The Legislature Raids

Morning Sitting Courtroom 54

Attending court today and have more notes from yesterday. I apologize but these old hands have trouble typing.

Martyn Brown testified yesterday that he was shown documents by Special Prosecutor associate Andrea Mckay. What was the purpose of the doc? Did it give Martyn Brown a chance to formulate a response?

Very troubling behaviour for the Special Prosecuter to try to tip off witnesses for cross exam questions. Given the detailed cross examination of a key witness to the Premier and a supervisor for Basi and Virk I can only guess what questions are in store for other witnesses.

More later at the lunch break. More names were raised today and more possible witnesses.

Citizen Journalist from 54
 

"with the premier's Chief of Staff, Martyn Brown, expected to be in the witness stand again, to continue answering to Defence attorney Kevin McCullough's cross-examination."

Shouldn't this be "to continue *NOT* answering attorney Kevin McCullough's cross......?"

They are scum I say, all of 'em!

J-Mac, MacKay, and Wild Bill should all be disbarred.......

Mr. Brown should be institutionalized for his own protection so he doesn't forget where he is and which color of light to cross the street on!
 

Morning Sitting Courtroom 54 - June 15, 2010

The day began with Kevin McCullough continuing his detailed cross examine of Premier Gordon Campbell's Chief of Staff Martyn Brown. The MSM seem to be suggesting that 7 days of questioning should be more than enough, however given that Brown has had trouble remembering and that the emails and docs put to him do not help him recall key events, I can only hope that justice delayed does not become justice denied. The public needs to understand how the highest political office in BC operates and what political staff do in these jobs.

Martyn Brown was shown more emails about the Premier's office knowledge that PATRICK KINSELLA was working for BC Rail and that Kinsella wanted to attend a Prince George conference about the future of BC Rail.

It was then asked if Brown could recall any conversations he had with Bob Virk about the optics of having Patrick Kinsella at the Prince George given his close relationship to Gordon Campbell.

Brown did not recall nor did he deny those conversations took place.

After about 30 minutes of questions from Kevin McCullough, Michael Bolton began his cross examination of Brown.

This was a complete surprise to me and it looked like Martyn Brown was surprised as well. I did not understand that each of the 3 defendents are allowed to cross examination of each witness.

Each of the 30 witnesses will face a detailed cross examination about their part in the sale of BC Rail. The defence are using the government's own documents to hold witnesses accountable for their role in the sale of BC Rail. This strategy should be applauded as the public have a right to know what happens when a railway is sold to supporters of the BC Liberals.

Mr. Bolton is an experienced lawyer and began his questioning about the role of Mr. Basi in securing "validators".

Mr. Brown stated that Basi had excellent interpersonal skills and was very political. He confirmed that Basi was asked by the Premier to speak to the political staff at a retreat outside Victoria and discuss how the political staff should approach supporters of the government and why we need to be more active in stakeholder outreach. Mr. Brown stated that he probably led a standing ovation for Basi and that KELLY REICHERT from the BC Liberal Party attended.

Mr. Bolton then asked if Brown knew about Premier Campbell thanking Basi for arranging softball questions for a talkshow hosted by Rafe Mair where Campbell was facing an agressive Mair who wanted to ask the tough questions. After many of the softball callers gotten through, Rafe Mair changed his tone and Premier Campbell was very appreciative of Basi's efforts.

The next line of questioning were about Patrick Kinsella and detailed how he began work for BC Rail in the fall of 2001. Mr. Kinsella was paid close to $300,000 for his political savvy to the board of BC Rail which includes witnesses JOHN MCLERNON and BRIAN KENNING.

Mr. Brown stated that he "could not think of a good reason" why Kinsella would be paid $6-$7 thousand a month from BC Rail. An outrageous sum of money from the BC taxpayers.

Bolton asked why Kinsella who was the BC Liberal co-chair for the 2001 election campaign why BC Rail would hire a close friend of the Premier. Mr. Brown could not recall and agreed.

