of the seven accusations of receiving bribes, including $607 worth of rugs, $3,000 in bonds, $1,000 in cash and $2,500 sent by telegraph.

As a result, Robert E. Sommers became the first person in the Commonwealth found guilty of conspiring to accept bribes while serving as a Minister of the Crown.

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And if I remember BC history correctly: those Clayoquot forest management licences were renewed without question when their terms expired. In my view, a serious wrong could have been reviewed, renegotiated, and corrected, at that juncture. - BC Mary.

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Noted in passing: It seems there's a taxi running up and down Highway 16 doing business as BC Rail.

On March 4, 2005, their Application was signed by the Passenger Transportation Panel Chair, David McLean*. No mention of BC Rail.

On March 5, 2008, a Special Authorization was signed by William Bell, Board Panel Chair. The same applicant but this time,
identified as "dba British Columbia Railway contract".

Excerpts tell us:

Page 1
Application Decision
Application: 3304-07
Applicant: EMERALD TAXI LTD.

Trade Name:
British Columbia Railway Contract

Address:
966 5th Avenue, Prince George BC V2L 3K8

Principals:
BHANGOO, Balraj Singh
BHANGU, Gurbir
PANNU, Balbir S.
PAWAR, Narinder Singh

Current PT Licence:
The applicant has special authorization to operate passenger directed vehicles. This can be viewed in the PT Board Bulletin of March 16, 2005 at www.ptboard. bc .ca/ptb/bulletins.htm .

Summary:
Amendment of Licence (PDV)
(Section 31 of the Passenger Transportation Act)
•
Proposed replacement of Return Trip authority with Reverse Trip authority for
Service 1 (respecting railway contract service)
•

Publication:
The application was published in the PT Board Bulletin on February 6, 2008 .


Application Matters:
The Board views taxicabs as complementary to the public transportation system used by many people in their daily life. For these types of applications, the Board is looking for supporting documentation from potential users as well as business plans and financial statements when considering public need, applicant fitness and economic conditions. The length and complexity of the business plan and financial information as well as the volume of letters or statements from potential users should reflect the following factors: the type, size, and complexity of the proposed transportation business; and the degree of comparable competition in the operating area.

Application Decision
Passenger Transportation Board

The Board approves the requested amendments to the terms and conditions
of licence.

Board Decisions:
Background:
Emerald Taxi Ltd., dba British Columbia Railway Contract, is authorized under PT Licence No. 70760 and is under contract with Alberta Co-op Taxi Ltd to provide passenger directed vehicle service transporting Canadian National Railway crews to and from certain points in north-central British Columbia. The applicant seeks to amend Service 1 to include reverse trips authorization that would enable the applicant to originate trips along the Canadian National Railway line west to and including the town of Smithers and
east to and including the Village of McBride.

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/ptb/Applications/2008/080312/3304-07_Decision.pdf .

*Yes, that David McLean.

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Another impressive factoid noted in Vancouver Sun's letters to the editor:

The cost of train travel
Letter: Tuesday, July 29, 2008

In 1961, the median salary in B.C. was about $7,500 and a train ticket from Vancouver to Montreal was $16. Today's median salary is about $42,000, or
5 1/2 times that amount; the cost of a train ticket, however, has gone up almost 100 times, to $1,524.60.

You can take a two-week ocean cruise for that kind of money and an equivalent train trip in the United States is only $848.

If Canada is going to get serious about reducing carbon emissions, greener alternatives to flying, such as train travel, are going to have to become more affordable.

Brockton Macdonald
Vancouver

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On October 2007, an e.mail arrived from Island Tides newspaper asking if I would write a brief story for them about the BCRail Case. Sure I would. Taking an item from the early stuff I had written for this blog, I added to it, subtracted from it, polished it up a bit and e.mailed it to Island Tides with good wishes. (I've also done this for other small B.C. newspapers.) It's what neighbours do, I thought.

The story was published in their November 15, 2007 edition under the heading "Riding the Rails". A cheque arrived not long after ... wow ... a pleasant surprise. But the best was yet to come. Today, a new message:

From: Island Tides
To: BC Mary


Dear Mary,

Your contribution to Island Tides have been much appreciated, by us and by Island Tides' readers. This year I thought we all needed a bit of recognition so along with about ten other contributors Island Tides has nominated you for a 2008 Jack Webster award.

In the category of Commentary, your article Riding The Rails, Island Tides, Nov 15/07 has been nominated.

You may be contacted by the Jack Webster Foundation for more information.

We will announce nominees in the Island Tides in August. Jack Webster finalists will be announced in September and the awards are presented November 6, 2008 in Vancouver.

For more information on the Jack Webster Awards, go to www.jackwebster.com

Once again, thanks for all you do. Best of luck!

Christa
NEWS DESK
Island Tides Newspaper - Regional News, Views & Opportunities
Tsawwassen, Victoria, Nanaimo & Round The Islands - 'A Snapshot of the Strait of Georgia'
'Every Second Thursday' - average circulation 17,500 printed copies - '24/7' - 7,000 online readers every month. Advertising rates, advertiser links, testimonials, back issues, reprints, photos: http://www.islandtides.com. All content copyright of Island Tides or author, no reprint without permission and attribution, please enquire.

Publisher/Editor: Christa Grace-Warrick
Assistant Publisher: Jill Moran
Ph: 250-629-3660 Fax: 250-629-3838
Advertising and general enquiries: islandtides@islandtides.com
News and press releases news@islandtides.com
Box 55, Pender Island, British Columbia, Canada V0N 2M0
_______________________________________________________________________

There isn't a snowball's chance in hell, of BC Mary attending that big awards dinner next November. But thanks to Island Tides' nomination (which must include copies of 5 other articles I've written), the newsmen of B.C. who adjudicate these awards, will be giving The Legislature Raids a closer look; and thanks to our excellent contributors, The Legislature Raids is looking pretty darn good these days. If the Jack Webster Awards had a Blogger category, I'd think we stood a pretty fair chance.

I now fully understand when people say on Emmy or Juno Award nights, "It's an honour just to be nominated." It's OK to laugh right out loud, now. I think Jack Webster probably would laugh, if he were still with us. Or ... maybe he wouldn't laugh. Jack was a good newsman who wanted people to know about things like BC Rail.

Me? Well, I laughed ... and the smile lasted all day ... because I was delighted that Island Tides (good newsfolk too) cared enough to ask for that first story on BC Rail and then cared enough to make the nomination for this award. High fives all around.

- BC Mary.

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North Van's Grumps has left a new comment. He writes ...

About: Fourth of series on ICBC by Vaughn Palmer.

I was so ticked off with yesterday's third column on the ICBC scandal that I sat down and wrote an email to Vaughn and a comment to this blog.

Vaughn received his, and replied, which mirrored almost exactly what I wrote for here and didn't post.

Then there's Vaughn Palmer's column today (Saturday), which I have created a link above.

The ICBC scandal topic is one that I feel that I can get in on the ground floor...... so I've created a blog called "Blog Borg Collective".

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Congratulations, N.V.G., and best wishes to you and your new blog. Please send me a link, an URL, a blog address, so we can find you. Thanks. - BC Mary.

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By Vaughn Palmer
Vancouver Sun - July 26, 2008

VICTORIA - While the Insurance Corp. of B.C. refuses to say if anyone was fired over the scandal at its research facility, a former vice-president now says he was made a scapegoat in the affair.

Mark Withenshaw has launched a lawsuit, seeking a substantial payout and damages, arising out of his dismissal from ICBC a few weeks after the scandal broke.

"The dismissal was in bad faith and was for political reasons, related to an embarrassing scandal that involved employees of the defendant other than the plaintiff," says the writ filed in B.C. Supreme Court this month.

The 27-year veteran of the government-owned auto insurance corporation was vice-president of driver services at the time of his ouster. He flatly denies having "line accountability" for the material damage research and training facility, focus of the scandal. "However, he was wrongfully made a scapegoat through the dismissal," according to the writ.

Withenshaw says he was called in by then ICBC president Paul Taylor on March 19 and fired "without cause." The company offered 18 months' salary, about $300,000, as severance.

But what really irked Withenshaw -- "this came as a complete shock" -- was that his soon-to-be-ex-employer downgraded his performance rating, denying him what he regards as his earned entitlement under the company bonus plan. His suit claims a 20-per-cent bonus for 2007 as well as for the 18 months covered by the severance payment, about $100,000 in all. He also claims "damages for breach of contract," and for the "attack on his reputation, mental distress and damage to his re-employability."

ICBC has so far refused to comment on the writ, nor has it filed a response in court. But if the case goes ahead, it may shed light on the to-date murky details of how ICBC handled the scandal at its Burnaby-based research facility.

Withenshaw is one of three ICBC employees named in media reports as having left the company after the scandal broke. Interim CEO Geri Prior has confirmed that disreputable practices were "condoned by a specific line of authority at ICBC" and also that those responsible "are no longer employed" at ICBC. But she refused to say how many have left, if any were fired, and whether the company paid any compensation in connection with the departures.

{Snip} ...

The Withenshaw writ (well worth a look) can be read online at www.cbc.ca/bc, the website for CBC British Columbia, which reported the story last week.

See: bc-080718-icbc-court.pdf ... and: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/07/18/bc-icbc-suit.html

Read Vaughn Palmer's full column at: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=b3d6d632-e3b3-482a-b7df-3df8422e494e

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The trial of Basi, Virk, Basi could also shed light in the shadows of B.C. Rail. It's fair to ask: what's going on in British Columbia? Who let the dogs out? - BC Mary.

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Killing Democracy and the Rule of Law. The Supreme Court of British Columbia, The BC Rail Scandal, and the Basi, Virk, and Basi Court Proceedings, July 25, 2008.

By Robin Mathews


Courtroom 66 saw a tiny, unspectacular few (10 counsel in court, about 9 others in the gallery) gather to witness Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett hammer another nail into the coffin or our legal system. She ruled that she has the power to order the (dubious) solicitor/client privilege of the Gordon Campbell cabinet to be extended (in this case) to the Defence counsel and - at the same time - to deny the evidence involved to the public.

Rejecting the claim of Roger McConchie (for the Globe and Mail) that granting the order would create (a) a "secrecy package", (b) would create a new meaning of solicitor/client privilege, and (c) would create a precedent dangerous for the future, Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett accepted the argument of the Gordon Campbell cabinet (through counsel George Copley) that breaking solicitor/client secrecy and extending information to Defence counsel is not making it public.

Waivers of privilege, she said, require a person to show he or she is directly affected (as, perhaps, in a case of "innocence at stake", meaning that failure of waiver would assure an unfair trial). My argument is that there is a parallel interest on the part of all British Columbians to someone arguing "innocence at stake" in this matter because the Gordon Campbell cabinet may be shielding evidence that would, ultimately, reveal criminal activity damaging to the whole population.

In her use of precedent, Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett, as I heard her, called upon instances involving private corporations. The cabinet of B.C. is not a private corporation. I shall come back to that.

To begin, George Copley argued (verbally in court) that the Gordon Campbell cabinet has no need in law to relinquish its (dubious) solicitor/client privilege. (That is questionable.) Cabinet has, he said, not a legal but a moral duty to share the evidence with Defence counsel.

That argument was picked up and used by Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett in her decision. It opens huge questions.

Since the law, we are led to believe, is based upon shared criteria of morality, Copley (I insist) is declaring, and Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett took up the argument [very importantly] that the law and morality - for the Gordon Campbell cabinet - are separate. In short, the cabinet he represents will act legalistically when forced to, but its action need have nothing to do with morality. Thinking to show a special sensitivity in the case of the materials Defence demands from cabinet in order to guarantee its clients a fair trial, Copley suggested grandly that cabinet felt a moral duty to help though it could legalistically deny the materials necessary for a fair trial.

He is, I believe, saying that the cabinet of British Columbia (or any government in Canada), having been extended huge special powers of privilege and privacy in order to uphold the rule of law, the integrity of government, and the development of policies may, at will, deny the Defence and the Public information (in a court proceeding) which may reveal wrong-doing among its agents or itself (as a cabinet). In the particular case referred to, he declared that the cabinet, moved by moral considerations, agreed to give Defence the materials necessary to conduct a fair trial but insisted the public has no [legal?] right to see them.

Outside of the court after the decision, Mr. McConchie (for the Globe and Mail) made three points. (1) This is the first time in Canada that such a declaration has been made. (I will refer to this farther on.) (2) The order is characterized by consent. It is a consent declaration of Prosecution and Defence. (3) The introduction of the "moral" component is extraordinary and complicating. Can the cabinet, in future, be asked to render evidence in court for "moral" reasons, on this precedent? What are the outside boundaries for the future? Can cabinet be faced with this decision if it tries further refusal of materials?

McConchie stated that he was delighted that the order in no way prejudices free speech arguments before the court if the cabinet tries to impose a publication ban on privileged material exposed by cross-examination or other means in the court.

Just as relevant, Kevin McCullough for the Defence - after the decision - stated in court (argument no longer being permissible on the order) that Defence is back to Square One. Because, he said, when Defence wants to use the material in open court, sparks may fly and the cabinet may demand privilege permits them to challenge use (and so, in effect, the material returns to secret status and must be fought over anew).

[If this argument seems unique and of little interest, read on. And observe, as well, that the Agricultural Land Reserve part of the investigations of the BC Rail Scandal that relate in some ways to Dave Basi, has moved into pre-trial hearings in Victoria - with, I am told, a publication ban on proceedings. Why a publication ban? Who is denying the principle of Open Courts? Who is being protected by a publication ban? Is it a further comment upon the attempt to strangle the open court principle in Canadian courts?]

Partly the reluctance to release the information in the matter argued in Courtroom 66 in Vancouver is based on (innocent?) third party involvement. But the argument that the BC Rail co. is a third party to the action against the three accused constitutes, I believe, simple nonsense (accepted, nonetheless, by Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett). BC Rail is a property of the people of British Columbia. The Gordon Campbell cabinet is the elected servant of the people of British Columbia. There exists "the people of British Columbia", their extension into the cabinet of British Columbia, and their property, BC Rail. There is no third party.

To argue that there is a third party is to argue that the Gordon Campbell cabinet is a separate corporate entity (separate from the electorate that created it) and that the cabinet "owns" BC Rail and can separate it (as a third party) from the people who, in fact, are its owners.

Permitting that interpretation, Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett is, I believe, making a declaration that the Constitution of our democracy is a sham. She is making a declaration, moreover, I believe, that the Gordon Campbell group is a private corporation that - with other private corporations in the world - rules the Province of B.C. If that is true, "The people of British Columbia" are a fiction. They don't exist as a factor in the government of British Columbia

Only one of Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett's errors, I believe, is her behaving as if the Gordon Campbell cabinet is a single and separate corporate body as - say - Canfor is or Telus. At no point in the proceedings thus far have I seen her stop the argument to say, "We are not talking about a private corporation that Gordon Campbell is heading. We are talking about the government of B.C., which is 'responsible' to parliament and through it to the population of the Province. Its responsibilities in all of the matters we are facing are special and particular to its identity. All claims it makes for privilege, secrecy, confidentiality have to be weighed from the point of view that it is an instrument of a democratic community and must answer to that community. It cannot be regarded as a private corporation."

In addition, the Gordon Campbell cabinet, apparently, threatened that if it didn't get the order it wants, it might not give up the materials sought by Defence counsel. That is - by the way - the second threat to the Defence (and the Canadian public) in the case. The first came from Special Crown Prosecutor William Berardino who has suggested that if he doesn't get a decision permitting him to conduct witness testimony in camera with Defence excluded - on the basis that the witness MIGHT name a person ALLEGED (but without a shred of proof in the hands of the judge) to be a "confidential informant", he may close the Crown's case, which means he may end the action.

To the British Columbia public William Berardino, representative of the Crown, is saying, as I understand him, that if he doesn't get his way in a most tenuous (and I believe probably vexatious) request of the court, he will resign his trust obligation to seek justice on behalf of the constitution and the people of the Province. That is a way of saying, in short, (as I understand the matter) that he wants to make law as he needs it, and is not willing to follow the law of the land.

In the case of George Copley asking for an extension of the cabinet's (dubious) solicitor/client privilege to be extended to Defence counsel but not the public, both Michael Bolton, Defence counsel and George Copley, counsel for cabinet, argued, I believe, that the order is virtually unnecessary because Defence doesn't hand on evidence to the public in the normal course of events.

If that is so, why is the order being sought? I suggest it is being sought in order to diminish the powers of Defence and of the public to demand fully open courts, to demand fair trial, and to uphold the key rights of the accused.

Notice. William Berardino's appeal attempts to exclude Defence counsel and the public from the giving of testimony. That would be, I allege, an action relegating Defence to an inferior place in criminal cases and to nullify the existence of the public. It would, I believe, be an important step in the direction of reversing a basic principle. It would be to move away from the principle that the accused are innocent until proved guilty towards the principle that the accused are guilty and have precious little chance in a court of proving the opposite. That state of law exists and has existed frequently in parts of the world.

The Gordon Campbell cabinet request for an order seeks to eliminate (by establishing a precedent) an important area in which evidence presented in court must be "open", must be made public and placed on public record.

I suggest that none of the prohibitions sought are necessary. I suggest, moreover, that they are a part of the move by many contemporary siamese twins - private corporations and governments in power - to destroy democratic institutions and replace them with corporate rule while insisting corporate rule is the final achievement and apex of democratic freedom.

History looked at briefly reveals that corporate totalitarianism has always destroyed the just balance between accusers and defenders. In criminal law the accuser is the Crown, a highly complex entity outside government (though, of course, made possible by it). It is, at its best, the ideal of the society seeking justice without bias or affiliations. Forms of totalitarianism overcome, absorb, and disable open and just courts. The Crown is co-opted. Judges become rubber stamps for the corporate state. The Defence must - by a hundred means - be disabled. At first the transition is barely visible. As long as the fiction of a Democratic Society is maintained (to hoodwink the population) the matter can be hidden, often.

As corporate totalitarianism hardens the fiction is abandoned. In the Stalinist "show trials" of the 1930s the balance of accuser and defender was erased. The tortured accused poured out incriminating confessions before a (supposedly) believing court which then handed down each bleak sentence.

Nazi Germany didn't reach for the "legitimacy" of show trials, but many of its laws saw prosecution, defence, and judiciary combine together to violate and debase human decency and dignity - and to do so "under the law". Corporate totalitarianism combines bad law with corrupted courts to gain its ends.

In criminal law, I am arguing, the necessity (in order to move to corporate totalitarianism) is to disable what we think of as the "Defence" and to hide the new role of the courts from the people. I am arguing, further, that the appeal by William Berardino to exclude Defence and the public from the testimony of a witness in the Basi, Virk, and Basi matter, and the request for a special order by George Copley to expand (in fact) solicitor/client privilege (in fact limiting Defence and excluding the public) may both be seen as attempts (whether Berardino and Copley know it or not) to remove powers of the Defence and to hide evidence (and actions) from the public.

I am suggesting those moves might be seen by reasonable and prudent Canadians as moves toward corporate totalitarianism.

I said in an earlier piece that the rape of democratic rights and procedures at Guantanamo prison has acted as a guide for such moves elsewhere. The present defender of (Canadian) Omar Khadr at Guantanamo, U.S. Lt. Cmdr. Bill Kueber, makes the point: "if I'm a government lawyer, I can do whatever I need to do to accomplish my mission. If I'm a defence lawyer, all of a sudden there are all these made-up rules to keep me from doing my job". (Globe and Mail, July 19 08 A11)

As one might expect, the corporate friendly Stephen Harper government refuses to intervene on behalf of Omar Khadr. Lt. Cmdr. Kuebler "freely admits" the case "cannot be won in a Guantanamo courtroom regardless of the evidence". (Nor could one ever be won in the Stalinist "show trials", largely for the same reasons.) "Time and again, [Cmdr. Kuebler] has told anyone who'll listen that Mr. Khadr's only hope is for Ottawa to intervene."

At present, Guantanamo is the symbolic public face of what is increasingly Dominant Western Power's attitude to courts, the law, and democratic freedoms. Delivery for torture to foreign countries by U.S. orders has been common. Canadian complicity in Afghanistan torture is almost a certainty. That's not all. "Abousfian Abdelsazik says Canadian diplomats knew he was being tortured in grim Sudanese prisons but did nothing." (Globe and Mail, June 14 08 A11). Omar Khadr, in Guantanamo, alleges the same. Even so, Guantanamo and the other widespread violations of Western law, justice, and rules about human rights make up only one piece of the jigsaw puzzle of what might be called "growing corporate totalitarianism in the West".

The pieces of the puzzle expand through the phony "War on Terror" to U.S.-led private corporate moves to "rule", in fact, as much of the world's economy as possible. As I write the Iraq oil lands are being parcelled out to major Western - mostly U.S. - corporations. Afghanistan is being "secured" for oil and for other geopolitical ends. Human life in the process has no value.

North American transportation lines, oil, gas, and river energy are being privatized and placed in U.S. corporate hands. The BC Rail Scandal is one part of that deliberate policy. Eager to privatize into U.S. hands, the Gordon Campbell cabinet may well have fallen into actions that it is now desperately, in the Basi, Virk, and Basi fraud and breach of trust action, doing everything in its power to obscure, disguise, and/or erase.

The BC Rail Scandal is the tip of the iceberg. Against all promises, the Gordon Campbell cabinet has, in fact, destroyed BC Hydro, cutting it into three parts. One part has been handed to privately-owned Accenture (of the famous Enron and Arthur Anderson disastrous scandals). BC Hydro is now forced to buy every new kilowatt of power from "private" sources. The third part of (former) BC Hydro is a sham transmission company, like BC Hydro, B.C.-owned. Except it is being integrated into a wholly U.S. dominant transmission network which can dictate what happens to and where B.C. electric energy goes.

At present the Gordon Campbell cabinet is auctioning off all oil and gas lands to private, largely U.S.-connected or U.S. interests. It is, at the same time, giving BC Rail-style leases to private corporations to capture all electric energy from all B.C. rivers - and those leases will funnel energy into a "North American" system over which British Columbians (and other Canadians) will have almost no power. All of that is accompanied by wholly misleading information, apparently happily disseminated by Canada's major press and media.

In the same year as the search warrant "raids" on legislature offices the Campbell government set about changing the status of BC Ferries in preparation for selling the operation off to anyone outside Canada who would take it. To assist, they hired a U.S. person practiced, apparently, in disintegration as head of the new corporation, David Hahn. He is said to have (expense account) travelled the world attempting to dump BC Ferries, without success.

Having removed BC Ferries from the status of Crown Corporation, the Campbell cabinet could claim it is not a part of the B.C. highways system and must pay for itself. While pumping money into the private corporations preparing for the Olympics and cutting taxes for like entities, the cabinet is, in effect, throttling people on the Gulf Islands, placing small businesses there in jeopardy, making ferry services more and more expensive, hinting they will be less frequent, and, it is alleged, attempting to destroy the BC Ferries union.

The delayed, and delayed, and delayed trial of Basi, Virk, and Basi, arising out of the scandalous alienation of BC Rail from the people of B.C., must be seen in that wider perspective.

In civil trials (as distinct from criminal ones) one party (the Plaintiff) accuses a second party (the Defendant) of wrong-doing. The Crown is not present.

As the Kelly Marie Richard dental malpractice suit in Calgary seems to show, the Plaintiff (the accuser) may be the party that must be destroyed to assure corporate dominance. The Plaintiffs in the Kelly Marie Richard case allege a giant corporation (CGI) acted improperly with what seems to be cooperation from the RCMP, the CPC, a major law firm, some judges of the Calgary Court of Queen's Bench, as well as professional associations and others.

So alarming are many, many of the allegations in the case (and evidence I have studied) that, supported by the Committee for the Defence of Kelly Marie Richard, I am seeking (with a serious, accompanying Report) from Rob Nicholson, Minister of Justice and others in government, a full Public Inquiry. Nicholson has received at least 50 letters from people urging him to act and asking him to reply to my correspondence.

Nicholson, Canadian Minister of Justice, has not so much as acknowledged receiving communication from ANYONE who has made contact with him on the matter. Like Stephen Harper in the Omar Khadr case, Rob Nicholson appears to refuse even to acknowledge the possibility of demonstrable injustice - where U.S. power or corporate interests are involved. (They are often almost the same thing.)

With the Omar Khadr, Afghanistan, the Kelly Marie Richard, and the BC Rail Scandal events in mind, a person would be hasty to say there are no grounds for speaking of a calculated erosion of democratic guarantees in the courts of the West. The farce of the BC Rail Scandal and the criminal charges arising from it seem to support deep concern about the disintegration of the legal system and the erosion of concepts of justice in Canada. With the behaviour of Stephen Harper and Rob Nicholson one may be able to point even to a highest level of Canadian government support for corporate wrong-doing.

