The Legislature Raids

VANCOUVER – The office of Premier Gordon Campbell controlled the controversial sale of BC Rail with an "iron hand," a lawyer alleged Thursday at the political corruption trial involving former government aides.

Kevin McCullough, the lawyer for Bob Virk, one of two senior former political aides accused fraud, breach of trust and accepting benefits in exchange for confidential information about the bidding for BC Rail, read out a series of e-mails leading up to the sale of the railway.

The lawyer pointed out that the premier's office sent an e-mail to Kevin Mahoney, a vice-president of BC Rail, suggesting who should be invited to the northern transportation conference in November 2002

"This is the set-up breaking the election promise," McCullough said, referring to the fact that the premier had won the election on a campaign promise not to sell BC Rail.

"The premier's office was engaged in substantial control of the BC Rail deal and the BC Rail agenda," the lawyer told Justice Elizabeth Bennett.

The lawyer was trying to show that the defence has some e-mails from BC Rail showing the involvement of the premier's office but is seeking further disclosure of e-mails from the premier, his chief of staff at the time, Martyn Brown, and other cabinet ministers.

The defence first has to convince the judge of the likely relevance of the e-mails before the judge will make a disclosure order.

But earlier this week, government lawyer George Copley revealed the e-mails being sought may have already disappeared.

Copley presented two affidavits to the court, including one from Rosemarie Hayes, manager of the government's e-mail system, who said e-mails cannot be retrieved after 13 months.

The defence applied in June 2007 to get Campbell's e-mails, as well as those of cabinet ministers related to the privatization sale of BC Rail, which was sold to CN Rail for $1 billion in 2003.

The missing e-mails pertain to 15 or 20 people who are on the Crown witness list.

On Thursday, Copley provided some further clarification, saying if the e-mails weren't printed off and put in files, they do not become part of the operational records of government.

Transitory material, which he described as "routine records of no value," are discarded or purged from the computer system, he said.

Copley said questionnaires have been sent to nine people who have searched the files and, once their answers are returned, "we will file nine separate affidavits" to try to answer some of the questions posed by the defence lawyers.

"There may be no explanation," the lawyer said. "No filing system is perfect."

Defence lawyers were shocked to learn that e-mails that could be crucial to the defence case may have been allowed to disappear.

Michael Bolton, the lawyer for Dave Basi, told the judge Thursday that administrative and operational records of government ministers, deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers are supposed to be retained for 10 years.

He said the unprecedented police search of the legislature on Dec. 28, 2003, should have alerted the government and its staff to retain the records from that period.

At the time of the police raid, Dave Basi was a senior aide to then finance minister Gary Collins and Virk was a senior aide to then transportation minister Judith Reid.

Aneal Basi, who worked in government communications, is accused of money laundering.

The case has been adjourned until next Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, McCullough said the RCMP investigation found that government lobbyists were getting inside cabinet information about the pending BC Rail sale in 2003 but police never fully investigated the source of the leak.

"The Crown's theory in this case was that [Bob] Virk and [Dave] Basi were disclosing confidential documents for benefits," the lawyer told the judge.

"There were other sources of information," he said, reading out a series of emails involving Erik Bornmann, Brian Kieran and Jamie Elmhirst, who were partners in Pilothouse, a lobbying firm that in 2003 was representing OmniTrax, a Denver-based company that was bidding on BC Rail.

The e-mails quoted what was being discussed in cabinet meetings.

When Kieran was interviewed by the RCMP, he said Virk was the source of the insider cabinet information because transportation minister would "debrief" Virk after cabinet meetings, McCullough said.

And when police interviewed Bornmann, he said Basi was probably the source, the lawyer pointed out.

McCullough told Justice Elizabeth Bennett that police bluntly asked Bornmann if he had a source in cabinet and he replied no. But Bornmann mentioned that he had conversations with then deputy premier Christy Clark because Bornmann was a friend of Clark's husband, Mark Marissen, he added.

At the time, Bornmann and Marissen were deeply involved in the federal Liberal party – Marissen was B.C. campaign chair for Paul Martin's successful bid for the federal leadership and served as B.C. campaign co-chair for the 2004 and 2006 federal elections.

Clark quit provincial politics in 2004 and now hosts a radio show on CKNW.

McCullough said when RCMP interviewed the transportation minister, Reid, and the finance minister, Collins, in 2004, both adamantly denied they discussed confidential cabinet information with Basi and Virk.

"The RCMP goes to Collins, who denies telling information to Basi and Virk," the lawyer said.

"They never go back to Bornmann," McCullough said, adding the Mounties tailored their investigation to target Basi and Virk.

Neal Hall's full report is HERE.

# posted by BC Mary @ 8:10 p.m.