Tuesday, May 11, 2010

 

Another issue in the BC Rail Scandal

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By Robin Mathews


It is May 10 - a week from the opening of the trial of Dave Basi, Bobby Virk, and Aneal Basi on now ten counts - reduced from the fourteen for a long time on the list.  Why the reduction?

Looking back over the years of pre-trail procedures ... the years ... and years ... there are things one tends to forget as all eyes and ears focus on what, in fact, is being chosen to focus upon in the courtrooms.

I remember BC Mary saying over and over "what about the statements of the RCMP at the end of the raids that organized crime was on every street corner in the Province and even (implied if not stated) into the legislature structure itself"?  She said it  ... and she said it ... and then the famous statements of the RCMP slowly slipped from importance.

It seems those particular statements and concerns were not the Bull's Eye of the BC Rail Scandal, but an offshoot.  The offshoot, however, may be as important, and may be something overlooked  that should not have been overlooked.

Don't we remember at the time of Paul Martin and especially when he was campaigning for the leadership (2002, 2003) strange things were happening to Liberal Parry membership in BC, especially in the Liberal Party of Canada's B.C. branch.

I distinctly remember because I responded by an attempt at getting some action.  At the time bulk memberships were flooding into the Liberal Party.  At the time, if I am not wrong, a person could walk into the Liberal Party HQ with ten thousand dollars and a thousand names - almost as simple as that.  There is no doubt that the membership was swelling and a very large number of Indo-Canadians were on the lists.  We remember bus loads of Indo-Canadians driving to nomination or other meetings, casting their votes, and being bussed away.

The additional members counted in the tens of thousands, and they were for the most part what is referred to as "bulk memberships". (In one of her books on BC politics, Judy Tyabji Wilson suggests that Gordon Campbell secured his leadership of the BC Liberal Party with the assistance of bulk membership votes.)

Concern was expressed very widely.  And I remember a statement by the chief elections officer (Canada) that bulk membership buying was probably not legal and might be, in fact, a crime.  That was published in the mainstream press here in B.C.  And I believe the chief elections officer was showing concern.

In a less open way, gossip was suggesting - and this must be seen as a rumour and gossip that has never been authenticated - that drug money was being laundered by the buying of bulk memberships - and since the money for the new members went into the Liberal Party, the suggestion - as part of the gossip and rumour - was that drug money was being laundered into the Liberal Party.

Since gossip is perfectly capable (however unfounded) of making connections that SEEM to have substance, the gossip, of course, connected the alleged federal Liberal activity with the Liberal government headed by Gordon Campbell.

I say I responded with action.  I wrote (as I remember it with about 20 other people from places in B,C. - all signing the letter) and asked the chief elections officer to undertake an investigation of bulk membership buying in B.C.  From an office in Ottawa an answer came back that we had written the wrong address.  Would we write again to a different office ... in the same building!!!  I wrote back and said: "Please carry the letter across the hall."

That was done and it was delivered to someone who was supervisor of investigations or some such name.  Of course, the organization had no intention of investigating.  And so - as if he took lessons from RCMP Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass on how to get rid of embarrassing people presenting real requests - the letter came back saying that if we would find evidence of wrong-doing, THEN the elections officers would do something.  In other words, "we're here to investigate, unless we don't want to, and unless you can place evidence on our desk that we have to do something about, we're doing nothing".

The matter was never formally investigated - and probably should have been to clear the air of any kind of suspicion.  If ... and it's a very big IF ... the federal Liberal Party (with some tentacles into the provincial Liberal Party) was revealed to be laundering drug money into the Party structure, then that would be information of huge importance to Canadians and would be news that would hit the international press. That might even be seen as organized crime reaching into the very legislature itself, mightn't it?

I'm not even going to name any names among those who were executive members of the federal Liberal party in B.C. at the time. And that is because the gossip and rumour - and even the apparent concern of the chief elections officer (Canada) - were never followed up with investigation to authenticate or dismiss the gossip and rumour.  But some of names are very familiar in the Basi, Virk, and Basi case as we know it ... associated in politics with the case... or, even some, maybe, to appear as witnesses.

I have said, persistently, that I believe full and fair investigation of the BC Rail Scandal should have produced charges against more people than the three presently accused. I have asked RCMP Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass for a larger and wider investigation - which he has refused to undertake (but suggested I find evidence and give it to him).

Should there have been an investigation of the bulk membership buying at the time of its surge in British Columbia?  And if there had been, would the outcome have answered the persistent questions asked by BC Mary about "organized crime" filtering into every street corner in the Province, and, possibly, (implied if not stated) into the very legislature itself?


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BC Mary comment: It's important to remember that the press seemed to make only BC Rail look bad, leading up to the sell-off and afterward to justify the sell-off (didn't make profits, wasn't efficient, etc) ... well, in fairness, let's look at what's being said now that CN is running things:

Vancouver BC port unhappy with rail service


Railways serving port facilities in the Canadian Lower Mainland are failing to provide prompt and reliable service, harming the port’s international reputation and imposing extra costs and risks upon customers, according to a Port Metro Vancouver submission to Transport Canada.

