Thursday, October 15, 2009

 

Aha! There was a Basi Virk pre-trial hearing today!

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Judge allows lawyer for former deputy premier Christy Clark to obtain transcripts

By NEAL HALL
VANCOUVER SUN - October 15, 2009

VANCOUVER — The new trial judge in the political corruption case involving two former top ministerial aides allowed an application this week for the lawyer representing former deputy premier Christy Clark to obtain transcripts of pre-trial proceedings.

Defence lawyers opposed the application by lawyer John Esson, representing Clark. The defence said Clark will be called as a witness either by the Crown or the defence.

"She's going to be a witness one way or another," defence lawyer Kevin McCullough told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Anne MacKenzie.

The judge allowed Esson's application on the condition that he sign an undertaking, promising he will not discuss or show the transcripts with Clark, now a CKNW radio talk show host.

The case returns to court next Monday for a two-day hearing on the issue of e-mail recovery from BC Rail. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Oct. 23.

The judge, who took over the case last month from Justice Elizabeth Bennett after Bennett was appointed to the B.C. Court of Appeal, said earlier that she would like the case to go to trial next January. {Snip} ...

Click HERE for Neal Hall's complete column.
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According to Neal Hall, the BCSC schedule for Basi Virk is:

October 19, 20, 21 for BC Rail e-mail recovery

October 23 for a (gasp!) PRE-TRIAL CONFERENCE ... !!!!

[So ... is this why CanWest only today is publishing non-stories suggesting clouds of doubt over Paul Battershill, who led the investigation into Organized Crime which took his Victoria Police Department -- with RCMP -- (on the trail of "Mr Big") on the unprecedented raid into the Ministries of Finance and Transportation on Dec. 28, 2003? Just askin'. Seems like such a co-incidence because it happened last time the talk of a trial got rolling, too. Use the Search Box at top left, to read about it. A strong, dedicated cop like former Chief Constable Battershill will be a powerfully significant witness when he takes the stand. Save me a place in the public gallery on that glorious day! - BC Mary.]

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Comments:
The disconnect between reality and fantasy was certainly a mile wide yesterday as Rob Shaw's 'story' on the FRONT PAGE of the worthless (and in bankruptcy protection) CanWest organ The Times Colonist yesterday.

I was mindful of a message YOU got from the editor of the T/C a few months (years) back when you asked Lucinda Chodan why there was no coverage of the trial of another member of the Victoria Police.

What was it she wrote back?

I can't remember word for word, but it seems to me she told you (and your many readers) that 'she'd' decide what was news and what wasn't.'

Was that it?

Her judgment doesn't appear to have improved much in the intervening years, has it?

Thank heaven the people of Loon Lake have more sense!
 
Bless you, G West ...

you brought back old memories and I couldn't help but laugh [OK, cue the rueful, cynical laughter!].

But tell me if you don't have a good chuckle when you scroll back in time, on this web-site, to April 11, 2007 for the headline WHEN THERE IS NEWS, WE PLAN TO REPORT IT ... see where BC Mary gets her ears pinned back for reporting to you,

about what the Editor-in-Chief said.

And I had only written a Letter-to-the-Editor for Times Colonist, too! Somebody apparently thought it was a question for the boss.

Hooeee. That gets the steam up again. I think I'll post the letter I wrote yesterday to Rob Shaw for the way TC can't seem to stop slagging a good cop (Paul Battershill) while doing their best to avoid even mentioning certain other uncomfortable truths.

Sheesh.
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The BC Liberals claim that they have an open and transparent government but Sean Holman proved just how open and transparent Washington State is... MUCH MORE... when it came to Progressive Holdings selling out British Columbian jobs to our southern neighbours.

At this site, link below, every employee and their salaries are listed below without having to go the route of an FOI.

http://lbloom.net/

Privacy laws have gone too far in BC
when it comes to taxpayers monies being shared with elected officials.
 
Anon 9:41 and all others,

I must tell you again how much I appreciate comments like these, which help us understand the society we live in.

Thanks, G. West. Thanks 9:41. Thanks all.
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Could someone with a legal background explain why Christy Clark's lawyer would want the transcripts in the first place and then why the judge would order that she not see them, only the lawyer, I don't understand how that works ???
 
Could someone with a legal background explain why Christy Clark's lawyer would want the transcripts in the first place and then why the judge would order that she not see them, only the lawyer, I don't understand how that works ???
 
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Me too, 10:03.

I keep turning that over in my mind wondering how it's correct in law (or not) to have the pre-trial discussions made available to one of the chief witnesses.

With limited knowledge of the courtroom (thank heaven), I can say that people are routinely banished from the courtroom if it's thought that they will hear the views of other witnesses before they take the witness stand themselves.

So I second your appeal for those with legal backgrounds to help us understand the Christy Clark decision.
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"..... for the lawyer representing former deputy premier Christy Clark to obtain transcripts of pre-trial proceedings."