After a brief break, Mr. Bolton accidently referred to Mr. Brown as Mr. Kinsella. A few chuckles were heard and Justice Mackenzie corrected Bolton. Bolton has reviewed many Kinsella documents and had a slip of the tongue. I can only imagine the emails and documents where details of Patrick Kinsella's dealings with BC Rail and the government are archived.

Mr. Patrick Kinsella's dealings with BC Rail and close relationship to Campbell and other cabinet ministers will continue to be questioned by the defence in order to learn the truth about the backrooms where the deals are made in BC politics.

Citizen Journalist from 54
 

"Martyn Brown testified yesterday that he was shown documents..."

Yet another attempt at engineering a mistrial?
 

Many thanks for this CJ from 54

I really don't see the MSM doing this type of reporting. All they appear to want is for us to "move along, nothing to report here" sheesh
 

The ONLY reason Kinsella was hired is called " PAYBACK " Pure & Simple.

Guy in Victoria
 

Hi Mary...What is going on with the comments on blogger today, for example, your post above says one comment, but there are 4 comments, my latest post states 7 comments when there are 9 comments....

Could it be that someone or some entity is messing around again...

Answers please?
 

Afternoon Sitting Courtroom 54 - June 15, 2010

CAMPBELL INSIDER EXPOSED FOR HIS ROLE IN BC RAIL SALE

The theme of the day was Mr. Patrick Kinsella. A longtime backroom political insider that is a close confident of Gordon Campbell. Mr. Kinsella was the BC Liberal election campaign team co-chair in 2001 along with Christy Clark. According to testimony from Martyn Brown, Mr. Kinsella is also a fundraiser for the BC Liberals and has donated thousands of dollars to the BC Liberals both personally and through his company, Progressive Strategies since 2000.

The defence posed questions to Martyn Brown as to how, just 4 months after the election, a key member of Gordon Campbell's inner circle was able to secure a $300,000 contract to advise BC Rail and provide "political savvy".

Mr. Brown admitted that the optics of having Patrick Kinsella working for BC Rail following the election "were not good." When asked about was there a reason why JOHN MCLERNON hired Mr. Kinsella to advise the BC Rail, Brown responded, "I can't think of any good reason."

There was a suggestion that Premier Gordon Campbell sought opinions from Kinsella about potential BC Rail board members, given that the Premier had appointed the BC Rail board. Brown responded that Kinsella "may well have been consulted by the Premier for board appointments."

There is no doubt that Patrick Kinsella played a role with the sale of BC Rail. It was alleged in court that he had signed a confidentiality agreement regarding BC Rail, something that Martyn Brown was not aware of.

Unfortunately, Justice Mackenzie did not allow some documents to be marked as exhibits and the public cannot review them.

I will attend again tomorrow to provide my insights.

Citizen Journalist from 54
 

It was in the pre-trial stage that we learned that AG (Wally Oppal) had hired Stuart Chase to sit in on the proceedings, and this afternoon, while I steadfastly maintained my position at "B5", so too for the fellow next row closer to the Judge, and to the left of me at A4 (as if we were on a spreadsheet) said that these were the best places to watch the proceedings from, because "you can see the sweat on the brow of Mr. McCollough".

Sure enough, Keith Fraser saddled up and onto A1 and another reporter slid into A2. Same thing happened at B1 and B2. Neal Hall occupied C13, Ian Mulgrew took over C 10.

As to the lawyer being hired..... well that was the fellow in A4, for I noted after the morning coffee break that he had two newspapers beside his briefcase, with the title of "The Lawyers Weekly". It was after the afternoon coffee break I decided to break the ice with A4 and ask what he was doing here, the reply came back, RCMP aka the Horsemen. The RCMP? And reading the Lawyer Weekly..... "Oh," he says.... "Yes, I'm a lawyer too."


From the Vancouver Province Keith Fraser noted this from the Trial, Question to Martyn Brown from McCullough:

"McCullough also questioned Brown about why Stuart Chase, a government employee, was sent to monitor the pre-trial hearings of the Basi-Virk case.

