Tuesday, July 21, 2009

 

Judge's ruling puts Campbell's future in question

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B.C. Premier ordered to turn over e-mails; decision could be pivotal not only in corruption case, but in the future of B.C.'s government

Gary Mason

The Globe and Mail -

As court rulings go, this one may be without precedent in Canada: an order for a sitting Premier and select members of his staff and cabinet to turn their e-mails over to a court.

It's not a stretch to say Monday's ruling by Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett of the Supreme Court of British Columbia could determine the future not only of a potentially explosive political corruption trial under way in the province, but the government of Premier Gordon Campbell as well ...

{Big snip ... }

Read the column HERE.

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Premier was in on BC Rail Deal, says lawyer

CanWest News Service - July 21, 2009

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

Kevin McCullough, the lawyer for Bob Virk, , read out a series of e-mails leading up to the $1-billion sale of the railway.

McCullough 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.

CanWest comment is HERE.

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Another CanWest daily newspaper in B.C. chimes in with:

Judge orders Liberals to cough up e-mails

Read the Prince George Citizen story HERE.

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Comments:
As one commenter has stated, and it's something I've wondered about as well: did anyone in our government at any time do business (email wise) using any accounts outside of government's own intranet? As in, did anyone use gmail? Or hotmail?

Is that something we need a definitive answer to? I think so.

Other government types have done it before - it would not surprise me to see Gordo doing the same. Wonder if it's crossed the minds of those making the decisions regarding the email situation... .
 
The (p)remier doesn't just have egg on his face but the whole omelet. When he is 'dragged' from the Legislature kicking, screaming and crying I wonder if it will be a reprise of his Maui apology? No matter what happens with this case the public has a right to know just what the heck he has been up to and hiding behind the courts just won't work any longer. Clark may have been 'decked' (and unfairly). Campbell is about to be Basied..
 
took a related link to this story
In the Terabyte Age, government has no need to press delete


By Miro Cernetig, Vancouver SunJuly 21, 2009
(nice to see alot more being reported)

Our British Columbia government might want to dispatch someone to a computer store, to hunt down one of the wonders of the digital age -- a $129-computer hard drive with room for a terabyte of data.

A terabyte, in case you're not up to speed with your bits and bytes, would offer enough digital space to contain the equivalent of one million books. In other words, pretty much every e-mail that's ever been written by the government could be stored on a drive the size of a paperback book. Okay, perhaps given the verbosity of politicians and their bureaucrats, they might need more than one of those terabytes. But you get the idea. We live in a time when there is a near-infinite ability to store data, pretty much forever, for next to nothing.
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But a larger point is being overlooked.

Why, in our digital age, when computer memory is approaching the infinite at near-zero cost, are government correspondence and cabinet level e-mails being erased at all?

Whatever the impact any deleted government e-mails might have in determining guilt or innocence in the BC Rail trial, the systematic deletion of government correspondence is not in the public interest. It erodes government transparency, a pillar of healthy democracy. Wiping clean the public record is not only unnecessary, it is essentially an attack on history.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Terabyte+government+need+press+delete/1811202/story.html


EM
 
EM,

You really are a treasure-house of useful and astonishing information ... many, many thanks for this.

As for Miro Cernitag, this is another gift -- like his explanation of exactly how big {and by inference, how dangerous] that Public Affairs Bureau is.
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And what if, say, the Minister responsible for the PAB and 'Messaging and Collaboration Services' (ie. Rosemarie Hayes' boss) were, say, oh I dunno....

One and the same?

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It is my most sincere belief, Gazetteer:

No matter how far up the chain of command the buck gets passed in this case, it must inevitably end in Gordon Campbell's lap. If emails were erased, then, either his government did so with his approval or his government contravened law behind his back. Either way, he either had control of something bad or he did not have or take control of bad things happening under his leadership. We have watched him sit on his hands while angrily claiming the case is before the courts, over and over again.

The "I dunno" argument only sorta worked for Ronald Reagan, and he had Alzheimers! I think that Campbell's teflon coating is really beginning to wear out; it has seen too much heat for too many years. I can't imagine him slipping out of this one.
 
exactly,Harcourt took the bullet for stupich and glen clark for a reno,now it's time for the railway!...(and a whole lot more we don't know about...convention center, bc hydro,he changed the name so he could sell it off,and ror,most of the hacks that sold us out work for these power companies that are going to rob us in the future treasonous action's I say!).PS icbc this guy's unbelievable!
 
I think it is just wonderful that McCullough already has some Campbell emails related to the sale. Holy smokin' gun. I think that this will serve to loosen some of his bootlicks' tongues. After all, they can always say they got direction from the micromanager or his confidants. I wonder what Hitler's personal secretary felt in the last days before everything caved in?
 
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