I am over or under whelmed when I am reminded by a statement like the above, from the news article, just how many people have lawyers attending the Basi-Virk pre-trial hearings to look out for their interests. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember attornies representing, Ken Dobell, Patrick Kinsella, Gord the Lord Campbell hisself, his cabinet, Gary "the Ferret" Collins, BC Rail, CN (not Canadian National - but CN - a Railway based in Texas), plus of course each of the defendants facing (trumped up?) charges and probably more that I've forgotten or can't recall at the moment.

It seems like the only folks not represented in the courtroom are the actual victims of this apparent crime - the citizens of British Columbia whose railroad is now run (into the ground) from Texas!

Theoretically (oh so) Special Prosecutor Wild Bill Berardino represents the interests of the people - but judging from the casual way he only even attends when he has time or feels like it, or his actions when he does show up like threatening to dismiss the case if he doesn't get his way regarding "secret" witnesses and his lack of co-operation with disclosure orders - my interests are not part of his agenda. If Mr. B was my lawyer (as he theoretically is) I would have dismissed his sorry ass long ago and would now be suing him with the help of a lawyer who actually represents me - for misrepresentation.

For those (like our hero Vaughn Palmer and others) who think this trial is not important, ask yourselves why all the power players from Campbell's first term government and later find it necessary to have their own lawyer's watching over the proceedings. BTW, who is paying for Christy's lawyer's, and Gary's, and the others, the taxpayers????? This whole affair is Bull Crap so rotten and toxic, I wouldn't even put it on my garden!
 
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Nicely controlled, Koot. You might even have said that this "whole affair is ..." as Norman said, a p.o.s.

Is there a term like "yellow journalism" which applies to courtrooms? Or, more accurately, applies to the negotiating behind the scenes?
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Mary: as in my other post, the legal terms for "yellow journalism" are "incitement" and "defamation".

Re kootcoot's post:
CN (not Canadian National - but CN - a Railway based in Texas)

Recently somebody edited the CN article on Wikipedia to assert taht it's a Canadian company because it has a shell "head office" in Montreal and is registered as a company in Canada, and that the presence of American investors in its shareholders is incidental because no one party can have more than 15% of the shares...that one of them happens to be Bill Gates is apparently beside the point.

I suspect that the editor in question is a public relations type, one of many whose work and intent is plainly obvious - though many of them have learned to play by Wiki's rules of evidence/no original research etc; recent whitewash of the BC Hydro article is a further case in point......if someone here can provide ownership citations re CN Rail's true ownership - not its paper facade - please drop them on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:BC_Hydro and I'll work them into the article......
 
Skookum, the article I found stating that CN is now based in Texas can no longer be found either. What's up with that?
 
I found the following notes about Gate's holdings as of dec. 31, 2007(note that Gates held $1.6 billion (US funds I presume) in CN Railway):

"Bill Gates Personal Stock Holdings (MSFT, CNI, FSCI, OTTR, LGBT, PNM, RSG, SIX, FMX, TV, BRK.A)
Posted: February 16, 2008 at 7:41 am

Print Email Subscribe Free Newsletter Follow us on Twitter 24/7 Wall St Real Time 500 Below are most of the equity holdings listed for Bill Gates’ own Cascade Investment, L.L.C. as of December 31, 2007. These were disclosed in a filing late in the week. Keep in mind that these are not tied at all to Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and these also do not include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation either. This also does not include any ETF holdings. These are not quite all of his holdings inside of Cascade, but these are the bulk of the holdings:

Company (Ticker) Value Shares
Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) $573,480,000 4,050
Canadian National Rail (NYSE: CNI) $1,589,028,000 33,859,544
Fisher Communications (NASDAQ: FSCI) $17,298,000 455,700
Fomento Econmico Mexicano (NYSE: FMX)$412,617,000 10,810,000
Grupo Televisa S.A. (NYSE: TV) $467,803,000 19,680,400
Otter Tail Corp. (NASDAQ: OTTR) $88,455,000 2,556,499
PlanetOut Inc. (NASDAQ: LGBT) $3,240,000 521,739
PNM Resources Inc. (NYSE: PNM) $150,569,000 7,019,550
Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) $852,483,000 27,192,451
Six Flags, Inc. (NYSE: SIX) $20,728,000 10,210,600

If you want to see Mr. Gates’ new best friend’s holdings (that would be Warren Buffett) you can see all of those here for the same period.

Or you can see Carl Icahn’s top equity holdings as well.

Jon C. Ogg
February 16, 2008
http://247wallst.com/2008/02/16/bill-gates-pers/

Total shareholder equity in 2007 was $10.2 billion. That would have Gates holding about 15 or 16% of CN shares The rise in the Canadian dollar since his firt purchasing the stock certainly did not hurt his position.
http://www.cn.ca/en/investors-financial-annual-report.htm
 
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