That is perfectly consistent with allegations that in both Britain and Canada political accountability is under severe attack. (Read Donald Savoie's book: Court Government and the Collapse of Accountability, Toronto, U. of T. Press, 2008).

Careless journalists in Vancouver have - more than once - suggested that anything other than quiescent acceptance of the delay and apparent manipulation in the Basi, Virk, and Basi case arising from the BC Rail Scandal points to "conspiracy theories". They mean by conspiracy theories mad, irresponsible, fantasizing without basis in fact.

They plainly are refusing to look beyond their noses. Even there - up that close - indications - quite apart from the scandalous delays - are very disturbing.

A key figure in the case against Basi. Virk, and Basi is the Special Crown Prosecutor, William Berardino. The category of Special Crown Prosecutor in B.C. arose from an alleged desire to move from the regular Crown Prosecutorial staff in cases involving government figures or persons connected to government to people of unquestioned independence and objectivity. They are people designed to be chosen among those without any connection with anyone in the case or with anyone in government.

When William Berardino was appointed, the Attorney General from whose office the appointment came, Geoff Plant, is alleged to have been a business associate of Berardino's in the past. There are two ways of looking at Berardino's appointment. The first is that he is such an outstanding prosecutor that his alleged former connection with the Attorney General, Geoff Plant, simply had to be overlooked.

The second way of looking at the appointment is to say that it was deeply unfortunate because any reasonable Canadian might believe (a) that Berardino should not have been appointed, and/or (b) that his role as Special Crown Prosecutor may be viewed with suspicion. Since there are about 11,000 lawyers in British Columbia, the Attorney General's office could pretty clearly have found a candidate with no record of connection to interested parties.

A second key figure in the case is Gordon Campbell, premier. He solemnly promised not to sell BC Rail and then promptly set about alienating it. The "sale" is alleged to have been highly suspect (CPR withdrew from the bidding, publicly condemning the process). Many believe the cabinet misled the people of B.C. and the Opposition in the legislature about the terms of sale, price, etc.

Apart form those matters, Campbell is alleged by Defence counsel in the Basi, Virk, and Basi case (a) to have directly or by agent violated the protocol for sifting privileged cabinet documents. (b) And he is alleged to have unilaterally nullified the protocol and to have appointed a Deputy Attorney General to oversee privilege claims. Defence counsel call those actions political interference with court procedure.

Wally Oppal is a third important figure. Presently Attorney General of B.C., he was for more than a decade a working colleague of many in B.C.'s superior court structure. He agreed to leave the bench to run as a Gordon Campbell candidate, and very soon after he ran, he won, and was named Attorney General. Questions about his role are many. Should a judge ever be permitted to leave the bench to take the position of Attorney General? Does doing so create a conflict of interest that cannot be cleared? What is the position of former-colleague judges who must rule on matters with which Oppal is involved? Can reasonable people believe those judges are totally untouched by their relation with him? In the BC Rail Scandal both the political milieu and the criminal investigations/hearings leading to trial require an Attorney General as untouched by political considerations as possible.

Just for example, can British Columbians believe that the appointment by Gordon Campbell of a deputy minister from Wally Oppal's ministry to oversee cabinet privilege claims is a purely administrative move and not a highly charged political one? Especially after Campbell unilaterally and without consultation closed down the old method? Needless to say the appointment would have had to be approved by Wally Oppal.

NDP Justice critic MLA Leonard Krog has publicly requested the Attorney General to order William Berardino not to attempt to take an appeal from the B.C. Appeal Court (where he lost) to the Supreme Court of Canada. To appeal farther, Krog suggests, would delay trial of the accused for at least another year. Can Krog, or any British Columbian, have faith that whatever decision Oppal makes will be founded upon law and not political expediency?

A fourth, large basket of people about whom many questions persist are found in the RCMP. From the beginning the RCMP has provoked questions about the seriousness with which they have pursued matters arising from the BC Rail Scandal. Almost as the boxes of files were being removed from legislature offices on December 28, 2003, and as hard drives were being gathered, and offices and homes in Victoria and Vancouver were searched, RCMP spokespeople announced with bland confidence that no elected officials were being investigated (or would be).

By what prescience could they know that the huge gathering of documents and testimony they had just begun to assemble contained no evidence that might incriminate elected officials?

From almost the beginning, RCMP delay has been a strange, inexplicable, and deeply disturbing. Over months and months during which time Defence counsel complained and complained of RCMP delay in producing documents, William Berardino said little or that things were going as quickly as possible.

Then in 2008 - a few weeks ago - when NDP Justice critic, MLA Leonard Krog had Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett release some affidavit material relating to the protocol problem, a strange item was contained in the papers. The search warrant raids on the legislature happened on December 28, 2003 but charges against the three accused weren't laid for nearly a whole year. The raids themselves were the culmination of investigation and evidence gathering that had gone on for some time. Why the delay? We have never been told.

In the Krog papers there is a note from George Copley, counsel for the cabinet, well into the year 2004, to people in the Attorney General's office. In the April 1, 2004 note Copley says that he and Berardino were meeting with Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm. Copley says that Berardino asked him not to bring up the RCMP delay in the meeting with Dohm. Copley didn't. And he said that Dohm chose not to bring up the subject.

"Obviously", Copley wrote, "Bill Berardino is sensitive to the matter taking so long and he asked me this morning before Court not to comment on that aspect. In his report to the Court he assured the court that the RCMP were working full time except for the spring break and that Copley would complete his review in 3 to 4 weeks. I think he [Dohm] got the message without me saying so that any delay at this point has not been our responsibility. He chose not to comment on the delay."

The RCMP took a further eight months before laying charges against the (presently) accused three men.

As early as 2004, before charges were ever laid, it would seem, there was a recognition among some counsel - and apparently including Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm - that the RCMP was delaying. What was going on? And why wasn't the Special Crown Prosecutor demanding speedier action from the RCMP?

Several questions haunt the RCMP role in the BC Rail Scandal.

Who gives the orders? What relation has RCMP to the cabinet or cabinet spokespeople? Defence counsel, in their June 4, 2007 disclosure application, point to consultation RCMP conducted with both the Solicitor General and his Assistant Deputy Minister "before and during the execution" of the search warrants and with the further involvement of those men when "the criminal investigation continued after the search of the Legislature." [Was the consultation confidential, or did others in the cabinet know about it?] Why has disclosure of materials requested from the RCMP been so laboured and so unsatisfactory?

The problem of RCMP/Special Crown Prosecutor delay entered the pre-trial hearings presided over by Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett, and it may be said to have never left.

That brings us to the role of the presiding judge, Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett. She spoke of wanting to bring the matter to a speedy trial, but she has done almost nothing to assure effective, complete, orderly, and timely disclosure as far as I have been able to judge. She may be said to referee the hearings rather than oversee them, in my estimation. I have said that she should have ordered effective delivery of disclosure materials and should have cited those who delayed with contempt of court. I point out in this column she has never made a distinction between the Gordon Campbell cabinet and a private corporation. The issue has been called "the most important trial in B.C. history". Whether it is that or not, it is very important. It is a trial in which the business and the property of the people of British Columbia have been, it is alleged, tainted with criminal behaviour and perhaps much more.

For those reasons she should be a stern, consistent, demanding, and an effective instrument to bring the case to trial. She should engage the public in all matters relating to the trial, and she should make as much of the material as possible available to the public. She has done none of those things in my estimation. Instead, in my judgement, she has reinforced the rules set out by Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm to (in my judgement) keep information from the public. I believe his protocol, his Practice Direction, for the release of material is intolerable, as I have said in columns frequently. The Practice Direction of Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm may be seen, in my respectful estimation, as a part of the move to corporate totalitarianism - whether Patrick Dohm is aware of that or not.

And so we are back where we started. Is the machinery of justice in B.C. (and perhaps in Canada) - as a part of the structure of power in our democracy - being transformed into an instrument of corporate aspiration. Is it leading us to the destruction of democracy, democratic freedoms as we have known them, and a New Order in which the values of Private Corporations shall be thrust upon Canadians, called democracy, and, in fact, be the full, unfolding of Corporate Totalitarianism in which the Iraq war and Guantanamo Bay prison are the living manifestations?

Every indication arising from the Basi, Virk, and Basi action points, as I see it, to manipulation, obstruction, and delay of process by forces that look very much like they originate in the Gordon Campbell interest group. That group - characterized by the cabinet - is actively handing the wealth of the Province (traditionally belonging to the people) to Private Corporate interests, largely centred outside Canada. The BC Rail Scandal is only one face of that improper sell-out. "The court", in the person of Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett, seems completely unaware, and so appears to me to be doing almost nothing to focus, to expedite, and to determine timely and effective movement to trial in the matter before her.


For viveleCanada.ca

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Thank you, Robin. - BC Mary.

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JUDGE IN BC LEG-RAID CASE OKs DEAL TO GIVE PRIVILEGED CABINET DOCUMENTS TO DEFENCE

Canadian Press
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jXP3Lpl9ISPNLrY4ffYxD4B8eksg

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BASI-VIRK DOCUMENTS SEIZED IN 2003 RAID TURNED OVER

By Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun - 25 July 2008

Also (same article) Victoria Times Colonist - 25 July 2008

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Click on "Van Court Direct" in left column. See how it almost looks as if the B.C. Supreme Court itself is wearying of the endless repetition for Case #23299. Today, in less than 1-1/2 pages, the charges simply sum up with Full disclosure. See para. 182 - 200 in Notice of Application dated 26 February 2007 for details.

Indeed.

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North Van's Grumps, one of our outstanding commentors, brings three significant documents to our attention. He writes:

As much as Gordon Campbell has done everything within his power to ensure that the public doesn't get to see what the BC Ferry bosses are cooking with the books... along with BC Rail finances, I wondered if you have ever seen this little document:

"The Select Standing Committee on Crown Corporations in British Columbia " -- Jack Kempf.

At the time this article was published Jack Kempf was a member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly. He was Chairman of the Standing Committee on Crown Corporations in 1979.The Committee on Crown Corporations was established by a statute of the British Columbia Legislature in 1977. This article describes the innovative approach, possibly unique in the parliamentary system, which this Committee brings to the direction, control and accountability of Crown-owned companies in British Columbia.

Crown corporations fulfil a special role in British Columbia in administering and providing many essential services to the public. As public policy has developed, government has expanded the number, size and complexity of Crown-owned companies, thereby increasing their impact on residents and the economy. These companies affect all British Columbians, by providing services to government; electric power; natural gas; ferry, rail and transit services; auto and general insurance; and real property and business development.

The pervasiveness of Crown corporations requires that they be fully accountable to government and the public. As instruments of public policy, Crown corporations must respond to the priorities of the executive branch, often being required to undertake uneconomic activities without compensation while maintaining a businesslike appearance. To the extent that actions of Crown companies draw on the financial resources of the province, the Legislative Assembly must be informed of and approve the commitment and expenditure of public funds.

Finally, disclosure to the Legislature and public through annual reports and reviews by legislative committees enables periodic assessments of Crown corporation performance to be made.........."

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Which led N.V.G. to research the

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON CROWN CORPORATIONS REPORT and its Crown corporation and agencies:British Columbia Assessment Authority (CC) British Columbia Assets and Land Corporation (CC) British Columbia Buildings Corporation (CC) British Columbia Enterprise Corporation* (CC) British Columbia Ferry Corporation (CC) B.C. Community Financial Services Corporation (CC) British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (CC) B.C. Pavilion Corporation (CC) BC Transportation Financing Authority* (CC) British Columbia Lottery Corporation (CC) British Columbia Railway Company (CC) British Columbia Trade Development Corporation* (CC) British Columbia Transit (CC) Columbia Basin Trust (CC) Columbia Power Corporation (CC) Discovery Enterprises Inc* (CC) Duke Point Development Limited* (CC) Fisheries Renewal BC* (CC) Forest Renewal BC* (CC) Homeowner Protection Office (CC) Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (CC) Okanagan Valley Tree Fruit Authority (CC) Pacific National Exhibition (CC) Provincial Capital Commission (CC) Provincial Rental Housing Corporation (CC) Rapid Transit Project 2000 Ltd (CC) Tourism British Columbia (CC) Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre Authority* (CC) Victoria Line Ltd* (CC) Other Agencies:552513 British Columbia Ltd1 577315 BC Ltd2 580440 BC Ltd3* B.C. Festival of the Arts Society B.C. Games Society B.C. Health Care Risk Management Society BCIF Management Ltd British Columbia Arts Council British Columbia Health Research Foundation* British Columbia Heritage Trust British Columbia Housing Management Commission British Columbia Immigrant Investment Fund Ltd. British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch British Columbia Securities Commission Canadian Blood Services Creston Valley Wildlife Management Authority Trust Fund First Peoples' Heritage, Language and Culture Council Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission Industry Training and Apprenticeship Commission Legal Services Society Oil and Gas Commission Organized Crime Agency of British Columbia Society Private Post Secondary Education Commission Science Council of British Columbia

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Which then took N.V.G. to:

Crown Agencies Exempt for the Balanced Budget of 2008 where, he continues, "I've had to copy both lists into my spreadsheet program to see just how many Crown Corporations are open and Transparent....552513 British Columbia Ltd., 577315 British Columbia Ltd., 580440 B.C. Ltd. , BC Buildings Corporation, B.C. Community Financial Services Corporation, British Columbia Enterprise Corporation, British Columbia Ferry Corporation, B.C. Festival of the Arts Society, BC Health Care Risk Management Society, British Columbia Health Research Foundation, British Columbia Heritage Trust, British Columbia Trade Development Corporation, BC Transportation Financing Authority, BCIF Management Ltd., Canadian Blood Services, Creston Valley Wildlife Management Authority, Discovery Enterprises Inc., Fisheries Renewal BC, Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission, Forest Renewal BC, Industry Training and Apprenticeship Commission, Land and Water British Columbia Inc., Nechako-Kitimaat Development Fund Society, Okanagan Valley Tree Fruit Authority, Organized Crime Agency of British Columbia, Pacific National Exhibition, Private Post Secondary Education Commission, Provincial Rental Housing Corporation, Rapid Transit Project 2000 Ltd, Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre Authority, Victoria Line Ltd. , and the answer is four: BC Buildings Corporation, BC Health Care Risk Management Society, Land and Water British Columbia Inc. , Nechako-Kitimaat Development Fund Society."

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North Van's Grumps stops his search there, asking: What ever happened to the requirement that the BC Liberal government abide by The Select Standing Committee on Crown Corporations in British Columbia - Jack Kempf to keep us informed of how they spend our taxes?

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Then a P.S.:

Oh, did I forget to mention this: It's 2008 and these three companies are still on the books:

552513 British Columbia Ltd 1
577315 BC Ltd 2
580440 BC Ltd 3*

1 This company owns shares in Skeena Cellulose Inc.
2 The investments in Western Star Trucks Holdings Ltd. have been sold and the province no longer has any interest in that company.
3 This company provides funding to the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre Authority that, in turn, constructs the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre.

* Winding down or inactive

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NVP concludes: Just why does the Convention centre have to have a numbered account and be exempt from reporting its finances to the public? Or is it being done so that the final price tag stays at $800 million?

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Very special thanks to N.V.P. for this survey. - BC Mary.

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One more of North Van's Grumps' findings belongs here:

The Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre is being completed by BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo). PavCo is a wholly-owned Crown Corporation of the Province of British Columbia that was formed by the April 1, 2008 amalgamation of BC Pavilion Corporation and Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project Ltd."

Not one peep about 580440 B.C. Ltd. (1999) created "to provide financing to the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre Authority for the expansion of the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre."

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N.V.G., if I knew who you are or where you are, I'd be tempted to send a big bouquet of appreciation to your doorstep. There's a lot of work behind your sendings, and a lot more work that many of us can do in following up these pieces of information. So please accept a virtual bouquet of best wishes. And just think: there are still some editorials which refer to the public as "apathetic". - BC Mary.

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VICTORIA LAW COURTS
Public Access Supreme Court Criminal List
Date: 23 July 2008
Page 1 of 4
[Click on the link "Van Court Direct" in left margin of this site to go to the listing.]


Case #134750-1 HMTQ v. Limited Access
Count 005 - Person dealing with government offering bribe
Count 006 - Offer bribe to individual for exercise of influence
Count 007 - Breach of trust by public officer
Count 008 - Offering bribe to public official

Location of offence(s): Victoria, B.C.



Case #134750-1 HMTQ v. Limited Access
Count 005 - Person dealing with government offering bribe
Count 006 - Offer bribe to individual for exercise of influence
Count 007 - Breach of trust by public officer
Count 008 - Offering bribe to public official

Location of offence(s): Victoria, B.C.

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This is the day previously mentioned in Victoria Supreme Court as the date when Young and Duncan (but not Basi, yet) would appear with their lawyer, Jeffrey Campbell, to agree to their trial date on charges of influencing the A.L.R. land decision at Sooke. [Use the Search Box at top left of this web-site, type in "Duncan + Young" to re-read their story.] I cannot vouch for this being the court date for Duncan and Young. Will there be a report of it in tomorrow's press? Or is there a publication ban? - BC Mary.

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Thursday, July 24, 2008 update: if there was anything about Case #134750 or the trial date for Duncan and Young (but not Dave Basi yet), I sure didn't see it in the Victoria Times Colonist. So the update is: there's no update.

Surely to gosh, it wouldn't hurt anybody or anything to just say Yes, the trial date has been set for [fill in the blank] ... or ... the trial date is delayed for [lemme guess: non-disclosure?] reasons. But I get the feeling it's like "Move along folks, keep movin' along ... ain't nuthin' happenin' here, just keep movin' along ... thank you very much ..." - BC Mary.

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Les Leyne
Times Colonist - July 23, 2008 -- and July 24, 2008

Kevin Mahoney and his lieutenants must be the highest-paid railroad barons in the history of transportation, if you measure salaries in relation to kilometres of track.

{Snip ... }

In a passage straight out of the Dilbert cartoons, the board said it canceled the incentive payments for everyone at B.C. Rail except executives and senior management. "The primary reason for this decision was that with the evolving mandate, it had become increasingly difficult to establish meaningful and measurable performance targets upon which bonus eligibility could be determined."

That sounds to me like nobody's quite clear what they're doing.

So only the people at the top who are supposed to make it clear will continue to get lavish bonuses.

Just So You Know: The mandate is likely muddled because the operation's future is unclear pending the outcome of the corruption trial. So they're paying the boss $570,000 a year to provide strategic real estate advice and run a 39-kilometre railway that they can't do much with until the never-ending Basi-Virk case is wrapped up in some fashion.

In recognition of these difficult times, the board voted last spring to trim the executives' bonuses by five to 15 per cent and cut discretionary allowances, lunch club memberships and their golf memberships.

Ouch!

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=b4732290-867a-4d98-b44c-14f75f1c52ec

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Les Leyne barrels right along with:

B.C. RAIL'S LAVISH EXECUTIVE PAY BAFFLING

Les Leyne
Times Colonist - July 24, 2008

The salaries that B.C. Rail pays its senior bosses continue to astound ... Of course the Crown corporation has other interests. It's a real estate holding company and provides strategic consulting advice on industrial real estate matters.

Overseeing those interests is considered so important that the president was paid $275,000 in salary, a bonus of $137,500, an RRSP contribution of $123,505, plus $33,970 in other benefits, for a total of $569,975.

The bonus is particularly striking, given the compensation disclosure statement released last week. The B.C. Rail board voted last spring to cancel incentive payments for everyone at B.C. Rail except executives and senior management. "The primary reason for this decision was that with the evolving mandate, it had become increasingly difficult to establish meaningful and measurable performance targets upon which bonus eligibility could be determined," the statement said.

That prompted a check of B.C. Rail's annual report to see how many people actually work there.

The answer is astounding -- there are just 30 full-time equivalents, the measure used, on the payroll.

The ratio of the president's salary to the number of employees is as wildly out of line as the ratio of pay to kilometres of track. There isn't another public-sector boss in B.C. making more money for managing fewer staff, although Partnerships B.C. boss Larry Blain comes close with compensation of $548,000 and 41 FTEs.

The annual report also shed some light on how B.C. Rail is doing in the real estate business. It appears to be one of the few entities in the province having trouble capitalizing on the real estate boom. Its net income was less than one-third of the previous year's and about one-quarter of the budgeted amount.

Why are they doing so poorly?

The problems are "substantially attributable to a delay in the sale of real estate due to the significant boom in economic activity throughout the province," the annual report proposes.

Has an explanation of failure to meet goals ever been couched in terms more pleasant to the ears of the powers that be? It has to be one of the more paradoxical reasons ever given for failure.

The claim is that the boom has resulted in limited access to professionals like consultants, land surveyors and real estate appraisers. It has also delayed decisions from government departments and municipalities.

So the corporation, which was supposed to complete 95 individual property transfers last year, managed only 20.

The report's financial statement also has a fascinating line called "Operating Losses." People who might be surprised that B.C. Rail is still around will recall the Liberals' explanation for the sale-lease of the freight line to CN was that B.C. Rail was a terminal money-loser that had built up enormous debt.

The government pitched the deal as a good way to make $1 billion up front and wipe out a lot of debt.

But three years after getting out of most of the railway business, it's still posting operating losses -- $17 million last year, up from $10 million two years ago. (That's more than offset by interest income and gains from disposal of assets.)

So the orphaned government-owned railway handed over most of its operations to CN four years ago, morphed into the real estate business, which is struggling to close deals, is still posting growing operating deficits (offset by other income) and posted net income that was one-quarter of what was expected.

But the corporation still managed to pay a six-figure bonus to the boss.

There's a strong clue as to how this is all explained.

It's in the grandiose, overblown description of the "benefits to the public."

B.C. Rail said the main benefit to the public "comes from its role in helping to implement the shareholder's B.C. Ports Strategy and Pacific Gateway Strategy."

"These strategies will add billions of dollars of economic output and more than 30,000 jobs in B.C. by 2020 by expanding and increasing the efficiency of the province's transportation infrastructure," the report says.

The Pacific Gateway is one of Gordon Campbell's pet projects. If you are anywhere in the public sector -- and working anywhere near the Gateway Strategy -- you're apparently as good as gold.

lleyne@tc.canwest.com

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=eadaf94e-4d1d-4f55-b3ca-4c8cd510fe24

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Think of ICBC, then BCRail ... what they once were, vs what they are now. Tip o'the tuque and sincere thanks to Les Leyne. - BC Mary.

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BATTERSHILL HEARING SET
Date is a secret
Rob Shaw
Times Colonist - July 23, 2008

The date has been set for a closed-door disciplinary hearing for Victoria's suspended police chief, but the time and location won't be made public for fear the event could turn into a media circus, Victoria's mayor says.

"I can set a disciplinary hearing date, but I don't have to make that date public," Mayor Alan Lowe said yesterday. {Snip} ...

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=367ce905-db64-4fb9-b190-341aa101225f

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People are asking: does this mean that Mayor Alan Lowe is preparing himself to be part of Premier Goddam Campbell's team in the 2009 provincial election. The indicators are in place. So ... is this the start of Election 2009? - BC Mary.

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Maybe this small but significant item in Times Colonist on July 27, 2008 answers the question about Mayor Lowe's future candidacy for election to the B.C. Legislature:

Even Victoria Times Colonist had something to say about the level of secrecy in today's governing circles:

From THUMBS UP / THUMBS DOWN
Times Colonist - July 27, 2008


... Thumbs Down

To Mayor Alan Lowe, for keeping the date of a disciplinary hearing for suspended Police Chief Paul Battershill secret. Battershill has been suspended with pay since November [actually, since October 11, 2007 - BC Mary]. Withholding such basic information as the date of a hearing, apparently for fear that reporters might wait outside the meeting room, violates basic principles of openness.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=3984d700-31c7-46ee-9966-6076fab8301b


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Humour section: imagine, the pussy-cat B.C. media working itself up into a frenzy!!

Lowe's secrecy
Letter-to-the-Editor
Times Colonist - Sunday, July 27, 2008

Mayor Alan Lowe's refusal to disclose the time and location for a closed-door hearing for suspended Police Chief Paul Battershill is a farce. Since when is the avoidance of a "media frenzy" grounds for secrecy?

John Vickers
Victoria

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And for those who don't have their own expense accounts, here's a comparison with the guy across town who also lunches with his employees, now and then:

.
Who: Four RCMP constables, Premier Goddam Campbell, Gary Bass, the RCMP deputy commissioner for the Pacific region, and the late Robert Dziekanski, a Polish immigrant who did not speak English, who died on October 14, 2007 after being shot with a Taser stun gun at the Vancouver International Airport by RCMP officers called to help deal with the man, who had apparently become agitated after spending 10 hours there.