The rail system moving goods in and out of the port works “reasonably well” on a broad level, but fails customers and stakeholders on a “day-to-day, week-to-week and month-to-month” basis within the confines of terminals, Port Metro Vancouver said in a recent report to the transportation agency’s rail freight service review panel. … The port said that 84 per cent of its rail customers surveyed between November 2008 and February 2010 are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with rail service within the port.

From the Montreal Gazette, May 7, 2010
http://www.longshoreshippingnews.com

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Some comments bear repeating. This one, from GAB:
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Another issue in the BC Rail Scandal":

Glacier media group donated

$100,000 to the liberals in January 2009

http://www.glaciermedia.ca/


Business interests in BC:

British Columbia Whistler Question, Squamish Chief, Lillooet Bridge River News, the Sunshine Coast Reporter, the Powell River Peak, Nelson Daily News, West Kootenay Weekender, Cranbrook Daily Townsman, Kimberley Daily Bulletin, East Kootenay Valley, Trail Daily Times, Fernie Free Press, Grand Forks Gazette, Grand Forks Boundary Bulletin, Creston Valley Advance, Kamloops Daily News, Kamloops Review, Prince George Citizen, Alaska Highway News, The Northerner, Dawson Creek Daily News, The Northern Horizon, The Dawson Creek Mirror, Prince Rupert Daily News, Prince Rupert Daily News Extra, Merritt News, Merritt News Extra, Cariboo Advisor, Quesnel Advisor, 100 Mile House Advisor, Coast Mountain News, the Real Estate Weekly and Kodiak Press.

GAB

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Comments:
"the persistent questions asked by BC Mary about "organized crime" filtering into every street corner in the Province, and, possibly, (implied if not stated) into the very legislature itself?

Bike gangs, tongs and other asian gangs and old school mafioso must be green with envy when they contemplate the Campbell Crime Family. This mob disguised as a government, have had an almost nine year un-interrupted free hand at exploiting a resource and asset rich jurisdiction and its citizens the size of California, Oregon, Washington and then some with impunity.

The BC liaRs under Capo Campbell are without any doubt the largest, most successful and apparently the most immune criminal organization in Canada, if not the universe.
 
I find it very interesting that should I utter a death threat or even suggest that someone be done in, our National Police Force would be on me like white on rice. But when it is suggested that there are most likely political wrongdoings and even corruption these same cops want us to do their investigating for them. Collusion? Possibly.
There are far too many things that don't get investigated properly and I allege are covered up in our society than we know about. And this is all helped by the lack of reporting in our mainstream media. I await with much anticipation a complete turnaround in the news of the Sun and Province in BC since the sale yesterday. But I am not holding my breath.
 
Looked to see if this was posted, maybe there is reason not to post, so You can decide.

Completed Court list

Appearing May 10th

134750 next appearance 13-SEP-2010 09:15 AM REG
APPLICATION TO VARY BAIL

APG Order Made See
Court Inquiry for
Order Made details
APG Order Made See
Court Inquiry for
Order Made details
 
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2317/2261729667_e23bb92a71.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/flungingpictures/4302432195/&usg=__aZDr7MooHOIqSUgdF2HQUVwGFnU=&h=333&w=500&sz=141&hl=en&start=2&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=WH9f7cSaeLu6sM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlara%2Bdauphinee%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26tbs%3Disch:1
 
'ten counts reduced from 14',
here comes the plea bargins.
Just like the sponsorshit scandal,5 more should have been arrested. Words directly from Justice Gomery made after Harper took office,
'it's like it fell into a black hole'...
When it was found out that Campbell's first election had bogus names registered to vote,IE: family dogs,dead people.
WHY, wasn't something done about it,THEN!?
 
I have asked RCMP Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass for a larger and wider investigation - which he has refused to undertake (but suggested I find evidence and give it to him).

Well, wouldn't it help if he'd have a look through all those boxes that only former ACJ Dohm has been "privileged" to to through? Not that that's the only evidence in the offing, but it's sure a darned good place to start.

The next question to be asked, though, is:

Was Gary Bass a contributor the Liberal Party?? And who else at E Division???
 
And about the bulk vote-buying, there was an article back in the day, I think in the Sun, maybe the Globe, but at least nationally syndicated somewhere, about all the ethnic bloc voting/bulk voting for the various Liberal leadership candidates. All of them. Whether it was Sikhs or Tamils or Chinese or Somali, they all had ties to one ethnic lobby or another, and all bussed in votes/memberships....some with terrorist ties, as with the Tamil lobby.

....and we wound up with DION. Largely because of promise-trading for those bloc delegate votes, notably by Kennedy. Go figure.

