Wednesday, January 14, 2009

 

Confirmed: Dave Basi A.L.R. case in Victoria Provincial Court again today at 9:30 AM

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Room 102 in Victoria Court House at 9:30 AM, the pre-trial hearings continue today (under a publication ban) for the Agricultural Land Reserve charges against Udhe Singh (Dave) Basi.

The hearings are open to the public.

The hearings are open to the media.

But because there are two other men (developers Duncan and Young) charged, the integrity of their trial is being protected by this publications ban. At least, that is our best guess ... and without an active media, the public is certainly left guessing.

The important thing to note is: the public can walk into Victoria Court House, into Room 102, take seats, and observe the hearings. So Citizen Journalists can (I believe) tell us quite a bit about this experience. But what they cannot and must not do is publish information identifying witnesses or repeating evidence ... not until the two other Accused have had their fair trial.

To date, only the daily Court Listings provides us with any official source of information. So as they say on TV, Viewers discretion is advised. To check for yourselves, click on BC Criminal Courts, in left column of this page, then click on Victoria Provincial Court.

A Citizen Journalist advises that Keith Baldrey made mention of this case last evening, with an explanation of its connection to the neverending hearings in the big BC Rail trial in Vancouver. (Which, by the way, gets rolling again on Monday morning, January 19, 2009.)

- BC Mary.
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Comments:
Hi Mary,

“A” channel ran a story on the ALR trial involving Dave Basi last night and this morning. The coverage showed Mr. Basi walking into the courthouse with the news report explaining the charges against Mr. Basi and the others involved. The charges are related to bribery and such and the removal of land from the ALR and the building of a housing project.


A picture of Eric bornman then appeared with the reporter explaining that Mr. Bornman was testifying yesterday in that trial.

The rest of the story was linking Bornman and Basi to the BC Rail corruption trial.

I think “A” channel should receive kudos for at least trying to keep the people in B.C. informed as much as legally possible given the ban an all.
 
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Anon-Y-mous 9:35,

You get an A++ for trying! Thank you!

But ... I have searched A Channel with no sign of the Dave Basi Trial ... I have typed Dave Basi + A.L.R. Trial into their Search Box and the message says 0 results.

So can you give us a bit more to go on, please.

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Hi Mary,

Sorry Mary that’s all the info I have, having missed parts of the story both times it was shown.

All thou Dave basi’s lawyer did have some comments to make, I missed the content of those comments and did not record the story.

Going to “A” Channel I tried Dave Basi and ALR trial with no results and there was nothing about the subject in "recent news".

Mary, if you can’t find any backup to this story (like archived text or video) then maybe “A” Channel does not provide this service on stories of this importance. (?)
 
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Anon-Y-mous 8:54 AM,

Y'know what I'm wondering??

Well ... two things: first I wondered at the time your original comment came in ... how did "A" Channel publish the identity of a witness? Even including a photograph of him, as you explained?

I thought the publication ban was explicit in prohibiting exactly that kind of thing.

But then -- there were people like Leonard Krog whose office was telling enquirers there is NO publication ban ... and certainly there's no mention of a ban in the Victoria Provincial Court listings ...

And now 2) with your latest information, I am wondering if "A" Channel has withdrawn all that text belatedly because of the publication ban. A bit late, but maybe that's it.

Citizenship shouldn't be this difficult. With CanWest staring over the edge of bankruptcy, I guess they can't spare any reporters to go and gather information for use in future (if there's no future for CanWest, I mean) ...

So we'll keep watching ... it's still OK for the public to attend Victoria Court House Room 102. And we can talk about it later, when the ban is lifted.

I've been searching but have found NOTHING about the A.L.R. hearings today. And I still don't think that the ban extends to everything else outside the courtroom ... so I don't really understand this total media silence either.

Many thanks for your input.

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PS,

I also wrote to "A" Channel with our request.

No response.

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