What: allegations of collusion or interference between the premier of the province and the police force on November 24 while the death was still being investigated. "Tell me what I can do," said Campbell who himself is the focus of allegations in the BC Rail trial.

Where: at Vancouver International Airport, scene of the Taser death

When: November 24, 2007

Why: to be determined.


[Glossary: The quid pro quo is an offer of help given with an understanding that help will be received in exchange. Commonly known as "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours."]

The BC Taser Inquiry is a serious, painful public inquiry made necessary by the tragic death of a man in Vancouver International Airport, who was expecting to start a new life in Canada. Instead he died. YouTube showed us that he died unarmed, backing away from four RCMP, and Tasered either one time or 4 times, then knelt upon. We all saw that. We saw the distraught mother who had waited hours to welcome her son, was sent home to Kamloops, then called back to Vancouver and told that her only son was dead.

We saw the reaction of horror ricocheting across Canada and around the world that such a thing could have happened in Canada. We saw the Dziekanski funeral in Poland.

So this is a serious public inquiry with a far-reaching audience. It's important for B.C., for the R.C.M.P., and for Canada that such an inquiry is seen to be fair, impartial, honest. It is doubly important for people (including Basi and Virk) waiting for resolution of the BC Rail Case to be able to look to a Public Inquiry to finally open the books on that mystery, too.

The presiding judge on the Taser Inquiry is retired B.C. Court of Appeal justice Thomas Braidwood. And yet here we have Premier Goddam Campbell -- always refusing to speak about the BCRail Case because "it's before the courts" -- assuring the top cop for the Pacific Region what kind of Public Inquiry it will be: "the inquiry will not be a negative attack on the force," Campbell is alleged to have said. How would he know that? And shouldn't he just stfu while the Taser Inquiry is doing its work? Like, man, "It's before the courts"?

CBC did its homework and obtained, by means of a Freedom of Information request, an e-mail written by Gary Bass, the RCMP deputy commissioner for the Pacific region, on Nov. 24, [which] indicated that Campbell was "highly complimentary" of the police force despite the fact Dziekanski's death on Oct. 14 was still under investigation.

"I just ran into our premier at the airport and we had a great 20-minute discussion on this issue generally.… He was highly complimentary of the force, disappointed over the degree of criticism and wants to support the members involved somehow," Bass wrote in an e-mail addressed to RCMP Commissioner William Elliott and Bill Sweeney, a deputy commissioner and special adviser to the commissioner.

"He [Campbell] asked me to think about what he could do in this regard. … He supports the continued use of Taser and any other tools which support and protect our members. Quid pro quo.

"He said the inquiry will not be a negative attack on the force but a focused examination of all the issues," Bass wrote. What kind of man would express such thoughts on the very site where a Polish man had died after being Tasered?

The B.C. Taser inquiry, headed by retired B.C. Court of Appeal justice Thomas Braidwood, was called after Dziekanski's death. It is one of a number of probes into the use of stun guns by police forces that were launched after the death, including an internal investigation by the RCMP and an investigation by the RCMP public complaints commissioner.

Campbell said Friday the public inquiry will consider how to ensure a similar event never happens again.

http://www.vancouveriam.com/articles/shane_b/apparently-gordon-campbell-feels-worse-for-officers-that-killed-robert-dziekanski-than-dziekanski-himself
See from CBC.ca: Apparently Gordon Campbell Feels Worse for Officers that Killed Robert Dziekanski than [for] Dziekanski Himself .

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Well done, CBC. - BC Mary.

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.
Special thanks to North Van's Grumps for spotting this item. For a long time, as you know, I have believed the media to be negligent in their public service duty to seek out and publish without manipulation the information a democratic society needs to know. The public can't be blamed for apathy if they've never heard of the issues.

The aim of this web-site from Day #1 has been to bring as much information as we can find, to the attention of a population we know to be deeply concerned about what's happening to British Columbia. To run this blog, I've resisted partisan rhetoric wherever it arises and as a result, the commentors have been trustful, coming forth with invaluable contributions. I've never asked and don't much care who they vote for; what I care about is my home province and the need to defend it against the rape and pillage which is robbing B.C. of its independence.

So it's none of my business if you love Gordon Campbell and feel he's doing a good job. My self-imposed task is to make sure you'll be able to benefit from reading The Legislature Raids without being offended. Just the facts, and the significance of the facts, are put forward here. But let me tell you, it's increasingly difficult to avoid pointing the finger of blame. When mainstream headlines begin to speak of "The stink of corruption around the Campbell government", do we continue to sit quietly with bags over our heads, saying sweet nothing?

Who, after all, is responsible for the ship if not the captain? That's why I am finding it increasingly difficult ... let's say ludicrous ... trying to avoid saying that Campbell is the micro-manager who decides on what's done to British Columbia. We know he decides not only what's done but when it's done, and who will do it. That includes BC Rail as well as what's befallen I.C.B.C. which served the public well in the distant past.

My position is that we're all in this together; that what happens to B.C. affects us all. Just like the rain, remember, which falleth upon the just and the unjust alike. Partisan politics has come to mean ripping, tearing, wounding each other, achieving nothing. Less than nothing, if we've taken our eyes off the real issues.

The truth as I see it at this time, is that we dare not kid ourselves that Premier Goddam Campbell is actually "open and transparent" any more than we should've believed him when he said he wasn't going to sell BCRail.

So I'm not talking politics here -- politics? when Goddam has made even the historic "Liberal Party" mean anything from Reform to Alliance to Socred to "Get Wilson" or "Get rid of BCRail" or Anything Goddam says it means. Partisan politics? -- when BC's Loyal Opposition has made the historic CCF/NDP stand for nothing at all and the best we can say of them is that they do nothing criminally corrupt. What a boast! And what a time this is, for fact-finding and citizenship.

So as I see it, the following columns by Vaughn Palmer are Exhibit A and Exhibit B in "How things get undone in B.C." Next, I will post Captain Goddam's quid pro quo approval for the four Airport taser RCMP. And I really need your comments. OK?

- BC Mary.
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HOW A PORSCHE BOXSTER BECAME A VITAL LINK IN BARING THE ICBC SCANDAL (PART I)


Vaughn Palmer
Vancouver Sun - Tuesday, July 22, 2008

VICTORIA - The most revealing episode in the scandal at the Insurance Corp. of B.C. is the case of the 1998 Porsche Boxster.

The pricey sports car was damaged in an accident and declared a writeoff by ICBC's claims division.

But it gained a second lease on life after being turned over to the corporation's material damage, research and training facility.

The now-infamous in-house "chop shop" went to work on restoring the supposed writeoff. For the outlay of almost $9,000 in parts and a considerable amount of free labour, it was returned to full roadworthiness.

The refurbished Porsche was then turned over to a dealer and sold via wholesale auction.

The vehicle transfer documents neglected to disclose the extent of the work done on the car, consequently the new owner had no way of knowing his Boxster was previously damaged goods.

But at some point in 2006, the buyer discovered the truth and took it to the seller, who referred the case up the line to the motor dealers' association.

Armed with evidence of what might loosely be called fraud had you or I had done it, the association in January 2007 went directly to ICBC's special investigations unit.

The unit is the in-house crime fighting force at the government-owned insurance corporation. Over the years it has busted many an auto theft ring, exposed many a staged accident. Staffers know a chop shop when they see one.

Though the focus is catching outside wrongdoers, the unit also helps with insider investigations, making it the ICBC equivalent of the internal affairs department at the police force.

It was the obvious place to go with the evidence regarding the Porsche. And the complaint brought forward by the motor dealers did spark an internal review at the insurance corporation.

The review also bore fruit. Five other vehicles were significantly rebuilt by the repair facility in 2006 and then resold, without the full extent of the work being recorded as required on the vehicle transfer documents.

The review also found that three of the five were sold to ICBC employees, suggesting a pattern of insider involvement that surely invited further investigation.

Plus the review turned up evidence of "poor internal cost accounting . . . internal labour costs were not included in calculating the cost of the repair."

Hmmm . . . now what's that all about?

It likely related to a significant change of policy at ICBC not long after the B.C. Liberals came to power.

The repair facility has been around for 20 years, and the main purpose was and is, as the full name suggests, research and training.

ICBC employees and industry personnel are trained in best practices for repairing vehicles. The facility also conducts research into vehicle safety, more efficient repair techniques and other matters.

But in 2002-2004, ICBC embarked on a led-from-the-top drive to increase revenues and improve the corporate bottom line.

In the case of the repair facility, this meant new performance targets specifically aimed at enhancing revenues from recovery and repair of vehicles.

Up to that point, these salvage operations were incidental to the main business of the repair centre.

Staff would appropriate a vehicle that had been broadsided in an accident to experiment with new ways to straighten the frame

If the technique proved to be successful, the restored vehicle would be put out for auction. The revenue would be dutifully recorded on the books along with the cost of any parts that went into fixing it.

But now that the repair facility was becoming a revenue centre, these transactions assumed a new importance in terms of the corporate accounts.

Salvage Operations Analysis and Review (SOAR) was the name of the revenue program and the number of vehicles acquired, rebuilt and sold for purposes other than research did indeed soar.

The facility was expected to show a profit on each transaction. One way to do that was to record the proceeds from the sale but not all the costs that went into restoring the vehicle to roadworthiness.

In the case of our friend the Porsche Boxster, they charged only the cost of the parts, none of the labour or overhead. Had they done so, that initial review found, the transaction may have been a money-loser.

To recap, the review arising out of the case of the surreptitiously rebuilt Boxster turned up three elements of what proved to be a full-blown racket involving the repair facility -- misleading paperwork, compromised employees and cooked books.

This, mind, was January 2007. It would take a full year and another round of whistleblowing before ICBC would finally shut down the racket.

The reasons for that delay constitute one of the most disgraceful aspects of this scandal, as I will explain in a subsequent column.

vpalmer@direct.ca

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/columnists/story.html?id=c03a805f-4736-4836-a3aa-2a00e72b25a0

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A tip o'the tuque to Vaughn Palmer and also to The Vancouver Sun for this report. I apologize for posting it in its entirety but therein lies the compliment: there wasn't a line which could be "Snipped" without losing something significant. Well done! Many thanks. - BC Mary.

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HOW THE BAD GUYS KEPT THE LID ON THE CAR-REPAIR RACKET AT ICBC (Part 2)

Vaughn Palmer
Vancouver Sun - July 23, 2008

VICTORIA - The Insurance Corp. of B.C. uncovered serious concerns about its Burnaby-based repair and research facility more than a year ago. {Snip} ...

More than enough ... to warrant a full investigation of the material damage, research and training facility (MDR&T), to give that now-disgraced operation its proper name.

But it would be another year -- February 2008 -- before ICBC, responding to a new complaint from its own employees, would suspend operations at the facility and call in the forensic accountants.

Why did the government-owned auto insurance corporation take so long to shut down this racket? The answer is arguably the most disturbing of the many findings in the report on the ICBC scandal by the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

For this was not a case of a few wayward employees gaming the system.

This was an entire rogue operation, countenanced by senior managers. They also took steps to protect it, by ignoring, squelching or otherwise derailing complaints.

Not everyone knew every aspect of the scam. But together, through action and inaction, they prevented the truth from coming out a lot sooner.

Twice in 2006 ICBC employees tried to blow the whistle, taking their concerns directly to the corporation's special investigations unit. Neither complaint went anywhere and the PricewaterhouseCoopers report provides the explanation.

"Issues were escalated to senior managers in the operations division who condoned the practices of employees purchasing MDR&T-repaired vehicles and/or having their vehicles serviced or repaired at the MDR&T facility."

Those senior managers made sure that not a word was passed along to higher-ups at ICBC: "Concerns were not escalated outside of the operations division."

They also tried to stifle the corporate gumshoes.

"The special investigation unit was discouraged by some senior managers at the operations division from investigating MDR&T."

As for that internal review mentioned at the outset, it went nowhere because . . . well, here's the relevant passage from the report:

"The review was overseen and conducted by employees who had purchased repaired vehicles and/or had their vehicle worked on at the MDR&T facility."

Yes. The folks who conducted the review were themselves up to their necks in the racket. At this point, the story begins to feel like something out of the movies.

The police procedural where it turns out that the cop is the perp. Or that moment in the spy film where you realize that the guy they sent to catch the mole is himself a double agent.

But unlike in the movies, there's no unmasking of the bad guys in this edge-of-your-car-seat thriller.

Before releasing the PricewaterhouseCoopers report last week, ICBC went through and expunged every name of everyone involved in this incredible scam and subsequent coverup.

Five individuals fielded the first whistle-blower complaint. Four handled the second. Five were well aware of the third, the one involving the Boxster.

At least one person was up to speed on all three instances, according to the report.

There's an indication, too, that one senior manager was receiving "incentive payments" in connection with his role in this shabby affair.

The accounts at the repair facility were being inflated to show a profit on the salvage business. Positive returns from the salvage business were one of a number of factors that went into calculating the annual bonus for this particular manager.

Thanks to ICBC's thorough use of the whiteout, we're left guessing at names and titles in all of the above instances. Nor can we say for sure whether anyone else was involved.

Those responsible "are no longer with the company," we're assured.

Yet the corporate brass refuse to say how many are gone, in what circumstances, and whether one was paid off.

"Legal reasons," they say. But it also means the coverup continues.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=35995ee2-83f8-40f7-9e7a-295948deb89e

vpalmer@direct.ca

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Special thanks to "Lynx" who found the Opposition's battle-talk in Hansard:

28 February 2008
Oral Questions

CALL FOR INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION INTO ICBC VEHICLE SALES

C. James, Leader of the Opposition: On February 13, ICBC launched an internal investigation into the sale of repaired write-offs. The concern is that ICBC knowingly repaired write-offs and sold them without disclosing that they were rebuilt. ICBC has temporarily shut down the facility in question while the investigation is underway.

But the minister in charge is the Solicitor General. British Columbians know all too well that he has no ability to deliver an independent investigation. So my question is to the Solicitor General. Given his record of flip-flops, his record of failures, will he launch an independent investigation…

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

C. James: …into ICBC's alleged chop shop?

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

[1400]

Hon. J. Les, Solicitor General until forced to resign: That's an interesting assertion coming from the member opposite, who hasn't had a consistent position on anything for months in this House.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

Hon. J. Les: This matter at the facility that the member has referenced is actively under investigation. As usual, what I think is important here is to ensure

[ Page 10077 ]

that we allow that investigation to proceed, and we will deal with the conclusions.

Mr. Speaker: Member has a supplemental.

C. James: "As usual" is the key phrase from the Solicitor General, because as usual, nothing happens with this Solicitor General.

Let's actually take a look at his record. The Solicitor General told British Columbians that everything was fine with child death reviews. We discovered that hundreds and hundreds of files were missing and lost. He denied any problems with the B.C. Lottery Corporation until the Ombudsman delivered a scathing report.

His response to gang violence was to actually attack the West Vancouver police chief. Then he flip-flopped around amalgamation. This Solicitor General said no to a public inquiry into Robert Dziekanski's Taser death until he was actually contradicted by his own Premier.

Now we know that ICBC has been caught allegedly selling repaired write-offs without disclosure. Again to the Solicitor General…. His assurances mean absolutely nothing to the public. He has no credibility left. Will he launch an independent investigation into this issue?

Hon. J. Les: I can assure the member and all members of this House that this matter, which was surfaced by ICBC recently, will be properly and independently investigated and that we will deal with the conclusions properly.

If the opposition leader wants to look at our record, I'm pleased to review our record in terms of policing — for example, the $60 million a year that is being made available to municipalities from traffic fine revenue; the $66 million a year that is being made available for integrated police services, mostly in the lower mainland of British Columbia; the $40 million that we have invested in a state-of-the-art information management system for police in British Columbia. I could go on for quite some time to list our accomplishments.

Mr. Speaker: The Leader of the Opposition has a further supplemental.

C. James: It's incredible. How can the Solicitor General stand here and say it's an independent investigation when ICBC is investigating itself? That's the problem with this Solicitor General. He doesn't understand "independent investigation." That's what's critical.

This is a very serious matter. As many as 174 write-offs were repaired and were sold to unsuspecting buyers. The CEO of ICBC, Paul Taylor, said that it's just an issue of documentation and disclosure. Well, it's much more than that. It's about safety, and it's about the public being ripped off.

Again to the Solicitor General: will he admit that this is a much bigger problem than simply documentation, and will he today commit to launch an independent investigation from ICBC?

Hon. J. Les: As always, the Leader of the Opposition's idea of a review is to jump to conclusions before an investigation is complete.

Interjection.

Mr. Speaker: Member.

Hon. J. Les: Anyone who has purchased a vehicle that came out of this program is being contacted — in fact, at this point, will already have been contacted — by ICBC. We think it's important to protect public safety. We are doing that, and we are going to deal properly with any recommendations that come out of the investigation.

[1405]

H. Lali: We know that we can't trust the Solicitor General. He was wrong about the child death review scandal that took place, and he was also wrong about the B.C. Lottery scandal that also took place. Now he wants us to actually believe that he can deliver an independent investigation into ICBC's alleged chop shop.

Under the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, it is an offence for a supplier to "engage in a deceptive act or practice in respect of a consumer transaction." My question is to the Solicitor General or the Attorney General. Have they launched an investigation into whether ICBC has broken the law?

Hon. J. Les: The member opposite, we should all understand, is frequently confused. He was railing on a few weeks ago about the increases of ICBC rates and the cash grab, as he described it, only to know that his own constituents actually are seeing decreases in their premiums.

I have said and will say again that this matter will be properly investigated, and it will be properly followed up with the appropriate actions as necessary.

Mr. Speaker: The member has a supplemental.

H. Lali: You know the minister doesn't have an answer when he has to shift on to something totally unrelated to the question at hand. The legislation is clear.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

H. Lali: It is an offence to engage in an act of deception. But then again, these Liberals are no strangers to deception. That's the history of the last seven years.

ICBC….

Mr. Speaker: Member, be careful of your language, please.

H. Lali: ICBC has been caught allegedly selling written-off cars to unsuspecting consumers, and we're

[ Page 10078 ]

supposed to trust the Solicitor General that ICBC will investigate itself — whether they have broken the law. We know that whenever the Liberals try to investigate themselves, all we get is cover-up after cover-up.

Again to the Solicitor General: will he finally agree to launch an independent investigation that includes determining if ICBC broke the law or not?

Hon. J. Les: A question, again, full of innuendo and full of jumping to conclusions that are completely inappropriate at this point. I can assure the member opposite — and I'll try this one more time — that this is being properly, thoroughly investigated.

There are independent legal and forensic auditors working on this case. All vehicle owners, as I have already said, will be contacted, and their vehicles will be reinspected. We are going to make sure that everyone is protected and that any wrongdoing, if there was any, will be properly prosecuted.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

M. Farnworth: What we're trying to get from this minister is a commitment to independence, because the track record of this minister is plain for everyone to see. He more often than not has to be dragged kicking and screaming to doing the right thing. We saw it in lotteries. We saw it in Children and Families. We've seen it when it comes to policing on a host of issues.

The allegations around ICBC and chop shop allegations are very serious, and the public wants to have confidence. The minister, in his first answer, said that it would be independently investigated. Can the minister tell this House: who is the independent person who is doing the investigation?

Hon. J. Les: That is the same question that's been asked several times today, and the answer is exactly the same. There are independent legal and forensic auditors working on this particular case, and they will come to the appropriate conclusions. They will let ICBC and government know what has happened here, and we will deal properly with that information.

Mr. Speaker: The member has a supplemental.

[1410]

M. Farnworth: My question to the Solicitor General is this: will he table in this House who those independent individuals are, who those independent auditors are, and will he table their terms of reference in this House so that we can see whether they are outside of ICBC and independent or whether it is a case of ICBC investigating itself?

Hon. J. Les: It is my objective that this entire investigation be properly done, transparently done. I have no issue with making all of the information available to members opposite.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Members.

S. Simpson: The questions to the Solicitor General are clear and straightforward. Will the Solicitor General commit to releasing the information on who is doing this investigation, who's paying for the investigation and that the reports will be public? Will he commit to that today, or is it going to be another sham?

Hon. J. Les: It would appear that members opposite are deaf. For any other questions like that, I would suggest that they refer themselves to Hansard and read the answer again.



From the Hansard Index: Insurance Corporation of BC:

• Investigation into sale of repaired write-off vehicles
• investigation (Bains) 10721, 10889 (Farnworth) 10078, 10721-2 (James) 10076-7, 10720-1 (Lali) 10077-8 (Les) 10076-8 (Simpson, B.) 10078 (van Dongen) 10720-2, 10787-90, 10889
• public disclosure of internal investigation results (Bains) 10788, 10965-6 (James) 10787-8 (van Dongen) 10966
• special prosecutor (Ralston) 10789
• terms of reference for external review (Fleming) 10789-90 (Gentner) 10789

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Vaughn Palmer isn't going to let this issue go ... not just yet. His column for July 24, 2008 is headed

POLICY CONSTRUED TO CREATE A CULTURE OF ENTITLEMENT AT ICBC

He writes, where he describes the Campbell government's efforts to blame the NDP for the troubles at ICBC, "... 54 of the 55 insider sales mentioned in the report occurred after the BC Liberals took office in June 2001. More than half were in the last 3 years.

"On that basis at least, it would seem that the ICBC culture of insider entitlement grew up during the BC Liberal time in office ..."

Full column at: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=09cc33fb-68d0-4ddf-b170-7cf804bec7c1

Palmer's e.mail address is: vpalmer@direct.ca

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More on the corruption of ICBC: Vaughn Palmer, Vancouver Sun, July 25, 2008:

... PICKING UP THE $2.5 MILLION TAB

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CN and CP Rail in switching deal at Canadian port
Fri Jul 18, 2008
VANCOUVER, British Columbia
(Reuters)

Canada's two biggest railways, Canadian National (CNR.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Canadian Pacific (CP.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), have agreed to jointly handle rail car switching at Vancouver's Deltaport container facility, the companies said on Friday.

The railroads, which move about 70,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers each year through the Pacific Coast facility, will allow a jointly owned division to manage switching operations at the terminal.

Switching had been done by a unit of Denver-based OmniTrax, and railway officials said the new agreement would streamline operations at the facility at Roberts Bank, about 40 km (25 miles) south of Vancouver.

Rivals CN and CP already co-operate on many of their operations in British Columbia, including sharing main line tracks through the Fraser Canyon that are used by the container trains to and from Vancouver.

The railways reach Roberts Bank on a spur line owned by BC Rail, which the provincial government had put on the market as part of its effort to privatize the regional railway's freight operations in 2003.

The province pulled the Roberts Bank line off the market after police alleged two provincial government officials had accepted money for providing confidential BC Rail documents to a lobbyist for privately held OmniTrax.

The trial of the officials, who were the only ones charged in the case, has been tied up amid allegations that prosecutors have failed to fully disclose government documents to defense lawyers.
(Reporting by Allan Dowd, editing by Rob Wilson)


http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1843079520080718

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Even the National Post -- which was unabashedly established by Lord Conrad Black in the Crosshairs to turn Canadians deeply Conservative -- is beginning to see the situation in British Columbia more clearly: as rotten and downright unfortunate. Wow. To think that we have lived so long as to see such a welcome turn of events! - BC Mary.
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Brian Hutchinson
National Post - July 17, 2008

Something smells in British Columbia and for once, local pulp, paper and lumber producers are not to blame. Most of their malodorous mills have been mothballed, putting thousands on the dole and forcing industry executives to find new sources of revenue.

The real source of stink is Gordon Campbell's B.C. government, now seven years old and showing serious signs of rot. The latest evidence is in an eye-popping report delivered on Wednesday by the province's Auditor-General. John Doyle criticizes a Cabinet minister's decision to give lumber and wood chip player Western Forest Products Inc. the right to pull thousands of hectares of private land on Vancouver Island from the protection of a tree farm licence arrangement.

The decision, made last year by former minister of forests and range Rich Coleman, represented a $150-million windfall to WFP. Mr. Coleman's brother, Stan, is WFP's manager of strategic planning.

{Snip} ...

British Columbians are still waiting for answers on a number of other suspect fronts. It's been more than four years, remember, since the RCMP raided government offices in the legislature buildings, looking for evidence of alleged misdeeds related to the government's sale of B.C. Rail.

Charged with corruption are three former government aides, including Dave Basi, ministerial assistant to Gary Collins, who abruptly resigned his post as finance minister and left politics. Interminable court proceedings have delayed the trial; recently, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that denied a bizarre application by the Crown to have defence lawyers barred from the courtroom while a secret prosecution witness gave evidence.