It pains me to point that out, and not that the Tories (and the NDP) haven't done the same kind of thing; it's just some of their lobbies aren't visible minorities or "fresh off the boat" (or the plane, as the case happens to be these days). It's also disappointing that the visible minorities would allow themselves to used that way, and also to see themselves as blocs instead of "just other Canadians" - i.e. getting involved in politics only for their own community's interest, not for all of us as a whole.

Party politics in Canada will never be relevant until large numbers of people vote on the party leaderships; i.e. in sufficient numbers as to make the "bulk memberships" less of an easily exploitable factor.

BTW another list of names that should be checked against Liberal donation rosters is that of the known members of the province's major drug gangs, whether the UN, the bikers, the Independent Soldiers, the triads etc.....
 
Could it be that the political players don't want to legalize marijuana because they don't want their profits to be diverted to government general revenue?
 
Could it be that the political players don't want to legalize marijuana because they don't want their profits to be diverted to government general revenue?
 
"Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information and religions destroy spirituality" - Michael Ellner


...and no where is this proven better than in The Best Place on Earth...according to Campbell anyway.
 
And about the bulk vote-buying, there was an article back in the day, I think in the Sun, maybe the Globe, but at least nationally syndicated somewhere, about all the ethnic bloc voting/bulk voting for the various Liberal leadership candidates. All of them. Whether it was Sikhs or Tamils or Chinese or Somali, they all had ties to one ethnic lobby or another, and all bussed in votes/memberships....some with terrorist ties, as with the Tamil lobby.

....and we wound up with DION. Largely because of promise-trading for those bloc delegate votes, notably by Kennedy. Go figure.

It pains me to point that out, and not that the Tories (and the NDP) haven't done the same kind of thing; it's just some of their lobbies aren't visible minorities or "fresh off the boat" (or the plane, as the case happens to be these days). It's also disappointing that the visible minorities would allow themselves to used that way, and also to see themselves as blocs instead of "just other Canadians" - i.e. getting involved in politics only for their own community's interest, not for all of us as a whole.

Party politics in Canada will never be relevant until large numbers of people vote on the party leaderships; i.e. in sufficient numbers as to make the "bulk memberships" less of an easily exploitable factor.

BTW another list of names that should be checked against Liberal donation rosters is that of the known members of the province's major drug gangs, whether the UN, the bikers, the Independent Soldiers, the triads etc.....
 
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CanWest/Global under the Aspers was a neo-conservative organization that largely viewed itself above the regular strata of BC society, thus it ignored with a few exceptions its political and ideological opponents. (Glenn Clark and his deck)
CanWest generated its "truth" and simply neglected to report on contrary positions.
In BC that has meant if you were not part of the plan you were not reported on, therefore you just don't exist. (Carole James and the NDP)

Under new National Post ownership, CanWest's reporting may change from its traditional passive elite distain to aggressive reaction.
The Sun and Province could soon evolve into a more offensive organ of the right and likely follow a path similar to Fox News in the US. (Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sara Palin)
Journalists and pundits currently surviving inside the old CanWest Empire would be put through an ideological litmus test and if found wanting in their commitment to doctrines of Adam Smith/Milton Friedman free enterprise will be separated from the organization.

This new media empire, re-staffed by true believers, would soon find any position to the left of the Fraser Institute's or the Chicago School's view of economic and social utopia unacceptable and subject to attack. (Barack Obama)
This kind of reactionary media can certainly exist inside a democracy but in the absence of any substantial media with contrary or moderating views it creates potentially explosive situations.
If 50% of the people in British Columbia are deprived of any contrasting voice or an outlet of expression you have opened the door to dissent of a whole new order.

Ultimately the citizens of BC will decide CanWest's survival, just like it will determine the survival of the Campbell regime, but the question is by what process and action will their decision be made?

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Canwest+agrees+sell+newspaper+chain+Paul+Godfrey+group+billion+deal/3010391/story.html
 
Glacier media group donated

$100,000 to the liberals in January 2009

http://www.glaciermedia.ca/


Business interests in BC:

British Columbia Whistler Question, Squamish Chief, Lillooet Bridge River News, the Sunshine Coast Reporter, the Powell River Peak, Nelson Daily News, West Kootenay Weekender, Cranbrook Daily Townsman, Kimberley Daily Bulletin, East Kootenay Valley, Trail Daily Times, Fernie Free Press, Grand Forks Gazette, Grand Forks Boundary Bulletin, Creston Valley Advance, Kamloops Daily News, Kamloops Review, Prince George Citizen, Alaska Highway News, The Northerner, Dawson Creek Daily News, The Northern Horizon, The Dawson Creek Mirror, Prince Rupert Daily News, Prince Rupert Daily News Extra, Merritt News, Merritt News Extra, Cariboo Advisor, Quesnel Advisor, 100 Mile House Advisor, Coast Mountain News, the Real Estate Weekly and Kodiak Press.

GAB
 
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