The Legislature Raids

 

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: Premier Told Aide to keep Mouth Shut

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.