The Crown is now seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, which means the B.C. Rail corruption caper will likely not be aired before the next provincial election, to be held in May, 2009.

A second case involving Mr. Basi, the legislature raid and the alleged bribery of yet another government official has not been scheduled for trial.

That's not all: British Columbians are waiting to learn what charges, if any, will result from a police probe into the business affairs of former solicitor-general John Les. He resigned from Cabinet in March when news emerged of an investigation into decade-old municipal land dealings in Chilliwack, east of Vancouver. Mr. Les was mayor of Chilliwack from 1987 -1999.

Premier Campbell has already lost some of leading lights from the cabinet table, ahead of the next election. Scandal did not push out skilled and polished pros such as Geoff Plant and Carole Taylor; they chose to leave politics on their own accord and have been circumspect with their reasons why.

No surprise, then, that B.C. voters are beginning to wonder if this government - once unassailable, even after the premier's drunk driving conviction in 2003 - has passed its Best Before date.

bhutchinson@nationalpost.com

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=662060

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How the media is changing!! Here's a story from Nanaimo Daily News (a CanWest newspaper, like most others in B.C.) which has not only caught on to the fact that when Campbell says "open and transparent" it probably means "backroom deals". They've also noticed the similarities between what has happened to the BC Forests and what has happened to BCRail. There's an e.mail address is at the end, for readers who may wish to send a Letter-to-the-Editor of this newspaper. - BC Mary.
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Forestry deal gives lie to claims of openess
Nanaimo Daily News - July 17, 2008

The announcement on Wednesday that the government removed land from three tree farm licences without due regard to the public interest sounds pretty much consistent with the way forestry and other issues have been handled by this government.

Named front and centre in this by auditor general John Doyle is former forestry minister Rich Coleman. Not only did Coleman make the decision with little or no regard for the involvement of taxpayers, but there were concerns of insider trading and conflict of interest.

It was Coleman who failed to implement any kind of real or effective plan in response to the emerging forest crises, both on the coast as a six-week strike battered the industry, and in the north and Interior as the pine beetle ravaged forests.

But this ends up being about a lot more than forestry. It's even about more than an incompetent government that has tried to fall back on letting the market decide.

This opens up questions in many other areas of government. How many other deals have the Gordon Campbell Liberals presided over that have given short shrift to the public interest? Certainly the allegations around the B.C. Rail case, now in court, have that ring.

From the very start, this government has shown what can only be called arrogant disregard for the public interest as they've set about privatizing and making the province "open for business."

If this is the kind of business they are conducting in the forest industry, it won't be open for very long. In the first place, allowing timber companies to shed their tree farm licences so they can become developers is a death knell to the forest industry.

All over B.C. the forest industry is being left to small operators as a result of this government's failed forestry policies. While they can do great work, on a small scale, B.C. will never again dominate or even be part of the international timber market.

That claim was made before and the government -- through Coleman -- said that was not the case, claiming the process would protect the industry. Now we are learning that exactly the opposite is happening, not only that the process failed but that it may be open to corruption.

Maybe the process of removing private land from TFLs can work as the global forest industry changes, but if so we may never know now. This government, it would appear, is unable to undertake a simple process like selling off a rail company or taking land out of TFLs without raising suspicion of back-room deals.

Of particular concern in this case is the reaction of the man who replaced Coleman as minister of forests, Pat Bell. Shooting from the hip, Bell accused Doyle of being unprofessional and lacking integrity. Bell was also upset that Doyle, as he was likely required to do, alerted the B.C. Securities Commission about possible insider trading.

Bell may as well have said that Doyle was lying when he claimed there was no evidence to support an insider trading investigation. The pall is now cast over the Ministry of Forests, not by Doyle, but by Bell's comments.

Doyle's report is a warning that needs to be heeded on several fronts. The first is that greater scrutiny is required over how the Ministry of Forests conducts such transfers. This government has talked a lot about openness and transparency, but shows the opposite. They've been caught and now they're not very happy about it.

It's time that more scrutiny like Doyle's is applied to this government. Contracts in areas like health care need to be opened up fully if this government is going to redeem its claim of being transparent.

In the end, this is about how this government has and continues to mismanage forestry in this province as much as the way they operate.

By closing themselves off to scrutiny, they have seriously damaged forestry and other sectors.

http://www.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/opinion/story.html?id=7d055d58-d416-42f6-9811-7a60286966e4

Comment on this opinion: letters@nanaimodailynews.com


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Shame on Bell, buddies for their dirty tactics
Forest minister lambastes auditor for his report

Michael Smyth
The Province - July 17, 2008

Shoot the messenger, change the subject. That was the shabby strategy chosen by the Gordon Campbell government yesterday after gutsy Auditor-General John Doyle slammed them for a $150-million sweetheart deal with a B.C. forest company.

Pat Bell, the new forests minister, called Doyle's report "unprofessional, unfair, biased and inappropriate."

The same words should be used to describe the minister's treatment of the public's independent financial watchdog at the legislature.

Doyle should be praised for calling the government to account, not knocked down and dragged through the mud like he was yesterday. Shame on Bell and his buddies for their dirty tactics.

But the Liberals decided that was the only card they could play after Doyle properly hammered them for their dealings with Western Forest Products.

This one goes back to January 2007, when then-forests-minister Rich Coleman took 27,000 hectares of land owned by the company out of a restrictive provincial tree-farm licence, clearing the way for the company to make a killing on real-estate deals.

With real-estate prices soaring, this was an incredible gift by the government to a company that's been generous to the B.C. Liberal Party.

Between 2005 and 2007 -- the period when the government and the company were in talks about the land -- the company gave the Liberals $62,000 in campaign donations.

The Libs were furious Doyle mentioned these concerns yesterday and chose to slime his reputation for doing it.

Sound familiar? The federal Liberals tried the same tactics when Auditor-General Sheila Fraser started sniffing around on their sponsorship scandal.

The result? The federal Libs were driven from power and now Fraser is a household name and a hero to Canadian taxpayers.

The B.C. Liberals were also angry Doyle mentioned concerns over unusual trading in Western Forest Products stock just before Coleman's announcement. They were fit to be tied that Doyle's snooping has triggered a conflict-of-interest probe against Coleman, whose brother is a Western Forest Products executive.

But Doyle's most important and critical findings surround Coleman's decision to release the land for private development in the first place -- and that's what the Campbell government tried to obscure yesterday with their cheap and scurrilous attacks on the auditor-general.

When the land was protected in the tree-farm licence, the company faced strict rules about how it could be used. Springing the land from the licence -- with not a dime of compensation to the public -- was like handing the company a winning lottery ticket.

These are exactly the type of shady deals the auditor-general is supposed to shed light on. Doyle suffered a drive-by smear for his trouble. But something tells me this is one watchdog who won't be afraid to sink his fangs into the government again.

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Delays in B.C. Rail case put Campbell under a cloud

Iain Hunter
Special to Times Colonist - July 16, 2008


Anyone who watches TV knows that informers used by cops are stoolies and rats.

So why are we in B.C. going all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada to keep the identity of one of them secret as if he, or she, is a paragon of virtue?

And why are there stoolies loose in the legislature, anyway? Why are there rats scampering along the corridors of power?

It's been more than four and a half years since the cops swarmed into the legislative buildings and seized boxes of documents purporting to have something to do with shenanigans surrounding the sale of B.C. Rail.

Since then, and since ministerial aides Dave Basi, Bobby Virk and a lower level government functionary, Aneal Basi, have been charged with what is loosely called corruption, citizens of this province have been kept in the dark.

The trial of the three men, supposed to have begun in 2005, still seems months away, if things ever get to that point. Everything's been held up while lawyers argue who should, or shouldn't, be allowed to learn what was in the documents.

The Crown wants B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett to impose a publication ban on 90 of them, many of which she's determined are irrelevant.

It's made a deal with defence lawyers to allow three of them to see the documents, but only if they're kept secret from the public. The reason is that old bogey, solicitor-client privilege, behind which many a rogue is allowed to hide by our justice system.

In this case the Crown is claiming this privilege for the cabinet and B.C. Rail, which is odd because I was given to understand it's been sold to CN.

I can understand -- though I think it's wrong -- that Premier Gordon Campbell and his ministers would rather keep from the electorate what they discussed with others about the B.C. Rail deal. I can't understand -- though it's rather silly -- that they'd like to be spared the embarrassment of having made public laundry lists, take-out orders or whatever is in those documents that Bennett has declared irrelevant.

I get really suspicious about documents stamped "shred after meeting." I wonder why they haven't been shredded. I wonder what else relevant has been shredded.

I wonder if any documents were stamped "chew carefully and swallow after reading" and what shape they'd be in today.

And then I see that the deal by the Crown to allow three lawyers to look at the documents means that Campbell himself might not have to take the witness stand -- on this issue, anyway -- and I get even more suspicious.

This bit of organized obfuscation is, apparently, quite apart from the issue of the stoolie. His or her name is said to appear in a policeman's notes.

The Crown said the notes should be discussed only by government lawyers and Bennett without defence lawyers being present. The judge ruled that the defence had to be there even if the hearing was closed to everyone else.

The B.C. Appeal Court upheld her decision, but now the Crown wants to go all the way to the Supreme Court in Ottawa to keep the police informant's identity secret -- which could contribute to delaying this whole mess until after the provincial election next year.

As far as I can see, this government isn't going to be defeated by this scandal, if that's what it is, since the New Democrats, with the exception of MLA Leonard Krog, don't seem particularly interested in it.

Campbell is known for his sunny disposition, but surely even he should realize that all this is putting him and his government under a cloud. There must be quite a few British Columbians who'd wish this affair were all over -- even dropped for lack of evidence -- before he comes back to them to ask for another mandate.

I can think of a lot of people who'd not sit idly by while they thought corrupt forces were at work in the government. Ministers might be upset. Senior bureaucrats, who as a species like to play by rules, might be offended. You'd think they'd be proud of acting in the public interest.

Or do the cops think this government is so rotten that they need to plant a rat under the cabinet table?

cruachan@shaw.ca


http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=5f14330b-ebfe-4748-a027-c3effc637aae&sponsor

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Good one, Iain!! Thank goodness the newsmen of B.C. have begun to notice. - BC Mary.

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When Gordo's best friends begin telling him that he has B.O., the times they are a-changin'. But Lord in Heaven, what took them so long?? - BC Mary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Times Colonist
Editorial: July 16, 2008

It's outrageous that the Liberal government is fighting to keep evidence in the B.C. Rail corruption trial hidden from the people of the province.

The case involves the public interest and raises fundamental questions about the $1-billion sale of the Crown corporation. The charges against three former government officials are serious. The government should be embracing openness, not arguing for the right to have secret evidence used in the trials of Dave Basi, Bobby Virk and Aneal Basi.

It has been more than four years since police raided the legislature and carted away boxes of evidence and the RCMP warned darkly of the reach of organized crime in B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell promised then that the government would co-operate fully with the investigation and be "open and transparent." [Yes he did. Over and over, he used those very words: Open and transparent. He said everything would be open and transparent. Then he said he wouldn't sell B.C. Rail. - BC Mary.]

Yet this week, government lawyers argued that some 90 documents relevant to the trial should be subject to a sweeping publication ban. Even if they are introduced as evidence, the government lawyers maintained the public should never know what is in them. The cabinet, which had resisted providing the documents at all, offered to turn them over to defence lawyers as long as the contents were secret from everyone else, including the three accused and the public.

That position contradicts Campbell's promise of openness. It fails to recognize the public interest in full accountability. And it undermines the justice system, as the guilt or innocence of the three accused could be decided based on secret evidence. They could be acquitted, or found guilty, and the public would never know why.

The case has already brought the legal system into disrepute. It has been marked by repeated delays, a significant number of them because the prosecution has failed to meet its obligations to disclose evidence to defence lawyers. The slow progress has left the three men -- and the government -- under a cloud for far too long. And it has deprived British Columbians of needed answers.

Now the Crown is creating another delay, which could push the start of the trial well into next year. Special prosecutor William Berardino has been 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.

The B.C. Court of Appeal upheld her decision. Berardino this week said he will attempt to take the issue to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The delay is unjustifiable.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=84a7161b-03c1-4579-995e-e8fcfc096539

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Crown to appeal ruling that allows Basi-Virk defence access to informant's name

MARK HUME
July 15, 2008

VANCOUVER -- Seventeen classified government documents will be handed over to the defence in a political corruption trial, but the Crown is still fighting hard to hold onto one secret - the identity of a police informant. {Snip} ...

Mr. Berardino said although that appeal will cause more delays in the case, which still hasn't come to trial five years after an unprecedented police raid on the B.C. Legislature, he is hoping for a quick ruling.

"We are doing our very best to expedite this appeal. ... We are hoping to get that decision as soon as possible," he assured the court. {Snip} ...

Defence lawyers had been trying for a year to get access to the documents, which were seized in 2003 when police searched the offices of ministerial assistants, Dave Basi and Bobby Virk.

Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk were at the time trusted officials involved in the government's pending $1-billion sale of BC Rail. The third man charged is Aneal Basi, who was a low-level communications officer.

A summary of the privileged documents shows the material includes communications between a law firm and government, cabinet minutes and at least two documents labelled "Shred after meeting."

Michael Bolton, lawyer for Dave Basi, said he didn't know what was in the documents, but the judge had reviewed the files and had determined they are relevant to the case.

"We know it's important material and we're eager to get it and we're pleased that we're getting it," he said. "We've been seeking these documents for a very long time."

Roger McConchie, a lawyer representing The Globe and Mail and CTV, raised questions in court about the agreement.

"Once defence counsel are given copies of these documents ... there's a powerful argument that any solicitor-client privilege that may have applied to these documents is gone," he said.

Mr. McConchie said the media would challenge a publication ban on the material. But Judge Bennett said that argument was premature and should be saved for when the documents are entered in court as evidence.

"I'm not prepared to make a publication ban today [to cover all the documents]."

Media lawyers will return to court on Thursday to discuss the issue further.

Leonard Krog, defence critic for the New Democratic Party, said outside court the government should release the material without any restrictions.

"Here we are 4½ years down the road and the government is still working hard to keep these documents limited to viewing by as small a number of people as possible," he said. "The defence has had to fight tooth and nail to get access to these documents. So the question is, what does the government have to hide?"


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080715.BCBASI15/TPStory/National

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Mark Hume update:
BC cabinet assailed in Court
The Globe and Mail - July 18, 2008
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080718.wbclaunder0718/BNStory/National/home

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See also: Bill Tieleman
for detailed account of media lawyers arguing for openness
http://billtielemanblogspot.com/

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Troubling, too, is the thought of a top BC reporter who surely would have realized -- long, long ago -- that we wonder about the three hapless individuals whose names are usually written as HMTQ v. them. We can't help but wonder how they are. We wonder if they are despondent. How are they coping with the sudden reversal of their careers. There are dozens of human relevancies that British Columbians would like to know -- without getting into the who-dunnits of HMTQ v. the three of them. I'm especially intrigued where you describe their spirits as so high, Keith. You remark on their humour, their passionate interest in BC politics and their virtual decision to have a Public Inquiry. They sound like winners, back in charge. Quite a contrast to the sorry scene Gary Mason painted of them in December 2006. You make it sound as if ... well, I can't help wondering ... if Dave Basi and Bobby Virk are still, somehow, on the job. ... like, maybe Media Monitoring? Or preparing the next election campaign for Gordo?

But why this little back-story in an Abbotsford paper, Keith? You'd have known all along, at least 5 years and maybe more, that you had a story ... a big story ... maybe ten or twenty stories ... which would have brightened the big downtown media ... stories you never revealed until now. And even now, when you do say a little bit about "the Accused", it appears in the Abbotsford-Mission Times. I think if stories about Basi, Virk and Basi as human beings caught in the same vortex which is eating our province from within, then ... call me naive ... but then, I think, the Special Prosecutor, the Judge, the Attorney-General, the RCMP, even Gordo, might have felt a bit of urgency about getting this trial under way.

So tell us, Keith, fair and square: has CanWest blackballed the story of BCRail and the trial we know as HMTQ v Basi, Virk, Basi? - BC Mary.
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JUSTICE TOO SLOW IN COMING
Keith Baldrey
Special to the Times [Abbotsford-Mission Times]
Published: Tuesday, July 15, 2008

It appears that we will have to wait many more months before learning substantially more about why the police raided the legislature way back in December 2003. And that is very troubling on many fronts.

It's troubling because the legislature is the "people's palace" and the spectacle of state police bursting in to cart away documents from an institution that symbolizes democracy, then letting years go by without much of an explanation is unacceptable.

It's troubling because the raid raised serious questions about the sale of a major publicly owned asset - B.C. Rail - that served so communities in the Interior. It's troubling because the lives of several people - former government aides - have effectively been put in limbo without any actual proof offered that they did anything illegal.

{Snip} ...


Lost in all this procedural wrangling is the fact that two relatively young men continue to sit in some kind of limbo. They've been accused of wrongdoing, but have been denied a quick resolution - one way or another - of their charges. I've maintained regular contact with both men - ex-ministerial aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk - since the raid. We meet for lunch or breakfast every month or so.

Frankly, I'm amazed their spirits are still so high almost five years after a police raid effectively halted their chosen career paths.

Despite the mounting evidence of significant bungling by the special prosecutor and the high-handed tactics of the RCMP, they still have a sense of humour about the events that befallen them, still follow B.C. politics with a passion, and are still defiantly confident they will be cleared of any wrongdoing. They will accept no plea bargains because they are adamant about their innocence on all counts.

In fact, they say will be pressing for a public inquiry if this case does indeed eventually fall apart. Both men want an adjudicated outcome, not simply a stay of charges.

They've waited almost five years for answers and now they may have to wait close to a year longer yet. The wheels of justice have turned very, very slowly for them.

Meantime, we will have to join them in the unacceptably long wait for an explanation of just why the state police invaded the "people's palace" on that December day so long ago.

- Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global B.C.


http://www.canada.com/abbotsfordtimes/news/opinion/story.html?id=a88ff39d-f30b-41ba-8516-901e7cd2e0ed

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Same story also in Burnaby Now - July 15, 2008 as
RCMP too quiet on legislature raid
http://www.canada.com/burnabynow/news/community/story.html?id=c8b06ed6-b8f9-4fc2-bcb2-40cff3f09430

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Same story also in North Shore News

Raid on legislature awaits conclusion""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Robin Mathews forwarded this news release from the NDP Caucus last night. I would say to Mr. Oppal that the ball is now in his hands. Will he act in the interests of the people of British Columbia, or in the interests of his boss, The Man From Point Grey?

For Immediate Release
July 18, 2008

OVERWHELMING PUBLIC INTEREST IN B.C. RAIL CORRUPTION TRIAL DEMANDS OPPAL USE HIS AUTHORITY TO STOP FURTHER DELAYS

VANCOUVER - Given the public's right to finally get at the truth in the B.C. Rail corruption case, attorney general Wally Oppal must use his authority to stop further delays in this case, says New Democrat MLA Leonard Krog.

"Serious disclosure issues, the Campbell government's privilege applications and its chronic unwillingness to cooperate with the B.C. Rail investigation have plagued this trial right from the beginning.

"And now, special prosecutor Bill Berardino's latest move to appeal a B.C. Court of Appeal decision on a secret witness can further delay the trial by up to a year," said Krog.

"The public interest in getting this trial off the ground far outweighs the other considerations. In light of this, attorney general Wally Oppal must use his legal authority and direct the special prosecutor to drop his appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. The general public would be much better served in getting the trial underway instead of spending months protecting the identity of a secret witness," Krog said, citing Section 7 of the Crown Counsel Act.

Following a B.C. Court of Appeal ruling against a prosecution request regarding a secret witness' testimony, Mr. Berardino has informed the court he will seek leave to appeal the decision at the Supreme Court of Canada level. The process can delay the trial by a year.

Under the Crown Counsel Act, attorney general Wally Oppal has the authority to direct the special prosecutor to drop an appeal of this nature in order for the trial to proceed. He has the power to do so as long as his instructions are published in the provincial gazette.

"This is an opportunity for the Campbell government to reduce the suspicion raised by their ongoing desperate attempts to limit public scrutiny in this case. British Columbians are well aware of the government's failure to disclose relevant documents related to the investigation as well as an inappropriate review of sensitive documents by the Premier's top political advisor Ken Dobell," said Krog.

"By directing the special prosecutor to not proceed with this appeal, the Campbell Liberals can help clear the air surrounding the B.C. Rail investigation and do the right thing for the people of B.C.," Krog said.

The relevant section of the Crown Counsel Act is attached below.
Section 7 of the Act provides:

7(4) If, after a special prosecutor receives the mandate under subsection (2), the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General or ADAG gives a direction to a special prosecutor in respect of any matter within the mandate of the special prosecutor, that direction must be given in writing and be published in the Gazette.

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Courtroom 66. July 18
Basi, Virk, and Basi case.

by Robin Mathews

Nine counsel made their way into courtroom 66 to hear the wind-up of argument going on now for three days: does Madam Justice Bennett have the power to rule that cabinet documents under solicitor/client privilege may be given to Defence counsel but stay privileged - so that they are not available to the public (media).

Twelve gathered in the gallery to listen to the argument, one that was reiterated from other days, but which had a few subtle - and important - additions.

Crown and Defence argued that the matter was almost something to yawn about. Mr. Roger McConchie (for the Globe and Mail), especially, was insistent that the implications of the request for an order were serious and with implications for the future that could be very dangerous.

Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett may have been moved by the arguments of McConchie and Ludmilla Hurbst (Province - CanWest). For she reserved judgement until next Friday, July 25, at nine a.m.

After that decision time will be ripe for a consideration of the application by the Gordon Campbell cabinet through its counsel, Mr. George Copley (with the acquiescence of all Defence counsel) for a special order. And it will be time to look at the - now further delayed - proceedings (until September 19 and then 29).

William Berardino, Special Crown Prosecutor, announced (as already reported) that he would seek to take the matter he just lost in B.C. Appeals Court to the Supreme Court of Canada. Leonard Krog, Justice critic for the NDP, believes Berardino's move can delay the trial by a further year. As a result, he issued a news release on July 18 asking for Attorney General Wally Oppal to direct the Special Crown Prosecutor to drop the idea of a Supreme Court of Canada appeal, citing the Crown Counsel Act to support his demand.

As an introductory, Krog writes:

"Serious disclosure issues, the Campbell government's privilege applications and its chronic unwillingness to cooperate with the B.C. Rail investigation have plagued this trial right from the beginning. And now Berardino's latest move can further delay the trial by up to a year."

Robin Mathews went to The Vancouver Law Courts to attend the dog and pony show in BC Supreme Court otherwise known as the Basi-Virk Trial or my preferred title - the BC Rail Trial. As is typical for Justice Bennett's parlor, nothing much transpired other than more delay and more billable hours to be charged to the citizens of British Columbia, who would simply like to know - WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT NICE RAILROAD WE USED TO HAVE? Robin's observations of today's action (for lack of a more appropriate word) follow below: (kc)

Thursday in Courtroom 66‏

by Robin Mathews

Courtroom 66 saw 10 counsel file in and about seven of the public (including journalists) take places in the gallery. The question to decide was whether to permit the application by counsel (George Copley) for the Gordon Campbell cabinet to admit to Defence certain documents claimed as privileged between lawyer and client. The hitch: Copley requests, also, that they remain 'privileged' and (therefore) denied to the public.

Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett (whom I have described as being - in my judgement -unsympathetic to the concept of 'open' courts and to material on public record being available to the public) has read all the material argued over. She leans towards ruling in favour of the request. Fighting against it today was Roger McConchie (acting for Press interests). He had a very hard slog, since Defence has agreed to the Copley proposal and Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett is clearly sympathetic to it.

The question comes down to whether the court (Bennett) has jurisdiction to make the decision and to grant the request of July 14. And that will be argued further on Friday, July 18 at 2:00 p.m.

The apparent, coming short-changing of the public is not a surprise. (Even though it was, in the hallways, suggested that the material can't be kept secret if it is used in a trial and argued over in cross-examination).

George Copley was his usual self. I have come to wonder if he has been in so many covert, clandestine operations for the Gordon Campbell cabinet that he has trouble raising his voice above a whisper. Madam Justice Bennett doesn't say: "You are not only speaking to me, Mr. Copley. You are speaking to this room, which contains, in the gallery, representatives of the people who have put us here: British Columbians. If you will not speak clearly and audibly, I will ask you to repeat your statements. Every time you speak".

I don't think she says that because I don't think it crosses her mind. When she addresses counsel herself, she doesn't do it with any consciousness that she is in an "open" court being listened to by representatives of the people of British Columbia. If the gallery can catch what she says, fine. If not, tant pis for it.