He demanded to know why the government needed someone to monitor the case if its position was that they could not comment while the matter was in court.

Brown replied that the government needed to be kept briefed and "the court process itself regrettably became very politicized on a daily basis. It was very difficult to know what we were going to be asked.""

Source:http://www.canada.com/news/premier+told+aide+accused+political+corruption+keep+mouth+shut+lawyer/3053845/story.html

I wonder if the reason for A4's presence is the same?


For those who haven't attended Court Room 54, there aren't 150 seats, the public seating area is 6 deep by 13 wide.

The Public Address system is mediocre at the best of times, and as the lawyer (Bolton) wanders away from his podium, to hand out document evidence to be read by Martyn Brown, and then commented on by Mr. Brown, so too does the sound level. When will the Court system adopt a button microphone for roving lawyers?

There's constant questions from Madame Justice MacKenzie to the Defense Lawyer to clarify his question to the Witness, either because the question is actually two questions in one, and she wants them to be answered one at a time; or the question wasn't heard properly by Madame Justice MacKenzie, now this may sound like we're back at the Public Address system again as noted above, but no, the problem here is that although there is a designated court stenographer present, and creating the legal and binding copy of the proceedings, the Judge is busily typing on her laptop computer her version of what is taking place in her courtroom.....#54.

By the way, even though I was at B5, I didn't see any sweat on either McCullough or Bolton's brow.
 

"B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell's chief of staff told the government aides accused of political corruption to "reward our friends, punish our enemies," a lawyer told a Vancouver courtroom on Tuesday.

Kevin McCullough, a lawyer for accused Bob Virk, said Martyn Brown used the slogan during morning meetings for ministerial assistants. (bolding added)

http://www.canada.com/news/Government+aides+told+punish+enemies+corruption+trial+hears/3158011/story.html

We already know that Marty hired all of the Ministerial staff, personally (weird when the Ministers historically have this choice of whom to hire) . . .

. . . but the degree of control wielded by Martyn Brown is clear with his morning meetings with Ministerial staff.

Where were the Ministers . . . or were they totally neutered by the Premier's Office - all on a choke chain of command?

. . . all too reminiscent of Marty's old political pal, VanderZalm's stint in the Premier's chair.

Sad, sad British Columbia.
 

In regard to secondlook's question.....the big implications of this little memo still hang over this trial:

Originally reported by Charlie Smith in the Georgia Straight, December 31, 2003....



Quote:

"On June 25, 2001, Campbell wrote a letter to all cabinet minsters telling them that Martyn Brown would arrange the structuring and staffing of their offices. Campbell also instructed ministers not to act like the chief executive officer of their ministries, adding that this role should be performed by their deputies who would be selected by the premier's office."

It is quite clear from this memo that Campbell set the ground rules himself...revealing the ultra controlling hand he would assume over every ministry....and by doing so he thus implicates himself in every decision made and every action taken by his government.



That memo says it all - in it the premier is clearly telling his cabinet ministers to take a back seat...and that he and Martyn Brown will assume the driver's seat...and that the top dog role of each ministry would no longer fall to cabinet ministers but to deputies/CEO's conveniently appointed by... (who else?) ....the premier's office.

The memo reveals how this government was intentionally structured from the very start.
 

It seems that all deputies were in place to retrieve information, or stop information,
Sol/gen has their hands full of something,
with their loyal deputy...
 

Quite a number of BC citizens, believe, the trial of the BC Rail corruption case, is a farce. Rumor is, Campbell controls the Justice system, the RCMP, the media, adverse comments are not allowed. There has been suspicion, for quite some time, the internet has been interfered with. It would be no surprise to learn, Campbell indeed controls his ministers. Brown has such a vacant memory, it makes a person wonder, how he can find his way home from work. Campbell forces the BC people, to live with his, tyranny and dictatorship. We have learned, not to expect anything better of him.