That tiny matter is a sign, I believe, of what the courts in B.C. think of the population they serve.

George Copley made extended argument, from precedent, to uphold his application.

It was generally agreed to by all other counsel in the room, except for Mr. McConchie. He described the request - if granted - " a secrecy package". And he said, further, that the government is asking the court, in effect, "to create a new kind of solicitor/client relation".

He pointed out, moreover, that the Executive Council (through Copley) has intimated that it will not give the documents unless it gets the terms it wants. That seemed to some in the gallery to be a kind of threat. William Berardino, Very Special Crown Prosecutor, has made the same kind of suggestion, intimating that if he can't get an in camera meeting of a witness, without the presence of Defence counsel, he may close up the case. His suggestion didn't sway a majority of the three person Appeals Court which rejected it (two to one). Now, he has announced, he will (if permitted) take his appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

After tomorrow's hearing, there will be no further meeting until September 19, briefly, and then a series of court meetings beginning on September 29 - to give time for all Search Warrant material and related documents to be fully assessed.

Trial date? Pardon?

There is much more to say about todays transactions, and about a trial date. That will all take place, here, after tomorrow's meeting (at which Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett will very likely not hand down her decision on the request by the Gordon Campbell cabinet - through George Copley). Why should she? There's no hurry. "Justice delayed" after all, "is only justice denied".

Beneath the surface of today's hearing, those ideas were at play. Behind the legal guiddities, quibbles, and distinctions those much deeper and disturbing themes were pushing themselves forward. They are too important to keep from view. But there is some likelihood that the major press and media will not bring them to public attention. And so I do, here.

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As always, thanks a lot to Robin for his awesome efforts to excavate and illuminate these matters......(kc)

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We ask a lot of our police forces. And a good question might be: why aren't their numbers beefed up in the Capital City region? This is a report on how far -- on land and sea -- some officers must attend. And by the way, the new Canadian TV series Flashpoint is interesting (in my opinion) for its highly unusual way of looking at police procedures and their effect upon the people sent out to take care of things. Episode #1, for example, kept the lens focused on the police sharpshooter who had just killed a hostage-taker (seconds before the hostage was shot). This is not your average shoot-em-up cop show. The viewer watches while the cop is taken through the many strict procedural steps which follow automatically after a death. Working cops in Toronto praised the show for its accuracy. So, if we criticize or praise the police, we should also be prepared to look at things as if you're a working cop. Can't hurt, eh.

Following is a good, local report on the Vancouver Island situation. This is, after all, Basi-Virk land, site of The Legislature Raids led by RCMP Sgt. Kevin DeBruyckere and Victoria Chief Constable Paul Battershill; and their combined squad of about 30 sergeants. That, too, is a good point to remember in the coming weeks. - BC Mary.

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Island population is growing, but chief isn't expecting funds for new officers

Rob Shaw
Times Colonist - July 13, 2008

The population of Vancouver Island keeps growing, but the size of its RCMP police forces won't -- at least for another year.

The Island's top Mountie, Chief Supt. Rick Betker, said he's not expecting to get any new officers when the province approves his next budget in coming months. He had asked for 27, one of the largest staffing increases for the Island in recent years.

"I was being ... hopeful for '08 and '09," Betker said in an interview. "But since that time, so you understand, there are other impacts that occurred." He added he's now hopeful for increases in 2009 or 2010.

However, that's not sitting well with the approximately 850 officers out on the streets, who complain about being overworked and unable to get adequate backup in remote communities where only one or two officers are stationed ...

{Snip} ...


http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=25806046-f97c-4930-a536-4322fb9ba4bb&p=2

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B.C. RAIL CASE: Messages to be released to defence, but not the public
Keith Fraser
Canwest News Service - July 13, 2008

An application to ban publication of the details of dozens of e-mails the B.C. government is preparing to release in connection with the trial of three former aides charged with corruption has riled the NDP.

In January, the trial judge, B.C. Supreme Court Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett, found that more than 90 e-mails were relevant to the defence of the accused, but the government was asserting privilege over them.

Now the government is ready to waive privilege, but wants the judge to order strict conditions on the release of the e-mails to the defence and special prosecutor Bill Berardino, as well as impose a ban on reporting on the material.

{Snip} ...

"The release of these documents is not going to prejudice any decision by the trier of fact, which in this case will be the judge," said NDP justice critic Leonard Krog. "[Premier] Gordon Campbell promised complete co-operation, and it's becoming increasingly clear that that was another empty Liberal promise. It's time to get on with this case, to stop withholding documents for any reason whatsoever."

"The people are entitled to know, pure and simple," Krog added. "This trial needs to get started. Further applications are only going to delay the start of this trial and eventually may lead to this case being dismissed."

The application says that if any lawyers in court refer to the contents of the documents in open court, there is a ban. But absent any warning of banned material during arguments, there's clearly a danger the ban could be violated inadvertently by reporters.

George Copley, who represents the government's executive council and who filed the application expected to be heard in court tomorrow, declined to comment on any concerns.

"I think that it's best that it be dealt with in court."

The documents, which relate to the government's controversial sale of B.C. Rail, were seized from the government's computer server and from the computers of two of the accused, David Basi and Bobby Virk.

In other news in the case, defence lawyers have been advised that Berardino intends to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada a B.C. Court of Appeal ruling that allows the lawyers to attend an in-camera hearing related to a police informant issue.

{Snip} ...

kfraser@png.canwest.com

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=c56be343-8d8b-4392-a5ae-eaaea025e06e

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Here's a good idea, don't you think? If it's good for Vancouver Island, maybe it's good for the Vancouver-to-Whistler run. And if it's good for them, why isn't it good for the northern routes formerly serviced by BC Rail? I'd like to hear more from this Island [Rail] Corridor Foundation. Seems as if they've found the key to Citizen Success. Good luck to them! - BC Mary.
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The group working to rebuild Vancouver Island's long-neglected railway corridor says support for its efforts to get federal and provincial help for the $103.8-million project is growing across the Island.

Mary Ashley, a spokeswoman for the Island Corridor Foundation, the non-profit society that owns and manages the 290-kilometre rail corridor, said 2,100 people have signed up so far in the goal to raise 4,000 signatures of support in the campaign that will be handed to senior government.

As well, she said more than 60 key supporters, which include businesses, municipal councils, chambers of commerce, tourism and economic development organizations from across the Island, have also joined the campaign.

"All agree rail is important and want the higher levels of government to join the foundation in investing in this incredible asset," Ashley said.

Under the name Our Corridor Coalition, First Nations, business and community leaders joined with the ICF and Southern Railway of Vancouver Island in the campaign last March to urge funding for upgrades on the corridor.

The proposal calls for an integrated transportation system that connects buses to trains, park and ride facilities and the use of bicycle and walking paths along the rail corridor.

The plan also supports an enhanced transportation system for moving freight on the Island in a fully integrated system using short haul trucks connecting to rail and then by sea barge to the mainland Gateway and on to North American and world markets.

Ashley said the coalition is getting favourable responses from Victoria and Ottawa and she expects the senior government levels will get on board with financing after the coalition's business plan is completed.

She said while it's hoped government will pick up most of the tab for the rail upgrades, the coalition expects it may have to some fundraising of its own.

"At this stage, we want to let people know that coalition is getting strong support from individuals, organizations and the business community," Ashley said.

"With the price of gas these days and the growing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the need for a viable and efficient railway system on the Island is increasingly needed." {Snip} ...

For more information or to join the campaign, visit our corridor.ca or call 250-727-7464.

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What about a TAKE BACK BC RAIL campaign? I'm supposed to be packing my suitcase for a week's holiday but it just occurred to me that we should be doing what the OUR CORRIDOR COALITION is doing. And that maybe we've already made a lot of headway getting started. So woudn't you say that all we need to do is (a) push, push, push to get Special Prosecutor Berardino to bring the BC Rail Case to trial.

I will re-post his mailing address if we all take a solemn promise to be faithful to the motto: Be polite. Be persistent. And keep asking the question, namely, will you support having a fixed, non-commercial TV camera in the Basi Virk Basi courtroom, so that all British Columbians may have an unobstructed seat in the public gallery to follow the most important trial ever to come to a B.C. Supreme Court.

OK? So here's his address:

William S. Berardino, Q.C.
Special Prosecutor - BC Rail Case
Hunter Litigation Chamber Law Corporation
2100 - 1040 West Georgia Street
Vancouver BC V6E 4H1.

Next, what do you think of sending an even more polite, carefully crafted appeal to Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett? And to the BC Attorney General, Wally Oppal? Asking them to approve the use of non-commercial, fixed TV cameras in the courtroom for the Basi Virk Basi trial.

After that, what do you think? Maybe somebody should consult with the Island Corridor Foundation to ask their advice. Tell them Thanks, too. - BC Mary.

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And now, for something completely different yet still the same ... we could watch Flashpoint this evening ... Flashpoint is about a Canadian police force (Toronto) battling corruption and violence in Toronto ... in ways that I think we've already begun to understand, just a little. The Flashpoint series begins tonight on CTV at 10:00 PM Pacific time. The Globe and Mail says it's good. Vancouver Sun says it's good (see below). Even Toronto cops say it's good. And heaven knows, we need all the help we can get, understanding matters of corruption and crime in strictly Canadian terms, eh. - BC Mary.
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A career at Flashpoint: Hugh Dillon is in demand
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/arts/story.html?id=3da7c976-903a-4b55-8cb1-26cb53db2a64


Maria Kubacki
Canwest News Service - Friday, July 11, 2008

Once upon a time, Hugh Dillon was a hard-living punk rocker ... But these days, the 45-year-old former bad boy with the shaved head and piercing eyes is embracing authority -- well, at least on TV. He's playing a cop on not one, but two, high-profile Canadian shows.

Critics raved about his performance as the troubled homicide detective Mike Sweeney in the moody and disturbing crime series, Durham County, which aired on Global this spring after premiering on The Movie Network and Movie Central last year -- the Globe and Mail pronounced him "the next great Canadian acting star."

And he's donning a uniform again in Flashpoint, a drama about an elite team of police inspired by Toronto's Emergency Task Force. It debuts Friday on CTV and simultaneously on CBS in the U.S. -- the first show since CTV's Due South in 1994 to air in network prime time both in Canada and the U.S.

It's a strange turn of events for someone who admits he was always a rebel. Maybe it has something to do with growing up in what he calls "the prison capital of North America" -- Kingston, Ont., home of the maximum security Kingston Penitentiary as well as a number of other prisons. "I was always attracted to the dark and the rebellion side," says Dillon. "I didn't like orders, I didn't like people giving me orders and that's why I became a singer in a very aggressive kind of anti-social band. And I liked criminals. But as I got older and educated, I got a lot more respect for the cops and the whole law enforcement. Really, for me it's all about growing up and really having more empathy for everybody."

Empathy is one of the qualities he admires about sniper Ed Lane, the character he plays on Flashpoint. In order to do his job as the lead sharpshooter for the Strategic Response Unit -- shoot to kill when given the order -- Lane has to be an alpha male ... filming continues on the remaining four episodes of Flashpoint (nine are already in the can). As if he weren't busy enough, there's also Works Well With Others, the album he recorded with the Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir at the Tragically Hip's Bath House studio near Kingston. It's set to be released in August and will likely include a song he's written for Flashpoint. His new band is not as hardcore as the Headstones -- "It's a little more Leonard Cohen-y and a little less Lenny from Motorhead."

He still loves writing music and sometimes playing live, but he no longer feels any pressure to tour and do promotion. He hopes to do a limited Canadian tour after Durham County wraps and before he goes back to Los Angeles, where he now lives with his wife. And then he'll take a well-deserved break. "I've never worked so f-----g hard in my life, between these two shows and this record ... "

Flashpoint begins airing on CTV and CBS tonight at 10 p.m. PDT.

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LEGISLATURE RAID
Crown loses bid to protect secret informant
Appeal court ruling gives Basi-Virk defence counsel access to hearing where source would be named

MARK HUME
The Globe and Mail - July 11, 2008


VANCOUVER -- The special prosecutor in a political corruption case has lost an appeal in which he sought to protect the identity of a secret police informant by keeping defence counsel out of a closed court hearing.

In a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia dismissed the Crown's arguments and upheld a ruling by the trial judge, Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett of B.C. Supreme Court, who had said defence counsel had a right to attend a hearing on the contents of a police officer's notes, in which the secret informant is named.

The ruling leaves William Berardino, the special prosecutor in the case against Dave Basi, Bobby Virk and Aneal Basi, with a difficult decision.

If he appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada, the oft-delayed trial, which is being closely watched because of its political implications, could be pushed back well into next year.

That could lead to a defence motion to dismiss the case because, nearly five years after the accused were charged, it has still not come to trial.

But if Mr. Berardino doesn't appeal, he will have to attend a hearing before Judge Bennett, with defence lawyers present, in which the closely guarded identity of the secret informant would be revealed.

Mr. Berardino has said in court it would be impossible for him to present evidence in the hearing without identifying the secret informant who dealt with RCMP Inspector Kevin DeBruyckere, the lead investigator in the case that involved an unprecedented police raid on the B.C. Legislature in 2003.

Mr. Berardino couldn't be reached for comment yesterday, but he told the Court of Appeal that protecting the privileged identity of the secret informant was paramount.

"This Crown will not breach this privilege in this case. ... We will not resile from this position," he said in court.

That comment has led to speculation that Mr. Berardino might be prepared to abandon the case, rather than identify the informant, but he has not elaborated on the full implications of his remark.

{Snip} ...

Leonard Krog, justice critic for the New Democratic Party, urged Mr. Berardino to forget the appeal.

"I can't think of a case in which there is greater public interest. Mr. Berardino needs to get out of his office and back into the courtroom," he said.

"Notwithstanding Mr. Berardino's musings about abandoning this case, the Court of Appeal has spoken, he should follow the judges' direction and get on with doing his job, which is prosecuting."

Two of the appeal court judges, Chief Justice Lance Finch and Mr. Justice Ian Donald, rejected the Crown's arguments, but a third, Madam Justice Catherine Anne Ryan, dissented.

Chief Justice Finch said Judge Bennett's ruling was not an order to disclose the identity of the secret informant, but rather was a decision that the defence had a right to be present at a hearing to determine "whether there is any basis on which informer privilege can be asserted."

He said Judge Bennett was "fully aware of the importance of informer privilege. She was also alive to the accused's right to a fair trial."

Judge Donald agreed and said even if Judge Bennett's ruling did authorize disclosure of the informant's identity, it was within her discretion to do so.

Judge Bennett had ruled defence counsel could attend the hearing, but would be forbidden from revealing the informant's identity to anyone, including their clients.

"The sanctions against disclosure are powerful enough to keep the secret closely held. If defence counsel were to disclose the informant's identity in breach of the court-ordered undertaking, they would likely bring their careers to an end," Judge Donald said.

But Judge Ryan disagreed, and said "it bears noting the mischief that would be caused" if defence lawyers were allowed to learn who police had as secret informers.

"First, and most obviously, what informer would be confident giving information to the police about someone he or she rightly fears, knowing that the lawyer for that person can learn his identity?" she asked. {Snip} ...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080711.BCBASI11/TPStory/National
________________________________________________________________________________

B.C. Appeal Court rejects bid to bar defence in leg raid case from hearing
Canadian Press - July 11, 2008

VANCOUVER — Defence lawyers in the B.C. legislature raid case have won the right to be present during a closed hearing that could reveal the identity of a confidential police informer, a ruling which could affect how courts treat them in future.

The B.C. Court of Appeal on Thursday dismissed a bid by special prosecutor Bill Berardino in the marathon political corruption trial to exclude defence counsel from the closed pre-trial proceeding about the disclosure of evidence.

{Snip} ...

The case has been complicated partly because there are overlapping investigations involving not just the BC Rail sale, but money laundering, drugs, the province's Agricultural Land Commission and a related proceeds-of-crime probe.

The Crown has already provided about 250,000 pages of documents over and above those seized during the legislature raid.

The case itself is scheduled to proceed Monday when Bennett will hear arguments about cabinet claims of solicitor-client privilege over certain documents the defence wants disclosed.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jkBz_XIRLKt8J8Zn_RqIBx6p8Q_w

_____________________________________________________________________________

Appeal Court rules against secret witness request

By BILL TIELEMAN,
24 HOURS COLUMNIST

{Snip} ...

The ruling leaves the entire case in doubt, as Berardino suggested during the B.C. Court of Appeal hearing that the Crown might not be able to proceed if the secret witness could not give evidence without fear their identity would be disclosed.

{Snip} ...

McCullough says the defendants are anxious to begin the trial.

"Our clients have had their lives on hold for four and a half years and any further delay is something that neither counsel nor their clients are looking forward to. I hope it doesn't happen,""he said.

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2008/07/11/6124966-sun.html

_________________________________________________________________________________

Defence lawyers will be allowed to attend Crown witness hearing
Keith Fraser,
The Province - July 11, 2008

Lawyers for three former B.C. government aides facing corruption charges will be allowed to attend a hearing to determine whether a Crown witness is a bona fide police informant, B.C.'s highest court has ruled. {Snip} ...

In December, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett ruled that the defence could attend the hearing on an undertaking that they keep the information confidential.

Berardino appealed that ruling but in a split decision, the B.C. Court of Appeal has dismissed his application. B.C. Court of Appeal Chief Justice Lance Finch and Justice Ian Donald both agreed that Berardino was wrong but for different reasons and wrote different judgments. Justice Catherine Ryan wrote a dissenting opinion.

Berardino, who was adamant during the appeal hearing that it was an issue critical to the Crown, said outside court that there were three separate reasons with three distinct analyses that he is reviewing. He has 10 days to decide whether to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. {Snip} ...

kfraser@png.canwest.com

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=d2a15587-859c-47d6-b756-8ff77386bc32

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Gerry Bellett,
Vancouver Sun - July 10, 2008

The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled defence lawyers for David Basi and Bobby Virk should be allowed to be present at a hearing to decide whether informant privilege should be extended to a mystery witness for the Crown in the corruption case against the former government officials. {Snip} ...

The Crown has 10 days to seek leave to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.

gbellett@png.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=156c26c1-c2de-408c-8b35-41af70d8974b

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Many thanks to our Citizen Journalists who reported in first: ...

Anonymous has left a new comment:

BREAKING NEWS BCTV AND KEITH BALDREY:THE APPEAL COURT IS AGREEING WITH THE DEFENCE. SPECIAL PROSECUTOR HAS LOST HIS APPEAL.THIS MEANS MORE DELAY. BERARDINO MAY DROP THE CASE TO PROTECT SECRET WITNESS.VERY BIG DEVELOPMENT.

Posted by Anonymous to The Legislature Raids at July 10, 2008 12:22 PM



Another Anonymous has left a new comment on your post:

Hi Mary,I just watched the noon news and Keith baldrey has announced that the court of appeals has just sided with the defence, that they (the defence) should be allowed to hear evidence of the secret witness which lead to speculation the special prosecutor will move on to the supreme court of Canada and delay the start of the trial for months and even until after the next election.


And Bill Tieleman has the story at http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/

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Thanks to another wonderful commentor, BC Mary was prompted to write to the BC Auditor General asking the following questions, re-posted here from May 14, 2008:


Question for BC Auditor General + a reply

To:
John Doyle, Auditor General of British Columbia, jdoyle@bcauditor.com
Cheryl Wenezenki Yolland, Comptroller General , Cheryl.WenezenkiYolland@gov.bc.ca


Greetings,

In the matter of B.C. Rail, I ask your assistance with the following question:

One of my readers is asking how the Auditor General of B.C. could have classified the BCR lease as operating .

He informs me that there are criteria that must be met in order to classify a lease this way. One of the criteria, a "bargain purchase" option, is where -- at the end of the lease -- there is no amount that is paid to purchase the asset (or in this case renew the lease).

When a lease is classified as operating, there is no need to disclose the total value of the lease.

But if the lease is capital , a liability must be set up in the financial statements in the amount of the total lease payments.

Your clarification (by email, please) of this question would be very much appreciated.


BC Mary, on behalf of:
The Legislature Raids
http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com


On July 2nd, 2008, I received a very nice reply quoting from BCRail Corporation's Financial Statements for 2007/08 (prepared by BCRC according to Canadian generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), audited by KPMG). Certain points seem to invite further questions so I hope others will comment. For example, does it answer the commentor's question? Here's the reply as received from the Comptroller-General:


"BCRC included information abut an operating lease in its 2006 Financial Statement Note 3" referring to "This operating lease [which] arose as a result of the CN transaction which completed in 2004." Financial Statement Not 3 is copied, for my information.

"Note 3, from the 2006 BCRC Audited Financial Statements, which describes the CN transaction

"The CN transaction was the main component of the Company's original plan to dispose of its residual assets and activities.

(a) On July 14, 2004, BCRC and BCRProperties Ltd completed a transaction with CN pursuant to an agreement signed between the parties on Nov 25, 2003 ("the CN Transaction") ... [Aha! So that's what it's called. - BC Mary]. Under the terms of the agreement, CN assumed the Company's industrial freight railway business by purchasing the shares of BC Rail Ltd., the partnership interests of BC Rail Partnership and railcars from a related entity (collectively "BC Rail").

(b) BCRC and BCRail Partnership entered into a Revitalization Agreement, under which BCRail Partnership leased the railway right-of-way land, railbed assets, and related track infrastructure from BCRC under a long-term lease. BC Rail Partnership prepaid all lease payments under the Revitalization Agreement. [What?] The lease of certain items included in railbed assets is being accounted for as an operating lease. The lease of the remaining railbed assets and track infrastructure has been treated as a capital lease. As a result of the CN Transaction, the Revitalization Agreement was assumed by CN. [Special attention needed here, please. - BC Mary.]

(c) As provided for in the Revitalization Agreement, certain aspects of the transaction were finalized in fiscal 2005 and as a result a $5.6 million reduction in the gain was recorded. [More help, please.]

(d) As part of the CN Transaction, CN committed to certain average transit times for rail traffic on the BC Railway system [Nice to see it still being referred to as "the BC Railway system". - BC Mary] Breach of the transit time commitments results in penalty payments made by CN to a trust fund held by BCRC and dedicated to upgrades of the BC railway system to improve reliability and transit times for the railway users. As at December 31, 2006, the trust fund held $0.3 million in CN penalty payments, which are not recognized in these financial statements. [End of Note #3.]

Important research note:

The Revitalization Agreement and the agreement between BCRC and BCR Properties Ltd. and Canadian National Railway Company, referred to in the financial statement note, are available on the Ministry of Transportation website at the following web address: www.th.gov.bc.ca/bcrail/ [That "th" isn't a typo -- it's in the original letter. But if the URL doesn't work, maybe remove the "th." - M.] This website also includes a link to the BCRC website which has links to the audited financial statements of BCRC.

GAAP guidance determines whether a lease is a capital or operating lease. It requires a lease to be recorded as a capital lease when substantially all of the risks and benefits of ownership are transferred to the lessee at the inception of the lease. From the lessee's point of view, the risks and benefits of ownership are substantially transferred when any one of the following conditions are present in the lease terms and conditions:

(a) There is reasonable assurance that the lessee will obtain ownership of the leased property at the end of the lease term.
(b) The lessee will receive substantially all of the economic benefit that can be derived from the leased property ...
(c) The lessor is assured of recovering its investment in the leased property. This is said to occur if, at the beginning of the lease, the minimum lease payments equal at least 90% of the fair value of the leased property.

GAAP also provides additional guidance when the lease involves land and states that it is not possible for the lessee to receive substantially all the benefits and risks associated with land ownership unless the lessee obtains ownership of the land at the end of the lease.

BCRC followed this guidance when it determined that part of the CN transaction should be reported as an operating lease. Note 4 in BCRC's 2006 audited financial tatements includes information about assets under operating lease.

Sincerely

Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland
Comptroller-General

cc Auditor General of BC

Linda Shute, Vice President Finance and CFO
British Columbia Railway Corporation

Sheila Taylor, Assistant Deputy Minister
Ministry of Transportation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good information, which bears thinking about. I would certainly welcome informed comment about some of the points raised by the Comptroller-General. - BC Mary.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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The Legislature Raids has received startling information, the past week. Perhaps none is more astonishing than the story of a battle which has gone on in plain sight in B.C., with few eye-witness reports. How many can recall Powder Mountain Ski Resort and its plans for the Callaghan Valley (near Whistler)? Thank goodness, there is always someone ... then another ... who can't forget. And so the story got picked up again in August 2007. Special thanks to "Igetit" who sent these two items as a comment. - BC Mary.
________________________________________________________________________

Business in Vancouver August 14-20, 2007; Issue 929

Powder Mountain ski resort controversy exhumed in lead-up to 2010 Olympics - West Vancouver mother/daughter duo hoping RCMP investigation will get to bottom of Callaghan Valley dispute ...

An Expo 86-era scandal may live again on the road to 2010.

The RCMP is reviewing new evidence surrounding the aborted Powder Mountain ski resort in the Callaghan Valley near Whistler.

Proponents Nan and Dianne Hartwick, a mother-daughter West Vancouver duo, hope RCMP will investigate how and why the Callaghan is becoming a $120 million, taxpayer-funded Nordic sports venue for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

RCMP Commercial Crimes Insp. Kevin deBruyckere confirmed that a review is underway to determine whether to launch an investigation.

“We’re going to the wall on this,” said Dianne Hartwick, “because we know that project was stolen from us.”

Hartwick-owned Powder Mountain Resorts won a 1985 public call for proposals and gained approval in principle from government. Forests and Lands Minister Jack Kempf claimed Premier Bill Vander Zalm told him in 1987 to “cease and desist” with the Hartwicks and favour Callaghan Resorts Inc., which was backed by ex-Social Credit attorney general Les Peterson.

The B.C. Court of Appeal refused to overturn the B.C. Supreme Court’s 1999 dismissal of the Hartwicks’ breach of contract and abuse of office lawsuit. A special prosecutor’s criminal investigation was halted in 2003, just three weeks before Vancouver was elected 2010 host at the International Olympic Committee session in Prague. Because of insufficient evidence, no charges were laid.

The Hartwicks had visions of the Callaghan Valley becoming the sequel to Whistler. It’s remained an under-promoted playground for cross-country skiers and snowmobilers. Brad Sills’ Callaghan Country Wilderness Adventures opened a Nordic lodge there in 1998, just in time for the Canadian Olympic Committee’s selection of the Vancouver-Whistler bid over proposals from Calgary and Quebec City. Sills was an early campaigner for Olympic ski jumping, cross-country skiing, biathlon and Nordic combined to be held in the Callaghan.

Critics said West Vancouver’s Cypress Bowl could’ve been 2010’s temporary Nordic site for much less. The Callaghan won’t displace Calgary as the national training centre, but it could someday be what Cypress can’t be: a four-season destination resort with all the amenities enjoyed up the road in Whistler. The Hartwicks haven’t given up their dream. They claim backing from 75 private investors. Former Olympic downhill skier Todd Brooker is their vice-president of resort development. “We’re not against the Olympics; we’re against what has happened,” Dianne Hartwick said.

Where are they now

Who were the players in the Powder Mountain saga in the 1980s and where are they now?

Nan and Dianne Hartwick: Then: mother and daughter duo active in real estate with Social Credit party connections. Had provincial government approval to turn Powder Mountain in the Callaghan Valley into a ski resort until Premier Bill Vander Zalm intervened on behalf of a former attorney general. Now: still trying.

Bill Vander Zalm: Then: Social Credit B.C. premier from 1986 to 1991. Resigned after Fantasy Gardens conflict of interest affair. Now: retired.

Jack Kempf: Then: maverick Social Credit MLA for Omineca. Appointed lands minister by then-premier Bill Bennett in 1986 and assumed the same role in Vander Zalm’s cabinet until he was fired in 1987 over a travel expenses scandal. Died July 1, 2003.

David Emerson: Then: Vander Zalm’s deputy minister. Now: federal Conservative minister responsible for the 2010 Games.

Colin McIver: Then: attorney general’s ministry lawyer. Now: partner with Fraser Milner Casgrain. Represented VANOC in Callaghan Valley Nordic venue development.

Jack Hall: Then: Burnaby regional land office director. Later became vice-president of development and marketing for Land and Water B.C., the lead agency providing Crown land and water resources to VANOC. Now: director of Property Assessment Appeal Board and Real Estate Foundation of B.C.

George McKay: Then: was alpine ski development project manager for LWBC predecessor B.C. Assets and Lands Corporation in 1990s. Became director of the Callaghan Valley Master Plan during 2010 bid stage. Now: VANOC's director of environmental approvals. Also listed in B.C. Government Directory as tourism ministry's manager of special projects.

Igetit said...

August 24/07 article from the Whistler Pique:

RCMP reviewing Callaghan Valley dispute, again
Powder Mountain Resorts hopes investigation will uncover past conflicts of interest, revive ski resort plans

By Andrew Mitchell

The proponents of Powder Mountain Resorts got a boost last week with confirmation that the RCMP is reviewing the facts of their case with an eye toward reopening an investigation into how their resort proposal was quashed 20 years ago.

Several other recreation tenures in the Callaghan Valley — site of the Nordic Centre for 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games — have since been awarded.

Business in Vancouver magazine reported the newest developments last week, and according to Nan Hartwick — who co-owns Powder Mountain Resorts with daughter Dianne — the possibility of a new investigation was welcome news.

"This is the third time that the RCMP have taken up this investigation, but this time, because of all the terrible conflicts of interest everywhere, we think this is something that should move ahead," she said. "We went through three different public proposal calls until we won the third one clearly. Now our lawyer is joining us for a meeting with the new provincial ombudsman to give him our information, and all the proven details. We haven't spent 20-some-odd years for nothing."

At the heart of the Hartwicks' complaint is the province's decision to award development rights to Callaghan Resorts in 1987, two years after Powder Mountain Resorts was the sole company to answer a request for proposal process to develop the area. According to Nan Hartwick the Forest Minister was about to approve their application when it was quashed by cabinet.

The province said they quashed the Powder Mountain proposal over doubts that the Hartwicks had sufficient financial backing, which Hartwick says was not the case. At the time they had more than 75 investors behind them, all of which continue to back Powder Mountain to this day.

Instead, the Hartwicks allege that cronyism was at play, and that then-Premier Bill Vander Zalm intervened on behalf of a friend who was involved in Callaghan Resorts.

What has followed is more than 20 years of legal wrangling, lawsuits and appeals that have so far been unsuccessful. During that period the province has issued several land use tenures in the Callaghan Valley — including Callaghan Country, Powder Mountain Catskiing and Canadian Snowmobile Adventures — and aided in the establishment of the Whistler Nordic Centre as a venue for the 2010 Games. All of it is illegal, according to Nan Hartwick, who asserts that Powder Mountain had an agreement in principle with the province.

"It's very important to repeat that we are not against the Olympics," she said. "We do think it's important for taxpayers to know that we never did ask for any government money, and we could have saved millions of dollars that were spent illegally in the Lower Callaghan Valley. We had the rights from the government, in documentation, to develop the entire valley, and still hold those rights."

Hartwick believes that her resort could have hosted some of the Nordic events on privately funded facilities, or that the events could have been hosted far more easily at Cypress Mountain.

She says the review will reveal that some of the same people who were involved in quashing her proposal in the 1980s are currently involved in the development of the Callaghan. If they can prove that conflict of interest as well as allegations of cronyism, Hartwick believes it will be a short leap to have the Powder Mountain Resorts' proposal for the area reinstated.

"We don't need another lawsuit, it's the commercial crime group of the RCMP that's working on this investigation," said Hartwick. "They're going over everything, the entire history and everything that has happened. We're counting on them to be able to prove what we know and have known for many, many years."

A previous criminal investigation by the RCMP was closed in 2000, shortly after the B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed a lawsuit for $5 million against Callaghan Resorts and others the Hartwicks allege were behind the decision to quash their resort proposal. Following the lost appeal, they applied to have their case heard at the Supreme Court of Canada — a process that is still ongoing.

Hartwick said the RCMP's decision to re-open the case is based on new evidence of conflict of interest.

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This astonishing information came in today as a comment which provided an URL for reference. BC Mary failed to achieve access to the site. Then Anonymous said...

THE link I gave you must be faulty because there is lots of discussion about BC rail for instance. Please review this item.

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004
UBCIC Critical of Proposed merger of BC Rail with CN Rail

Sheridan Scott
Commissioner of Competition
Competition Bureau, Industry Canada
21st Floor, 50 Victoria Street
Hull, Quebec K1A 0C9
Facsimile: (819) 953-5013

April 23, 2004
Attention: Sheridan Scott, Commissioner of Competition

Dear Commissioner Scott:

Re: Proposed merger of BC Rail with CN Rail

The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is concerned that the province
of B.C. may have willfully mislead or withheld information from the
Competition Bureau regarding the proposed merger of BC Rail and CN Rail.

Instead of meaningfully addressing its fiduciary legal obligations to
Indigenous Peoples, the government of B.C. has engaged in fraud and
deceit: details of the deal between B.C. and CN Rail (the
“Revitalization Agreement”) were kept secret, while the province gave
assurances that no Aboriginal Title or Rights would be impacted by the
Agreement. These assurances are blatant lies. Recently leaked portions
of the Revitalization Agreement indicate that the Agreement is for up to
a period of 900 years, and that B.C. may transfer Crown Lands (where
Aboriginal Title continues to exist and has not been ceded or otherwise
addressed) to CN Rail for $1.00 (one dollar).

We wish to draw your urgent attention to information that the
Competition Bureau is bound to consider in rendering a decision on
whether or not to approve the proposed merger (de facto sale) of BC Rail
and CN Rail:

a) Aboriginal Title and Rights exist along the BC Rail corridor, and are
constitutionally protected under s. 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982;

b) The BC Rail line and other operations run directly through the
reserve lands of twenty-five Indigenous communities in British Columbia;

c) The province of B.C. has legal fiduciary obligations to meaningfully
consult with Aboriginal Peoples prior to undertaking or authorizing land
transactions that will impact Aboriginal Title and Rights;

d) Indigenous Peoples and communities along the BC Rail corridor will be
severely and negatively impacted by this transaction;

e) The province of B.C. has not meaningfully consulted with Aboriginal
Peoples about the proposed merger (sale) of BC Rail to CN Rail, and
instead has engaged in fraud and deceit with the aim of withholding the
details of the agreement, and its full impact, from Indigenous Peoples;
and

f) The province of B.C. is not in a legal position to enter or complete
this transaction without engaging in good faith consultations with
Indigenous Peoples.

Below, we set out further information regarding governments’ legal
obligations to Indigenous Peoples, and why we believe the Competition
Bureau must consider these facts prior to rendering a decision.

A. Aboriginal Title and Rights and Lack of Meaningful Consultation

The BC Rail corridor and rail bed are on Aboriginal Title Lands, and
it’s operations impact Aboriginal Rights. Both Canada and the province
of B.C. have fiduciary obligations to Indigenous Peoples regarding
Aboriginal Title and Rights in the BC Rail corridor which have not been
addressed.

The province alleges that there are no Aboriginal Title or Rights issues
raised by this transaction, and therefore no duty to consult with, nor
to meaningfully address and accommodate Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

The province argues that there is no need to consult about the BCR/CNR
transfer because there is no “new” interest being created, merely the
continuation of an existing use. This is not a legally correct position.
The long-term lease (for a period of up to 900 years) transfers
effective ownership and control of the rail bed and rail line from B.C.
to CN Rail, and a transfer of this magnitude triggers a legal obligation
to consult. Any purported transfer of Aboriginal Title lands requires
the consent of Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous communities who live alongside the BC Rail line have their
rights impacted daily, the building and on-going operation of the rail
line continue to impact upon Aboriginal Title and Rights and the use
that Indigenous Peoples can make of Aboriginal Title lands. A transfer
of effective ownership and operation of BC Rail from the provincial
Crown to a private corporation engages issues relating to fiduciary
obligations over the ongoing operation. Indigenous communities along the
BC Rail corridor adamantly oppose the transfer on their assessment that
this transfer will result in the violation of their Aboriginal Title and
Rights. This Indigenous opposition has been ignored, at the same time
that the Aboriginal Title and Rights impacts of this transfer have been
denied.

The Supreme Court of Canada has interpreted the constitutional
protection afforded to Indigenous Peoples rights under s. 35(1) of the
Constitution Act, 1982 and has said that meaningful and good faith
consultation is required where governments take actions that will impact
upon Aboriginal Title and Rights: Delgamuukw v. B.C.[1] The
Supreme Court has also said that Aboriginal Title includes the right to
choose to what uses these lands can be put. Where a transaction will
significantly impact the Aboriginal Title of Indigenous Peoples, as this
transaction will do, the consent of Indigenous Peoples is required.

In Haida Nation v. Weyerhaeuser,[2] the Haida Nation challenged the transfer and renewal of an existing Tree Farm Licence. The B.C. Court of Appeal held that there was an enforceable consultation duty on transfers or renewals of existing interests if they might impact upon
Aboriginal Title or Rights. The Haida and Taku River Tlingit v. Ringstad[3] cases clearly found a consultation duty on government prior to the proof of Aboriginal Title and Rights in court. Subsequent to the Haida and Taku decisions, the issue of whether government can approve transfers of corporations, without consultation, where Aboriginal Title and Rights will be impacted was considered in Gitksan and other First Nations v. B.C. (Minister of Forests),[4] where the B.C. Supreme Court ordered government to engage in good faith consultations with the aim of seeking “workable accommodations” of the Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

There has been no consultation with Indigenous Peoples. Instead, the province has acted in bad faith by keeping the details of this Agreement secret from Indigenous Peoples.


B. Interests in Reserve Lands

Where BC Rail operates on rights-of-way running through reserve lands
there are significant questions regarding the legality of B.C.’s
proposed transfer or long-term lease of these rights-of-way. The wording
of the right-of-way grants may prevent this transfer of effective
control and usage. The federal government must approve these transfers
as they hold reserve lands in trust for Indigenous Peoples, and the
consent of Indigenous Peoples is required.

As the full contents of the Revitalization Agreement have been kept
secret we cannot comment on the full impact, but it is likely that
conditions of the grants creating the province’s rights-of-way may
prevent a transfer of the nature contemplated by the Revitalization
Agreement. This issue affects interests in reserve lands, directly
engages federal fiduciary obligations, and must be addressed prior to
approval by the Competition Bureau.


C. Competition Bureau’s Legal Obligation to Consider government’s
failure to consult:

The UBCIC is concerned that the province of B.C. may have mislead the
Competition Bureau by claiming an exclusive right to transfer its
interests in BC Rail without first addressing the constitutionally
protected rights of Indigenous Peoples. In making the decision of
whether or not to approve the merger (transfer) of BC Rail to CN Rail
the Competition Bureau is under an obligation to inquire into the full
extent of governments’ consultations with Indigenous Peoples.

The Supreme Court of Canada has found that federally-created tribunals
must consider whether or not government has fulfilled their fiduciary
legal obligations to Indigenous Peoples in rendering their decisions. In
Quebec (A.G.) and Grand Council of the Crees v. Canada (N.E.B.)[5]
<#_ftn5> the Supreme Court said that the National Energy Board “must
exercise its decision-making function, including the interpretation and
application of its governing legislation, in accordance with the
dictates of the Constitution, including s. 35(1) of the Constitution
Act, 1982.”

The constitutional rights of Indigenous Peoples must be addressed. In
the absence of evidence of consultation this transaction cannot be
approved. There has been no consultation; Instead, the province of B.C.
willfully mislead and lied to Indigenous Peoples about this transaction.

The Competition Bureau must be mindful of existing constitutional rights
and consider the privatization deal from the perspective of the impact
that it will have on Aboriginal Title and Rights. Absent proof of
government’s fulfillment of its legal obligations to Indigenous Peoples,
this merger (transfer) cannot be approved.


D. Recommendations:

The UBCIC recommends that:

1) The Competition Bureau require both the federal and provincial
governments to show evidence that they fully and meaningfully consulted
with Indigenous Peoples about the impact of this Agreement on Aboriginal
Title, Rights and interests in reserve lands including a full and complete disclosure of the details of the transactions, so that Indigenous Peoples can fully assess its impact;

2) The Competition Bureau advise the province that it considers the
application incomplete absent evidence of full, meaningful, and good
faith consultations with Indigenous Peoples, including a full disclosure
of all details of the agreement; and

3) That the Competition Bureau undertake a full public inquiry about
this matter, or request that the Competition Tribunal do so. Hearings
should be held in the Indigenous communities along the BC Rail corridor
whose Aboriginal Title, Rights and interests in reserves lands will be
directly and significantly affected.

The Competition Bureau is under a legal duty to refuse to approve this
transaction absent evidence that the federal and provincial governments
have fulfilled their fiduciary obligation to consult with Indigenous
Peoples. That consultation has not occurred. We urge the Competition
Bureau to hold the federal and provincial governments to account for
their failure to address the Aboriginal Title and Rights impacted by the
BC Rail/CN Rail deal.

We look forward to hearing from you how the Competition Bureau is
considering and addressing the constitutional rights of Indigenous
Peoples in its assessment of the BC Rail/CN Rail transaction. We would
be pleased to provide you with further information if this would be of
assistance.

Yours truly,

Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs
[Original signed by Chief Stewart Phillip]
Chief Stewart Phillip
President

C.C.: Union of BC Indian Chiefs’ Chiefs Council
First Nations Summit, Task Group
Vice-Chief Shawn Atleo, Assembly of First Nations, BC Region
National Chief Phil Fontaine, Assembly of First Nations, Ottawa

Honourable Lucienne Robillard
Minister of Industry
11th Floor, CD Howe Building
235 Queen Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H5 Facsimile: (613) 992-0302

Competition Tribunal
Thomas D’Arcy McGee Building
90 Sparks Street, Suite 600
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5B4 Facsimile: (613) 957-3170

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Anonymous 3:10, I am still boggle-eyed over this. It's the first I've heard about this kind of conflict-of-interest (if that's what it's called). Would you mind giving me another URL to access the site this comes from ... it could've been my fault that I couldn't get the first URL to work. Or Google's fault -- it often balks like this. Or the computer's fault. I think this is the final signal that I need a new computer.

Thanks again, very much. - BC Mary.

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More at: http://www.turtleisland.org/discussion/viewtopic.php? where I found this quote:

Chief Phillip concluded, "We recognize that the Agreement represents much more than the consolidation of two railways. Rather, it is a massive land swap from a former provincial crown corporation to a private third party interest ..."

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Noted in passing: Vancouver Police opened a community police centre two weeks ago, adjacent to the Ross Street temple. Interesting description in Vancouver Sun, July 7, 2008, about how that is working out. - BC Mary.

Full story at: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=f68de5c0-b22a-4c69-be15-e5ff8ab48ff5

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North Van's Grumps said...

Chorus:"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." -Act 4, Scene 1, MacBeth, William Shakespeare

Chorus of BC Liberals: "Lets hear Seventy-seven cheers for BC Rail sale to CN Rail.... for a dollar." - Kevin Falcon.

Backgrounder: By July 14, 2008 CN Rail will have been in possession of running their railcars over BC Rails [for 4 years]. And in many cases "over" has included off of the tracks.

Only now, as we approach the five year deadline, a sinister plot is finally emerging, one that was conceived to prepare the public to accept the fact that running a railway is a dangerous and expensive proposition, especially when environmental damage is done.

The penalty to CN Rail? They must purchase the environmentally damaged rail line for a Dollar!

Page 10559 of Hansard:

J. MacPhail: [Leader of the Opposition]

....[1540]

I want to ask about this $1 land sale and the first nations. We know, actually, that the view of northerners about the single greatest impediment to economic growth is it's the failure to settle land claims — the single greatest impediment — so the settlement of land claims is actually extremely important.

We know from the leaked parts of the deal that the government claims they can sell land for $1. The government claims to have been fulfilling their duty to consult with first nations. We know that is being challenged hugely by the first nations. The revitalization agreement has a clause that the first nations have seen — a clause that allows the government to give publicly owned B.C. Rail land to CN for $1.

The Liberals — and I heard the minister say it again today — have said that in this case, if CN contaminates any land with an environmental spill and the government is upset about that, they can force ownership of the polluted land on CN. Actually, before the government changes to the Waste Management Act, that responsibility would have rested with CN regardless. This government, of course, has weakened the environmental protection language. They are saying: "Oh, if that CN has a spill, we can force them to buy the land for a buck."

...............................................................................................................................................


Hon. K. Falcon: No, I'm just suggesting that it might be one avenue where the member can answer this.

What I will point out is that the province requested and specifically put in this provision because this provision allows the province, at our sole discretion — that is the legal language — an option to force CN to take ownership of abandoned rights-of-way if the railway operations are discontinued.

Let's talk about that for a minute. If that was going to happen…. We know, of course, that they can't discontinue it for the first five years of the agreement, because that's part of the agreement. After that, if they applied for discontinuance through the Canada Transportation Act, if no short-line operator stepped forward that was prepared to operate on that discontinued portion of the track and if the province has exhausted all the options available to it for land disposition…. Remember, we are the owner of the railbed and right-of-way. This is another one of the great advantages of why we wanted to maintain public ownership — because we have those options to work with first nations, to work with local government, to work with the private sector, looking at what options we have available.

One thing I would underscore to the member and one thing she's quite incorrect about is that we would always respect our constitutional obligations with respect to first nations prior to engaging in a transfer of any discontinued track lands. That would automatically trigger our obligations, and we would — as we have done and always will do — fulfill our constitutional obligations to first nations.

The reasons why the province might want CN to take ownership relate…. I used the environment as an example. The member is quite right. If there is an environmental spill, there are agencies of government that deal with the immediate impact of that spill.

[1545]

There are other issues where we want to make sure that future taxpayers and future governments are protected. If there is, over the course of the use of the train over a certain line, some significant remediation costs that were never considered at the time — who knows what those could be; who knows what they might be hauling in 30, 40, 50 years? — it does allow the province, at its sole discretion, to ensure that a discontinuance doesn't take place for the sole reason of trying to off-load

[ Page 10560 ]

that cost onto the public taxpayer. That, to me, is an example of a very smart evaluation team working hard to protect the public interest by adding that clause.

There are also safety issues that would be considered. For example, if part of the discontinued track included a tunnel, there could be significant safety and engineering issues associated with that tunnel. That may be something a future government wants to be very aware of before they find themselves locked into a position where they may have to consider absorbing enormous costs associated with upgrading or spending significant dollars on a tunnel."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

North Van's Grumps: compliments to you are flying about, I hope you hear a few of them. Your contributions are greatly appreciated. Many, many thanks. - BC Mary.

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It’s amazing how effectively news can be changed by NOT publishing it … if you catch my drift. The first I knew about CanWest's debt, was when I read about it yesterday on Harvey Oberfeld's blog.

Harvey is a good one to talk about these things. He worked as a CanWest journalist for many years - 27 years on NewsHour - but now that he's retired, his excellent blog suggests that there are a few things still bottled up in his thoughts. Good.

So I googled "CanWest Global + debt" ... and got:

CANWEST GLOBAL (CGS)
CanWest's stake in Ten set to rise

GRANT ROBERTSON
MEDIA REPORTER - July 4, 2008


... CanWest told investors yesterday it has decided not to offer any of its stock ... amid slumping media markets.

The Winnipeg-based media company owns 56 per cent of [Australian] Ten Network, which it was looking to sell last year for upwards of $1.5-billion. CanWest held on to its stake when it did not receive a high enough offer.

Taking part in the buyback would have given CanWest some cash to put toward its $3.9-million debt, analysts said yesterday. Instead, the company will now likely see its stake in the Australian broadcaster rise to more than 62 per cent, once the buyback is complete and the shares are cancelled.

Concerns about the debt, and a broader economic slowdown that is hitting newspaper publishers and broadcasters hard as advertising spending recoils, have pushed CanWest's shares to their lowest point since 1992. ...

Harvey Oberfeld's excellent blog [http://harveyoberfeld.ca/blog/?p=56] reports that 2 years ago, CanWest shares were $15 apiece; in 2007 shares dropped to $9.50 apiece. On July 5, 2008 The Globe and Mail reports that CanWest share prices closed at $2.33.

Oberfeld (who worked for 27 years at NewsHour) has a wry editorial on the strangeness of CanWest publishing nothing absolutely nothing about this.


CANWEST GLOBAL (CGS)

Close: $2.33, down 20¢
Saturday, July 05, 2008, page B2

CanWest Global Communications Corp. has $3.9-billion in debt.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080704.RCANWEST04//TPStory/Business

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The following presentation is lengthy but it's good. A reader has generously contributed this research on the connections between the players in VANOC and BCRail (an oversimplification on my part). The research is presented unverified, exactly as received, for the benefit of others. Send your comments. Very special thanks to the unknown person who gathered and sorted all this information for us. - BC Mary.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anonymous said...

with links to the BC Rail deal.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 12 2003


RE: Plundering BC: Olympics, The Bid Corp, and Special Interests

1. Who's who in the Bid Corp? Some special members and their 'interests':

-Concord Pacific (Li Ka-Shing and Hui family owned), developer of the
former Expo 86 lands (one-sixth of downtown Vancouver) is significantly
represented on the Bid Board with David McLean (Chairman of the Board and
a Director of Concord Pacific Group Inc.) and Kwok Tun-Li, Stanley (Former
Deputy Chairman for Concord Pacific).

2. David McLean is also involved with the following business interests:

a) Founding Chairman of the Vancouver Board of Trade Foundation
b) Founder and Chairman, Vancouver Film Studios (another BC
government-funded private entity)
c) Chairman of the Board, The McLean Group, which has developed numerous
residential, office, retail and industrial properties
d) past Chair the Canadian Chamber of Commerce
e) Director, DeHavilland Aircraft of Canada
f) Director, Northwestel
g) Director, CANAC Consultants Ltd.
h) Director, Nu West Group
i) Founding Chairman of Westech Information Systems, the former
information systems arm of B.C. Hydro, and led the company through
privatization from its parent company
j) Former Chairman of the Board of Coastland Wood Industries
k) One of twenty-two business delegation members led by Premier Gordon
Campbell to attend 2002 World Economic Forum.

-Mr. McLean is also involved with the following business interests:
Chair, CN Rail (frontrunner to purchase the soon-to-be-privatized BC
Rail)
Founding Chairman of the Vancouver Board of Trade Foundation
Founder and Chairman, Vancouver Film Studios
Chairman of the Board, The McLean Group (which has developed numerous
residential, office, retail and industrial properties)
Director, DeHavilland Aircraft of Canada
Director, Northwestel,
Director, CANAC Consultants Ltd.
Director, Nu West Group
Founding Chairman of Westech Information Systems (the former information
systems arm of B.C. Hydro, and led the company through privatization from
its parent company)
Former Chairman of the Board of Coastland Wood Industries Chair, CN Rail.


3. Stanley Tun-Li Kwok and Bid Corp, reported as 'Mastermind of Expo '86',
is also involved in a multitude of multinational businesses:

a) Principal, Stanley Kwok Consultants Inc.
b) Director, Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited (The Cheung Kong Group, owned
principally by Li ka-Shing operates in 41 countries and employs over
163,000 staff worldwide)
c) Development Consultant for the South East Shore of False Creek
d) Director of Omnipoint Corporation, priceline.com Incorporated, VoiceStream
Wireless Corporation, Western Wireless Corporation, Global Crossing Ltd.,
Breakaway Solutions Inc.
d) Director, Amara International Investment Corporation (a Vancouver-based
private company specializing in real estate investment and in locating
Asian partnerships for projects).
e) Director, CTC Bank of Canada
f) Director, Husky Energy Inc.
g) Principal, Stanley Kwok & Associates,(worked on the Concord Pacific
development on the former Expo lands on the north shore of the Creek)
h) Joint Venture Partner with TYBA Group Inc and Dong Ah Construction
Industrial of Seoul, South Korea in the Crystal Project , a CAN$200
million development in suburban Vancouver that also includes 55,000 square
feet of office space, a 210,000 square-foot retail area, a 22,500
square-foot conference center and a 218-unit residential complex.
i) Former Director, BC Hydro
j) Director, Bank of Montreal

-Vancouver hosted Expo'86, an international event not unlike the scale of
the proposed 2010 Winter Games. One and a half years later, then Premier
Bill Vander Zalm concluded the sale of the Expo lands (84- hectare site on
False Creek, representing one-sixth of downtown Vancouver) to Li Ka-Shing
(and the Hui family) for a reported price of $145 million (said by many to
be far too low, especially considering the tens of millions of dollars the
province spent to complete the environmental clean-up of the site).
Subsequently, his company, Concord Pacific Holdings, redeveloped the site
into a multi-billion dollar downtown residential community. Bid Board
Member, Stanley Tun-Li Kwok describes himself at one of his corporate
websites as 'Mastermind of Expo '86'.

-Mr. Kwok is Former Deputy Chairman for Concord Pacific (Bid Corp Director
David McLean is the current Chairman of the Board of Concord Pacific).

-Concord Pacific is the owner of Burcon International Developments Inc.,
one of North America's leading real estate development, investment and
management organizations with assets over C$1 billion and based in
Vancouver, B.C.

-Burcon is the controlling shareholder of Oxford Properties Group Inc.
(owner of Marathon Realty).

-Mr. Kwok is Principal, Stanley Kwok Consultants Inc. and Development
Consultant for the South East Shore of False Creek. He is also a Director
of Li Ka-Shing's Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited (The Cheung Kong Group
operates in 41 countries and employs over 163,000 staff worldwide with a
combined market capitalization of HK$439 billion as at January 31, 2003).
Kwok is Director, Amara International Investment Corporation (a
Vancouver-based private company specializing in real estate investment and
in locating Asian partnerships for projects). His additional Directorships
include: Li Ka-shing's companies: Omnipoint Corporation, priceline.com
Incorporated, VoiceStream Wireless Corporation, Western Wireless
Corporation, Global Crossing Ltd., Breakaway Solutions Inc. and Husky
Energy Inc. (Husky Board Members also include: Stanley's wife Eva, Terry
Hui, President and CEO of Concord Pacific Group Inc., Martin Glynn President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of HSBC Bank and Victor Li, son of Li Ka-shing, Managing Director and Deputy Chairman of Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited
Canada). Bank Director positions include: Bank of Montreal and CTC Bank
of Canada. Additionally, he is a Joint Venture Partner with TYBA Group Inc
and Dong Ah Construction Industrial of Seoul, South Korea in the Crystal
Project , a CAN$200 million development in suburban Vancouver that also
includes 55,000 square feet of office space, a 210,000 square-foot retail
area, a 22,500 square-foot conference center and a 218-unit residential
complex.

As noted, Concord Pacific, Li Ka-Shing and Hui family owned, is
significantly represented on the Bid Board with David McLean (Chairman
of the Board and a Director of Concord Pacific Group Inc.) and Stanley
Kwok Tun-li (Former Deputy Chairman for Concord Pacific).

4. Other Bid Corp directors and their interests:
-HSBC (of which Li Ka-shing is a Principal and Director) is aptly
represented on the Bid Board by Eric Major, Director, HSBC Capital
(Canada) Inc. and Milton Wong, Chair, HSBC Asset Management Canada Ltd.
(responsible for assets of $4 billion at HSBC). HSBC purchased M.K. Wong &
Associates to form HSBC Asset Management Canada Ltd. Merrill Lynch Canada
(reportedly owned by Thomas Fung, Fairchild Group) is represented on the
Bid Board by Guy Savard, Vice-Chair & Chair, Quebec Operations, Merrill
Lynch Canada Inc. Merrill Lynch International is reportedly owned by Li
Ka-shing and Thomas Fung. Bid Board Member, Ms. France Chrétien-Desmarais
is daughter of the Honourable Jean Chretien, Prime Minister of Canada.

-Mr. Chretien, was from 1986 to 1990 a Senior Advisor with Gordon Capital
Corporation in Montreal.

-Gordon Capital is principally owned by Richard Li (Li Ka-Shing's son)
Gordon Capital owns HSBC Securities.

-Ms. Chretien-Desmarais husband is Andre Desmarais, President and Co-Chief
Executive Officer of the family-owned Power Corporation of Canada
Power Corporation of Canada is a diversified management and holding
company. Power Corporation of Canada has holdings in leading financial
services and the communications sector.

-Through its European-based affiliate Pargesa group, Power Corporation
holds significant positions in major media, energy, water, waste services,
and specialty minerals companies. Power Corporation also has diversified
interests in Asia.

-Power Financial Corporation is a diversified management and holding
company with interests in the financial services industry in North
America. Including: Great-West Lifeco Inc.: The Great-West Life Assurance
Company, London Life Insurance Company, Great-West Life & Annuity
Insurance Company. Investors Group Inc. is one of Canada's leading
financial services companies with over $41.6 billion in assets under
management and a network of 3,400 consultants.

-Mackenzie Financial Corporation is an integrated financial services
company whose core business is the management of mutual funds in Canada,
with $33.4 billion in assets under management, and distribution
relationship with over 37,000 independent financial advisers. Pargesa
Holding S.A. holds significant positions in a selected number of large
companies based in Europe. These companies operate in strategic industries
including media, energy, public utilities and specialty minerals.

-Gesca Ltée holds a 100 per cent interest in the Montreal daily newspaper
La Presse and six other daily newspapers in the province of Quebec and
Ontario.

-Power Corporation of Canada is a partner with Li Ka-shing in CITIC
Pacific Limited (China's largest diversified Hong Kong-traded company. Its
activities are concentrated in four main areas: infrastructure, trading
and distribution, real estate and industrial manufacturing). Mr. Desmarais
is a Director and/or Member of the Board of: Great-West Lifeco Inc.,
Investors Group Inc., London Insurance Group Inc., Pargesa Holding S.A.,
Groupe Bruxelles-Lambert S.A., Bertelsmann A.G. Mr Desmarais is also a
Director of CITIC Pacific Ltd. and Bombardier Inc.

-In addition, Mr. Desmarais is Chairman of the Canada China Business
Council; Member of the International Advisory Council of CITIC; Member of
the Trilateral Commission; Member of the Chairman's International Advisory
Council of the Americas Society; Member of the Business Council on
National Issues and Member of diverse foundations and trusts in Canada and
a Member of the Hong Kong Chief Executive's Council of International
Advisers (The CECIA advises the Chief Executive from an international
perspective on strategic issues pertinent to the long-term development of
Hong Kong).

- Ms. Chretien Desmarais' husband Andre is a Director of Bombardier Inc.

-Also on the 2010 Games Bid Board is Mr. Laurent Beaudoin, Chair,
Bombardier Inc. Bombardier stands to gain significantly from their supply
of the $1.5 billion to $2 billion Vancouver/Richmond Rapid Transit line
proposed by the 2010 Bid Corp.

5. Bid Corp and the Sea to Sky Corridor:

The ski resort industry stands to make significant profits from the 2010
Winter Games.

-Intrawest is represented on the Bid Board by Doug Forseth, Senior VP,
Operations, Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. TAL Global Asset Management
(owned by CIBC) is the largest institutional shareholder of Intrawest
(reportedly 15%). Li- Ka-shing is reportedly the largest shareholder
(maximum allowable 10%) of CIBC. CIBC owns Wood Gundy.
Intrawest is the leading developer and operator of village-centered
destination resorts across North America. Intrawest owns or is involved in
14 mountain resorts in North America and Europe along with two
warm-weather resorts in the U.S.

-The company also has an interest in Alpine Helicopters Ltd., owner of
Canadian Mountain Holidays, the largest heli-skiing operation in the world
and Compagnie des Alpes, the largest ski operator in the world in terms of
skier visits (13 million in 2000/2001).

-Intrawest also has land on which to build 20,000 more units. Intrawest
holdings include ski resorts, residential communities, retail, hotels and
lodges.

-The Bid Corp. has identified rental costs payable to Intrawest for
facility usage during the Winter Games at $10 million to $30 million. In
addition to Concert Properties' real estate development interest in other
ski resorts and Intrawest's vast resort holdings, other Bid Board members
are intimately involved in the ski resort industry, including:

a) Kerrin Lee-Gartner (listed as Canadian Olympic Athlete - Alpine Skiing)
is Principlal, Kerrin Lee-Gartner's Snow Creek Lodge and Principal, Fernie
Alpine Resort
b) Nancy Greene Raine (listed as Director of Skiing, Sun Peaks Resort;
Canadian Olympic Athlete - Alpine Skiing) is Principal, Nancy Greene's
Cahilty Lodge, Sun Peaks, BC; President, NGR Resort Consultants Inc.;
Proponent with husband Al Raine of Melvin Creek/Cayoosh, $500 million
four-season ski resort (90 minute drive from Whistler). Al Raine was
responsible for the planning of Whistler.

-Mr. Caleb Chan (along with brother Tom Chan) has considerable businesses
assets in British Columbia and abroad. Of particular note are the holdings
in Vancouver, Furry Creek, Whistler, etc. directly impacted by the
2010Vancouver/Whistler Olympic Games:

Mr. Chan serves as:

a) President & Chairman, Burrard International
b) President & Chairman, The International Land Group, San Francisco
c) Director, UBC Properties Trust
d) Director, Belkorp Industries Inc. - Through several companies active in
British Columbia, Alberta, Washington, and Oregon, the Belkorp Group
Owns and operates: an extensive portfolio of properties comprising
approximately ,500 residential apartment suites, five industrial sites,
and Big Sky Golf, an award-winning course, conveniently located near
Whistler in the Pemberton Valley of British Columbia. In addition, the
Belkorp Group invests in various long-term business opportunities as a
merchant banker. Its holdings include significant interests in Rogers
Sugar Income Fund and Canadian Hotel Income Properties Real Estate
Investment Trust (CHIP REIT), an integrated hotel real estate investment
trust focused on mid-market and upscale full-service hotels. CHIP REIT
currently owns or manages 38 hotels with approximately 8,400 rooms. The
Belkorp Group owns and operates four businesses in the pulp and paper
production industry: Newstech BC reprocesses 165,000 tonnes of used
newsprint annually at its ISO9002 production facilities in Coquitlam,
British Columbia, producing recycled pulp for the newsprint industry;
Wastech Services one of the largest privately-owned solid waste management
companies in British Columbia, handles approximately 600,000 tonnes per
annum of municipal waste at three transfer stations in Greater Vancouver
and operates a landfill at Cache Creek for the GVRD ; Belkin Paper Stock
brokers waste paper from suppliers in Western Canada and the U.S. to mills
which use recycled fiber. This company also has established a newsprint
roll splitting and rewinding operation in Coquitlam. Waste-Not Recycling and Disposal, located in Richmond, British Columbia, provides recycling and waste removal services
for the residential, industrial, commercial, and institutional sectors of the Greater Vancouver, British Columbia region.

e) Director, Board of Trustees, Canadian Hotel Income Properties

f) Principal, GolfBC Properties: Kelowna: The Okanagan Golf Club, The Bear
at Okanagan Golf Club, The Quail at Okanagan Golf Club, Gallagher's Canyon
Golf & Country Club, The Pinnacle Course at Gallagher's Canyon Whistler:
Nicklaus North Golf Course & Crystal Lodge Furry Creek: Furry Creek Golf &
Country Club Vancouver: Mayfair Lakes (Richmond) & Burrard Golf & Tennis
(at Burrard & Alberni, Vancouver) Vancouver Island: Arbutus Ridge Golf &
Country Club (Cobble Hill) & Olympic View Golf Club (Victoria) Other
GolfBC properties: Burrard Golf & Tennis & The Crystal Lodge, Whistler

g) Principal, CRC Developments Ltd.( The company owns golf course
residential developments)

h) Principal, Gallagher's Canyon Land Development Ltd.

i) Nicklaus North, in Whistler, B.C. and Arbutus Ridge on Vancouver Island
are two examples of communities CRC has developed.

j) Currently in the planning stages is the development of a new community
at the Olympic View Golf Course in the Victoria area on Vancouver Island.

k) Goldenwood Townhouse Project, Whistler, BC.

l) member of the advisory board of the Asia Pacific Initiative in Vancouver

m) Director, B.C. Housing Management Corporation

n) Director, Land Planning Committee of the Loma Linda University
Development Corporation

Perhaps this is a good time to re-visit the $billion question:


6. The Toronto 2008 Bid: Connections or Coincidences?

-Li’s Concord Pacific's City Place is a 44-acre development site in
downtown Toronto, on which 5.5 million square feet of residential and
commercial space are to be built.

-Li Ka-shing reportedly also holds an exclusive right to use the CN Tower
for a period of 35 years (obtained for $2 billion CDN). Financier Robert
Fung, was appointed by Prime Minister (and former business partner) Jean
Chretien to Chair the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Task Force on
behalf of the Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario and the City
of Toronto. The new corporation was to involve construction of large-scale
infrastructure projects that would permanently improve Toronto's
waterfront, as well as support the city's bid for the 2008 Olympics.

-His report detailed a strategic business plan for the $12 billon renewal,
development and financing of Toronto's waterfront. Fung was afterward
appointed as Chair of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation.

-Robert A. Fung is Deputy Chairman of Yorkton Financial Incorporated. From
1980 to 1997, he was the vice-chairman and a director of Gordon Capital
Corporation.

-Upon leaving Gordon Capital, he joined Capital West where he was a senior
partner. From 1967 to 1978, he was vice-president and a director of
Dominion Securities Limited with responsibilities for its investment
activities in Asia and the Middle East.

-He began his career in the investment industry in 1964 with Wood Gundy.
He is Chairman of Crystallex International Corporation, SMART Toronto as
well as a director of Canada's Export Development Corporation, Asia
Pacific Foundation of Canada, GLOBE Foundation of Canada, and StockHouse
Media Corporation.

-He was a member of the Prime Minister of Canada's Advisory Committee on
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, as well as a member of the Government
of Canada's Department of Industry International Trade and Agriculture
Team Canada Inc. Advisory Board, which provided advice to the Government
of Canada in setting strategic direction and performance objectives for
Canada's International Business Development.

-He was also deputy-chairman of high-tech brokerage Yorkton Securities Inc
and Executive Chairman of Crystallex International Corp.

-Fung's son Robert Jr. worked as a developer on Vancouver's False Creek
development with Concord Pacific Group Inc.

-Fung's university roommate, long-time friend Paul Martin, prime minister
in waiting, was a former senior executive with Power Corp. and
Consolidated Bathurst. Martin served as CEO of both CSL Inc. and Canada
Steamship Lines. Martin eventually purchased Canada Steamship Lines from
Power Corp. for $180 million.

7. Who benefits the most from the 2010 Winter Games and the associated
mega projects?

RAV:
-Bombardier is highly represented on the Bid Corp and stands to pick up a
multi-billion contract for the proposed Vancouver/Richmond line.

-Original Bid Society Member, Arthur Griffiths, was Chair of Public
Consultation, Rapid Transit Project 2000, charged with the public-view
task of addressing our rapid transit needs.

Convention Centre:
-Bid Board Members are on the Convention Centre Expansion Task Force Chair
Peter Armstrong and Rick Antonson, Member & Spokesperson, Convention
Centre Expansion Task Force who are the ones that have told us how badly
we need the expansion, irrespective of the Winter Games.

-The three approved Convention Centre Expansion bidders were Concert
Properties, Concord Pacific and Marathon Realty.

-2010 Bid Board Members: Jack Poole, David Podmore and Ken Georgetti
proposed to build the Convention Centre, inclusive of a casino, almost a
decade ago.

Sea To Sky Highway upgrade:
-See the listed developments above along the highway.


8. The Bid and privatization:
-The 2010 Winter Games may or may not come to BC but the mega-projects
will, paid for by BC taxpayers.

-Once the infrastructure has been built how long will it be before the
assets will be privatized and handed over to the private sector for
'cost-saving measures'?

-Some further connections: The Bid Corp includes Larry Bell, who
established Urban Transit Authority (B.C. Transit), 1978; Responsible for
the Privatization - Housing Corp. of B.C. ('79), B.C. System Corp. ('82),
B.C. Hydro Gas ('88), B.C. Hydro Rail ('88) and was the Former Member of
Government of B.C. Public/ Private Partnership Task Force AND now Chair
and CEO, BC Hydro during the Accenture-privatization process.

-David McLean, Founding Chairman of Westech Information Systems, the
former information systems arm of B.C. Hydro, who led the company through
privatization from its parent company?

-Premier Campbell has just announced the need to privatize BC Rail and the
Games Bid Board includes: David McLean, Chair, CN Rail; Peter Armstrong,
President & CEO, Great Canadian Railtour Company Ltd. And Rick Antonson,
Former Vice President of Great Canadian Railtour Company Ltd.Or maybe,
Suzanne Denbak, "consultant with Price Waterhouse, specializing in
public/private partnerships in the hospitality industry".

9. NO GAMES 2010 Coaltion has released previous disclosures of conflicts
of interest in relation to the 2010 Olympic Bid. These previous
communications and the current one make clear the intimate connection
between special interests and the mega projects associated with the Games.
The citizens of BC who ignore this information will pay for their lack
of action with their tax dollars for decades to come.

10. The Olympic Bid is a scam of epic proportions. The time has come for
all citizens to ask questions and demand answers. The time has come for
members of the press to finally do their jobs.

July 6, 2008 8:46 AM

Anonymous said #2 ...

BC RAIL DEAL FREES REAL ESTATE

By Charlie Smith

March 3, 2004

Deny, deny, deny. That pretty much sums up Premier Gordon Campbell's communications strategy concerning an RCMP investigation into two B.C. Liberal legislature officials for breach of trust.

In a stunning television sound bite, Campbell even suggested that the whole affair had nothing to do with his government.

This astonishing claim followed the release of a summary of search-warrant information. It explicitly stated that the investigation focused on whether or not offers were made and/or accepted "as consideration for cooperation, assistance or exercise of influence in connection with government business, including BC Rail".

Nobody has been charged with a criminal offence, and perhaps nobody will ever be charged. The search-warrant information states that no elected officials are targets of the investigation.

However, even if charges are laid, there is no guarantee that a criminal trial will shed any more light on the $1-billion sale of BC Rail shares to CN. In a criminal case, the Crown's only responsibility is to prove that the accused are guilty of specific offences beyond a reasonable doubt. The accused cannot be compelled to testify.

Only a broader public inquiry, in which a commissioner has subpoena powers and witnesses testify under oath, has any hope of ferreting out the truth about the decision to privatize BC Rail.

Consider the facts so far. Prior to the election, the premier told voters that he would not sell the Crown-owned railway. What led him to change his mind?

According to a fairness commissioner's report, some unsuccessful BC Rail bidders expressed concerns that information pertaining to their own interline agreements with BC Rail had been improperly or prematurely provided to CN.

One of the bidders, Canadian Pacific Railway, formally withdrew from the process after complaining about a "breach of fairness".

CN has contributed $150,000 to the B.C. Liberal party during Campbell's tenure as leader.

Meanwhile, a Crown corporation that manages public-sector pension funds, BC Investment Management Corp., owned $200 million in CN shares as of March 31, 2003.

CN chair David McLean, a Vancouver developer, has been a political supporter of the premier since Campbell was mayor of Vancouver in the 1980s and early 1990s.

McLean was previously chair of Concord Pacific, which also supported Campbell when he was mayor of Vancouver. Concord Pacific developed the north side of False Creek.

McLean also chaired the influential Vancouver Board of Trade in 1992 93 and supported Campbell's efforts to replace Gordon Wilson as leader of the B.C. Liberal party.

On November 25, the B.C. Liberal government announced in a news release that it had reached an agreement-in-principle with the District of Squamish to transfer 29 hectares of BC Rail land to the district.

According to the news release, prospective plans for the BC Rail site include developing a full-service marina, a passenger ferry terminal, and cruise berths.

The government also announced that CN will "facilitate" upgrading of the Sea-to-Sky Highway and ensure rail alternatives for the 2010 Winter Olympics. McLean was a director of the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation, which put together a successful bid to the International Olympic Committee.

The major provincial media continue focusing on the activities of political aides at the centre of the story. There has been little coverage of BC Rail's waterfront property in Squamish.

As the District of Squamish proceeds, there will be no shortage of developers wanting to exploit the potential. B.C.'s biggest players, such as Concert Properties and Concord Pacific, may find such an opportunity irresistible on the eve of the 2010 Olympics.

Executives with both companies were huge supporters of the Olympic bid. Concert Properties chairman Jack Poole is now chair of the organizing committee that is staging the 2010 Winter Games.

The IOC's endorsement last year set the stage for a real-estate boom along the Sea to Sky corridor.

So far, there is no evidence linking the privatization of BC Rail with the Olympic bid.

The premier had better hope this remains the case, because Vancouver will be hosting reporters from around the world in 2010. And it won't help B.C.'s image or the premier's reputation if the selloff of a Crown-owned railway becomes the big story of the games.

Anonymous said #3 ...

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
2003OTP0107-001058
Nov. 25, 2003
Office of the Premier
Ministry of Transportation

SQUAMISH BENEFITS FROM BC RAIL INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP


SQUAMISH – The Province has approved an agreement-in-principle with the district of Squamish and Nexen Inc. to transfer 71 acres of BC Rail lands to the district, allowing the city to revitalize its downtown core and create opportunities for jobs and economic development, said Judith Reid, Minister of Transportation.

“As we move forward with the investment partnership, we’re committed to working with communities up and down the corridor to make BC Rail’s surplus lands available to meet their needs,” said Campbell. “Mayor Sutherland and the district have been strong advocates for the opportunities that the Nexen lands can provide. With the agreement we’ve reached today, the Province and the district are working together to make the downtown redevelopment a reality.”

“I’m pleased Squamish can benefit from the BC Rail investment partnership,” said Transportation Minister Judith Reid. “I see a great potential here to boost tourism and draw business into the downtown. With the approach of the 2010 Olympic games, this is going to be a great way for Squamish to showcase their community and prosper from the new job opportunities, tourism investment and new taxation revenue.”

As a key element of the agreement-in-principle, BC Rail will potentially divest the land forming a peninsula at the tip of Howe Sound in downtown Squamish.

“This agreement sets the foundation for Squamish to realize its economic potential as we prepare for the 2010 Olympic games,” said Mayor Ian Sutherland. “Revitalizing the downtown will attract business and investment opportunities and will prove to citizens, shoppers, tourists and even 2010 athletes that downtown Squamish is the heart of our community."

Nexen, one of Canada’s largest oil and gas companies, has leased the land from BC Rail since 1987 and has been a supportive and active participant in the transaction with Squamish. The site has not been in operation since 1991, as Nexen has been undertaking remediation activities. This cleanup is now complete, opening an opportunity for Squamish to take ownership of the land.

Prospective plans include developing a full-service marina; a passenger ferry terminal; cruise berths; and a working waterfront involving light industrial manufacturing and transportation.

West Vancouver-Garibaldi MLA Ted Nebbeling, noted that the reintroduction of passenger-tourist trains under the $1-billion BC Rail Investment Partnership will create even more opportunities for Squamish and the Sea-to-Sky corridor. BC Rail and CN are issuing a request for proposals today for passenger-tourist services from Vancouver through Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton and Lillooet to Prince George.

“Throughout this process, I’ve been working to make sure that the concerns of Squamish residents about job impacts are addressed,” said Nebbeling. “The downtown redevelopment, along with new passenger tourist trains made possible by the BC Rail partnership, will go a long way to creating more jobs and new opportunities for Squamish.”

Additional benefits include:
· CN will work with the Province to facilitate the upgrading of the Sea-to-Sky Highway and ensure rail alternatives for a successful 2010 Olympics.
· CN will begin paying municipal taxes. Based on current assessment levels, the District of Squamish would receive more than $650,000 compared with the current amount of $321,000 paid by BC Rail in lieu of taxes. The Resort Municipality of Whistler would receive $55,000, compared with the current amount of $27,000. And the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District would receive over $495,000, compared with the current amount of $56,000.

· In addition to the Nexen site, the Province will also negotiate with communities on the transfer of other non-railway lands currently held by BC Rail to help meet local needs.

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Again, thanks to the generous Citizen Journalist who put this research together.

- BC Mary.

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Media
contact:
Steve Anderson
Communications Director
250 387-7787

Visit the province's Web site at http://www.gov.bc.ca/ for online information and services.

July 6, 2008 9:21 AM

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.
An excerpt from:
BRITISH COLUMBIA’S SENTENCING SYSTEM UNDER ATTACK

By Hon. John C. Bouck
(Retired B.C. Supreme Court judge)
Bouck's Law Blog.com - June 30, 2008


" ... B.C. is home to a variety of drug related criminals. Drug gang homicides in the first four months of 2008 were nearly three times that of Toronto. In the last decade the number of gangs jumped from 10 to 129. Criminal activity amounts to roughly 7% of B.C.’s total economy.

In 2006, Vancouver had the second-highest combined rate of all major cities in Canada and the U.S. It had nearly 3.6 times as many break and enters as New York per 100,000 people. B.C. criminal groups have built their forces on the backs of the flourishing marijuana industry."

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Did British Columbia miss an opportunity to investigate ...

DRUG LINK ALLEGED IN BASI CASE
Phone calls from suspected dealer led to raid, prosecutor says

CanWest News Service - Tuesday, May 08, 2007

VANCOUVER -- A former B.C. government aide from Victoria, probed by police for his involvement in the B.C. Rail sale, appeared to have links to the illicit drug trade, a prosecutor said yesterday.

Police became aware of Dave Basi when calls were made to his cellphone from his cousin, Jasmohan Singh Bains of Victoria, prosecutor Janet Winteringham said in B.C. Supreme Court.

{Snip} ...

Winteringham said police heard that Bains was head of a Victoria-based criminal organization that was shipping kilograms of cocaine to the Toronto area and shipping cash back by Federal Express. Bains is still facing trial, set for 2008.

The Victoria drug investigation began in May 2002 after the arrest in the U.S. of Cirilo Lopez, which resulted in "word on the street" indicating Bains was going to take over Lopez's drug operations, Winteringham said.

Tips from an informant suggested Basi was laundering money for Bains by purchasing real estate, Winteringham said.

After a wiretap operation was in place for the drug case, police overheard Basi discussing B.C. Rail matters.

At the time, Basi was an aide to Gary Collins, then B.C.'s finance minister. Virk, Basi's brother-in-law, was an aide to Judith Reid, then B.C.'s transportation minister. The province was in the midst of trying to sell B.C. Rail.

Prosecutors haven't decided whether to pursue the drug allegations against Basi.

{Snip} ...

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=82eeca7a-4f77-49f4-ad9b-949c6e66795c&k=99781
____________________________________________________________

and then ...

TRIALS CONNECTED TO LEGISLATURE RAID ABOUT TO START

Jeff Rud and Lindsay Kines
Times Colonist - January 05, 2006

A high-profile drug investigation that began in 2002, dubbed by police as "Project Everywhichway," is finally winding its way to the trial stage.

No convictions have resulted from the drug cases that eventually spun into the dramatic police raid on the B.C. legislature two years ago. But trials for six accused are scheduled for B.C. courtrooms during the next several months.

Two others formerly accused as a result of the Everywhichway investigation no longer face drug charges. Marijuana production and possession for the purposes of trafficking charges against former B.C. Finance Ministry aide Dave Basi were stayed last June [2005]. A drug charge against Mandeep Sandhu, also of Victoria, has since been stayed as well.

Lawyer Richard Peck of Vancouver said Wednesday that a charge of conspiracy to traffic marijuana against Sandhu was stayed on Nov. 7, presumably, Peck said, because of a lack of evidence against his client.

According to federal Justice Department spokeswoman Lyse Cantin, charges against Sandhu were stayed after he "forfeited certain funds that were seized from his residence.''

In all, eight people were charged in September 2004 as a result of what police said was a major drug and organized crime investigation. Six still face charges.

Jasmohan Bains of Victoria, B.C. resident John Scallon, Toronto's Brahm Mikol and Blythe Vernon of Scarborough, Ont., each charged with conspiracy to traffic, are scheduled to begin trial April 3 [2006] in Victoria provincial court. The trial is slated for April 3 to 27 and Sept. 11 to Nov. 23.

Scallon is also scheduled to go to trial in Vancouver along with B.C. resident Michael Doyle from Feb. 28 to March 30 on conspiracy to traffic charges.

The trial of Jaspal (Tony) Singh for conspiracy and possession for the purpose of trafficking began with a voire dire last month in Surrey. Proceedings resume for a day on Jan. 23 and again in March for three weeks.

After searching the legislature on Dec. 28, 2003, police announced that their raid was based partially on information related to a drug and organized crime investigation.

"Organized crime has stretched into every corner of B.C. and onto most city streets," RCMP Sgt. John Ward warned at the time. "It is not an exaggeration to say that organized crime is a cancer eating away at the social and moral fabric of British Columbia . . .''

According to a summary of drug-investigation search warrants released by Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm in April 2004, RCMP were investigating "bulk" trafficking in cocaine and marijuana.

{Snip} ...

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=d4503b4c-3e24-4901-83d6-045046ae617c&k=52201

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A contribution from North Van's Grumps"

have dropped in at The Legislature Raids hoping, I am sure, to see when the BCRail Case would come to trial.

We still don't know.

We didn't even know -- until it was over -- that Case #23299 was recalled to BC Supreme Court today or that the topics listed for discussion in Courtroom 75 would cover almost 8 pages. Consequently, no Citizen Journalists were in the public gallery taking notes and preparing to report on the event. Other regular journalists apparently didn't know about this hearing either and were on CKNW's Bill Good Show making ironic remarks about "conspiracy theories". Ironic, in the context of this trial.

That's the way this important trial has gone: on again, off again.

One of the topics in today's court listing is very new and very strange.

Defence is making an application "for an order staying the proceedings until AGBC [the Attorney-General of BC] provides [the] necessary funding for counsel".


Just guessing, of course, but does this mean that the BC Attorney General, Wally Oppal, is expected to pay all or a portion of the legal fees for the defence team? Who decided that? When? What terms?

Next pre-trial hearing for Basi, Virk, Basi Case #23299 is July 14 in Vancouver Supreme Court.

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Hahahaha. Good one. When governments play GOTCHA, things are seldom what they seem.

"I won't sell BC Rail" means BCRail is sold.

Next hearing is July 14 means that it happened today, July 4 at 10:00 AM.

Only Aneal Basi and Bobby Virk are listed on today's Public Access Supreme Court Criminal List plus one line of "Limited Access and others" vs HMTQ for full disclosure.

And so we sit, hands folded, bags over heads, sweetly waiting to find out what happens next.

Because we now know that "Open and transparent" means government won't tell us anything because the matter is before the courts. That, we are beginning to realize, has actually worked out rather nicely for the man who doesn't want to tell us why he sold BC Rail.

So why is it that the poor AG is saddled with the new name of StoneWally ... not the man who actually made the decision to sell BCRail but won't release a sliver of info about it? - BC Mary.

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Richard Watts wrote one report which appears today (under various headlines) in each of B.C.'s CanWest daily newspapers. This is the first published CanWest mention of the A.L.R. trial. Although Times Colonist gives a front-page position to this important aspect of the Basi affair, why did all CanWest newzpapers fail to inform the public that preliminary hearings during May and June -- under a publication ban -- were under way? - BC Mary. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DEVELOPERS TO STAND TRIAL FOR BRIBERY
Case involves Sunriver Estates; former aide to finance minister also charged

Richard Watts
Times Colonist -- Published: Thursday, July 03, 2008

Two Vancouver Island developers have been ordered to stand trial in B.C. Supreme Court for breach of trust and bribery of a B.C. government official.

Provincial court Judge Ernie Quantz ordered yesterday the trials of Anthony Ralph Young and James Seymour Duncan, builders of Sunriver Estates in Sooke, on charges of making an illegal payment to a government official and breach of trust.

David Basi, once the ministerial assistant to former finance minister Gary Collins, also stands charged with defrauding the government and breach of trust in connection with the Sunriver Estates case.

{Snip} ...

Quantz's decision was reached after a preliminary inquiry. Information from the inquiry cannot be disclosed because of a ban on publication.

The case will likely go to B.C. Supreme Court next week to set a date for trial.

Basi's name first entered news reports in connection with the Dec. 28, 2003, police raid on the legislature. When the Sunriver charges were first laid, RCMP said they arose after the raid on the legislature.

Court documents dealing with the charges indicate the Crown is alleging Young and Duncan paid $50,000 to Basi between Jan. 1, 2002, and Sept. 1, 2003, in connection with an application to take property out of the Agricultural Land Reserve.

The property was owned by Shambrook Hills Development Corp., also known as Sunriver Estates. Sunriver Estates is a 700-home development built on 155 hectares along the Sooke River with parkland, trails and a school. The land was originally purchased from forest company Timberwest. Past news reports indicate three attempts were required to get the Agricultural Land Commission to agree to remove the land from the reserve so it could be rezoned for housing.

Duncan and Young are longtime developers in Victoria. They have been partners in Swiftsure Developments Ltd., whose projects include the Magnolia Hotel in Victoria, the Ocean Park Towers in the Songhees and the Yale House Development near the Oak Bay Municipal Hall.

rwatts@tc.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=14dad06b-d198-45f6-9cf5-095cec3e37b7 """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

BRIBERY TRIAL SET FOR ISLAND DEVELOPERS
Pair charged with making an illegal payment to government official, breach of trust

Richard Watts
Canwest News Service
Published (Vancouver Sun): Thursday, July 03, 2008

Two Vancouver Island developers have been ordered to stand trial in B.C. Supreme Court for breach of trust and bribery of a B.C. government official.

On Wednesday provincial court Judge Ernie Quantz ordered the trials of Anthony Ralph Young and James Seymour Duncan, builders of Sunriver Estates in Sooke, on charges of making an illegal payment to a government official and breach of trust.

David Basi, once the ministerial assistant to former B.C. finance minister Gary Collins, is also charged with defrauding the government and breach of trust in connection with the Sunriver Estates case.

Quantz's reached his decision after a preliminary inquiry. Information from the inquiry cannot be disclosed because of a publication ban.

The case will likely go to B.C. Supreme Court next week to set a date for trial.

{Snip} ...

The land was originally purchased from forest company Timberwest. Past news reports indicate three attempts were required to get the Agricultural Land Commission to agree to remove the land from the reserve so it could be rezoned for housing. Duncan and Young are longtime developers in Victoria. They have been partners in Swiftsure Developments Ltd., whose projects include the Magnolia Hotel in Victoria, the Ocean Park Towers in the Songhees and the Yale House Development near the Oak Bay Municipal Hall.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=eee3894a-6c61-4687-b6d3-d8df29f757ff """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

NEW CHARGES LAID IN 2003 RAID ON BC LEGISLATURE

Richard Watts
Canwest News Service Published (The Province): July 02, 2008

VICTORIA - Two Vancouver Island developers have been ordered to stand trial in B.C. Supreme Court for breach of trust and bribery of a B.C. government official. On Wednesday provincial court Judge Ernie Quantz ordered the trials of Anthony Ralph Young and James Seymour Duncan, builders of Sunriver Estates in Sooke, on charges of making an illegal payment to a government official and breach of trust.

{Snip} ...

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=120bed15-4ee2-4335-af51-34281f52bece [This URL doesn't work for me. - BC Mary.]

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Defence in Basi-Virk case asks for 24 hours' FOI material to support Charter application alleging political interference by Premier Campbell


Lawyers want 24 hours info

BASI-VIRK TRIAL
By BILL TIELEMAN
24 HOURS - July 2, 2008

Defence lawyers for two B.C. government aides facing corruption charges have asked for a copy of an exclusive 24 hours' Freedom Of Information request as part of their supporting documents in a Charter of Rights application alleging political interference in the case.

The FOI request successfully obtained 100 pages of reports and notes written by a Public Affairs Bureau officer who attended pre-trial court hearings in the B.C. Legislature raid case last year and reported to the B.C. government about media questions and NDP MLAs attending court sessions. {Snip} ...

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Canadian Press - July 2, 2008

VICTORIA — A pair of Vancouver Island developers will face trial on charges involving the alleged bribery of a B.C. government official in a case resulting from the 2003 police raid on the B.C. legislature.

Following several days of preliminary hearings in May and June in Victoria, Justice Ernie Quantz has ordered Anthony Ralph (Tony) Young, 76, and James Seymour (Jim) Duncan, 64, to stand trial for three counts each of fraud and one count each of breach of trust over allegations they paid $50,000 to David Basi in 2003.

At the time, Basi was ministerial assistant to then-finance minister Gary Collins.

The Crown alleges the money was paid in connection to an application to remove property from the B.C. agricultural land reserve for Shambrook Hills Development Corp., now known as the Sunriver Estates, which has developed a residential subdivision near Sooke, west of Victoria.

Evidence from the preliminary hearing is under a publication ban.

The two men left the courtroom Monday without making any comment.

Basi has yet to go through a preliminary hearing on three counts of fraud and one of breach of trust relating to the alleged bribery.

He and two other former government aides are facing separate corruption charges related to the Liberal government's $1 billion privatization of Crown-owned BC Rail.

{Snip} ...

Police conducted the unprecedented search of the legislature on Dec. 28, 2003, seizing numerous files.

The Vancouver trial has been scheduled and postponed time and again, most recently becoming embroiled in an argument over whether defence lawyers can know the identify of an informer in the case.

The judge at the Vancouver trial has been told that the investigation and subsequent search were prompted by the informant, whose identity the Crown is trying to protect.

The trial has also heard an application from the defence to call B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell to testify.

A pre-trial conference for the developers' trial in Victoria has been scheduled for July 23.


http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hxyrUNqwCdHf8-ow7WdJMXrNzitQ

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DEVELOPERS TO FACE CHARGES RELATED TO BASI-VIRK CASE

By CANADIAN PRESS
24 HOURS - July 2, 2008

VICTORIA - A B.C. judge has ordered two Vancouver Island developers to face trial on charges involving the alleged bribery of a B.C. government official that resulted from a police raid on the provincial legislature.

After hearing evidence presented at a preliminary hearing in Victoria, Justice Ernie Quantz says Tony Young, 76, and Jim Duncan, 64, will stand trial on fraud and breach of trust charges over allegations they paid $50,000 to David Basi, an assistant to then-finance minister Gary Collins in 2003.

The Crown alleges the payment was made in connection to an application to remove property from the province's Agricultural Land Reserve for a residential subdivision near Sooke, now known as Sunriver Estates.

Basi faces a separate court process from the two developers on three counts of fraud and one count of breach of trust.

He and two other former B.C. government officials also face separate corruption charges stemming from the December 2003 police raid at the legislature, related to the $1 billion privatization of BC Rail.

{Snip} ...


http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2008/07/02/6046236.html

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From VICTORIA LAW COURTS
Room 101 - 2 July 2008

Page 4 and 5 of the day's listing:

File #134750-1-D - JAMES DUNCAN
Charges:
* person dealing with government offering bribe
* offer bribe to official for exercise of influence
* breach of trust by public officer
* offering bribe to government official

File #134750-D - ANTHONY YOUNG
Charges: same 4 charges as listed above.

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This web-site was established over 2 years ago for the purpose of informing citizens about the impending trial of Basi, Virk and Basi, because the mainstream media had gone virtually silent.

This is Posting #700 on The Legislature Raids ... and the following two announcements are telling us only that there will be two significant interviews coming up this week on the ... um, er ... the impending trial of Basi, Virk and Basi. The people of B.C. are still waiting for "justice to be seen to be done".


1) Bill Tieleman and Mark Hume (The Globe and Mail) will be on the Bill Good Show, CKNW AM 980 on Wednesday July 2nd from 9:00 to 10:00 AM, discussing the case of David Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi. (Radio)

Bill says: tune in for the latest in political corruption charges related to the $1 billion privatization of BC Rail and the raid on the BC Legislature in December 2003.


Later, Bill advised: Sorry folks - CKNW had to postpone the segment until 9:30 a.m. Thursday July 3 due to breaking news today.



2) On Voice of BC this week, Vaughn Palmer's guest will be Leonard Krog, Opposition Critic for the Attorney-General, on the topic of Basi, Virk, and Basi.

Shaw TV Network, Thursday July 3, at 8:00 PM, with repeats on the weekend.

[See comments for one suggestion about getting this on YouTube (a great idea) ... another good suggestion is that Krog might be the person to ask about getting TV cameras activated in the courtroom for Basi, Virk, Basi / BC Rail.]


Is anyone else thinking that these two unusual media events might be caused by jungle drums forecasting the start of that significant trial? - BC Mary.

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Happy Firsta July to Canadians everywhere!

For a couple of decades, I've been hearing this drum-beat about poor, miserable Canada, and about how things are truly awful in Canada if only Canadians would wake up to some dismal facts. "Boo Canada, thumbs down Canada!" they seem to be saying. Well, nuts to that.

Canada emerged from WWII (1939-1945) covered in honours for its astonishing industrial, military, financial, agricultural, and scientific performance ... a country which after WWII showed a far-sighted social conscience toward its veterans and citizens. We're justified in asking what brought this unfortunate change to "poor miserable" shameful Canada.

Keep telling us how backward, unproductive, ill-informed we are -- and we will become backward, unproductive, and ill-informed ... and (I ask this seriously) ... to whose advantage?? Not ours. Certainly, not to Canada's national advantage.

The continuing negativity simply doesn't fit with what we know about ourselves. This negativity can become -- maybe is becoming -- a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why? How did it happen? Could it be that the Avro Arrow story* was the first dramatic test?

Firsta July could return to the old tradition of being a day of community picnics ... where people simply packed a pot-luck picnic basket and headed off to the nearest park, ball-field, beach, camp-site ... shared food and laughter with others ... played baseball, danced, sang, ate, played more games, talked, laughed some more ... and took home good thoughts to remember (as I do) for the rest of their lives. Unproductive, says the Conference Board of Canada? I think not.

Where did all that fun and productivity go? I wonder if it got left out of the equation when community leaders -- politicians -- seized the initiative by demanding "government funding" before they come together to celebrate some spectacle which we passively sit and watch. We've been cut off from participating in what should be the happiest civic holiday of our year.

Tons of people feel very special, being Canadian and about Canadian achievements; but the way things are going, I think we're getting a raw deal. Maybe Firsta July is the litmus test which shows us whether we have allowed the paid, political scorn to beat us down, or whether we can still stand up tall to say "Damright I'm Canadian!" on this most Canadian of days.

Happy Firsta July, everyone. - BC Mary.
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Here it is: the Canada Day report from the Conference Board of Canada:

OUR COUNTRY'S STANDARDS ARE SLIPPING WITH AGE
Economy, environment, quality of life. Canada's international rankings are dropping

The Gazette (Montreal) - Sunday, June 29, 2008

Canada, which turns a year older Tuesday, is not aging well, according to an annual report card that finds it is slipping further behind its peers economically, environmentally, and with regard to the health and quality of life of its citizens.

The Conference Board of Canada, in its annual report card, notes that it's a lagging performance that has eroded Canada's economic standing among the 17 most advanced economies to 11th from third in 1970s. [Note from BC Mary: those were the days, all right, when we basked in the left-over glow of Expo 67, and we had Trudeaumania, Participatory Democracy, and a palpable sense of how good it is, to be Canadian.]

It's a continuing deterioration that, in recent years, is being masked by high prices for the commodities that Canada produces and exports, it said.

It's a "myth" that Canada has one of the highest living standards in the world, the board said, noting that living standards here have fallen to ninth in the world from fourth in 1990, citing as other myths the idea that Canada has a highly educated population and that it is a world leader in science and technology.

"The BlackBerry is the exception, not the rule," it said. "Over 7 million Canadians do not have the literacy skills to cope with the demands of everyday life and work in modern society. "

Canada is losing ground to other countries that are better at exploiting their own advantages," said conference board president Anne Golden, adding that it's something the think-tank has been pointing out for a dozen years. "We appear to be riding high due to global demand for our resources, but this is not a sustainable course for our country," she said.

In five of the six broad categories assessed, Canada's performance ranks in the bottom half of the 17 countries. While the findings are disappointing, Golden said in an interview she is not discouraged because the message the board has been issuing for years, such as the need for Canada to be more productive and innovative, has been getting out.

She cited last week's Competition Policy Review Panel report. The biggest reason for the slide in Canada's economic performance is its low productivity, where it ranks 15th, the conference board said, adding that Canada has also failed to keep pace in the growing competition for global investment.

While the way to raise Canada's productivity is to improve its innovation performance, it is also an area where Canada has consistently fared poorly since the 1980s and ranks 13th in this year's report.

Canada has many elements needed to be innovative, but research is not successfully commercialized [uh huh] and taken advantage of to help companies compete for global market share, it said.

Its environmental performance is no better, with Canada again ranking 15th out of 17, with poor performances in greenhouse-gas emissions, smog and waste generation, it said. It charged that Canadians generate more waste per person that any other country, and that only Australia produces greater per capita greenhouse-gas emissions.

The quality of life in Canadian society is also in the bottom half of the rankings at 10th, ahead of the U.S. but well behind the leading countries. "Some of Canada's results - such as rates of burglary and assault, and levels of child poverty - are shockingly poor," it said.

In terms of the health of its population, Canada ranks a notch higher but is still in the bottom half, at ninth place. "High levels of mortality due to heart disease and increasing levels of mortality from diabetes should raise alarm bells," it said. "Furthermore, with soaring child diabetes and obesity rates, this may be the first generation of children in more than a century to have worse health outcomes than their parents."

Even where Canada ranks highly - in education and skills, where it is second, behind only Finland, and where Canada earns top marks for high school and college completion rates - there are "problem areas."

Not only do four in 10 Canadian workers lack the basic literacy skills to cope with the demands of work in the modern economy, Canada does not produce enough graduates in fields that underpin innovation - such as science, math and engineering - and it produces too few PhD graduates, it said.

"The answers are not encouraging," the conference board said, noting that in the most recent report card, Canada receives "B" grades on its economic, education, health and social performance, but a "C" on environmental performance, and a "D" on innovation.

"Canada needs to do better, not only in absolute terms but also relative to others."

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* Search: Avro Arrow, 1949-1959, the world's most advanced supersonic, twin-engined, all-weather interceptor jet, designed and built by Canada at Malton, Ontario. Successful test flight 1958. Destroyed by order of Canadian government 1959.

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