Wednesday, June 30, 2010

 

Report from the Morning Sitting - courtroom 54

 

The morning began late at around 11:30AM rather than the 11:15AM start time advertised by the Vancouver Sun. There seems to be a real lax attitude with start times and all of the endless legal wrangling that go on for days.

The morning began by Justice Mackenzie advising the jury that the Skytrain incident was caused by the father of Andrea Mackay. The Judge then advised the jury that he, "won't speak to you again!"

But after the remarks to the jury, Michael Bolton began his cross examination of Martyn Brown. It was a morning that had huge news impact but don't look for it in the Vancouver Sun, read it here first!

Bolton began by asking the question that lead to the objection from Mr. Berardino. Namely, did Martyn know about the cosy relationship between Kelly Reichert of the BC Liberal Party and the lead investigator from the RCMP, Kevin Debruyckere. Martyn responded that he learned this through the media. Bolton asked despite working closely with Kelly Reichert during each of the last 3 campaigns if he had any discussions with Reichert about his brother in law, RCMP officer Debruyckere. Mr. Brown responded, "he can't recall."

Bolton also asked if Premier Campbell was ever interviewed by the RCMP regarding the BC Rail investigation. Martyn Brown did not recall.Bolton reminded Brown that other officials from the office of Premier Campbell had been interviewed. Did he recall any conversations about those police interviews? Martyn Brown could not.

Asked if Premier Gordon Campbell knew of the relationship between RCMP team commander Kevin Debruyckere and Kelly Reichert of the BC Liberals, Martyn Brown responded with a curious comment. His answer was, "not to my knowledge." Brown went on to say that the RCMP have had discussions with Campbell but he can't recall if the issue of the cozy relationship ever came up.

It was also learned today that Minister Rich Coleman had advance knowledge of the investigation and was actively assisting the RCMP with the search warrants on the BC Legislature offices. Mr. Bolton asked why Minister Coleman was involved when, it should have been the Speaker of the legislature. Mr. Brown could not recall knowing why. Much more to come regarding the relationship between Brian Kieran,Jamie Elmhirst and Erik Bornmann with key senior officials in the Gordon Campbell government. Another key email introduced by the defense that had jury members following every word.

Citizen Journalist from 54

Comments:
"Why Coleman,when it should have been the speaker"...

Why did Campbell hire and place his people in all deputy minister positions?!

Something is very wrong here.

And as for,
"can't recall, don't remember".
This is what we will here from EVERY witness, for the next three years! Nothing will be resloved, we will request an inquiry which will cost us millions, and will produces no new findings.

Mary, I'm not being pessimistic, I'm here for the long haul.

Is Kelly Reichert related to US Congressman Dave Reichert,(Washington state)?
 
No comments allowed

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/defence-in-bc-rail-case-allege-government-struck-deal-with-police/article1624892/

Comments allowed

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/06/30/bc-rail-trial-resumes.html
 
Very interesting details in court today.....
 
Citizen Journalist - great work - wish I could be there with you. I do have one of those little recorders that fit into your shirt pocket. Just have to sit close to the lawyers. Were I there you can bet I would be recording every single word I could. When charged and question, HELL, I would not remember that I was even in that court room. Seems to be the right answer. BUT, I would love to hear one of the defense lawyers ask Mr Brown, :Do you remember your name? Do you know where you are right now. Jo5ey (keep up the good work)
God Bless you Mary.(Jo5ey)
 
How long can his answers go on like this?
I don't know I cant recall.. just what does he do at his job?
should he keep his cush job at taxpayers expense?
Can I have a job like that too? make half a mill a year and you dont have know ANYTHING.... he sounds like he needs a care giver.. but he must have some value other than being a professional stooge for a corrupt office!
 
As far as I'm concerned, his answers are doing two things:

1) Making the Justice appear to be an incompetent fool incapable of insuring questions are answered...if necessary by reminding the witness they are under oath, and directing them to answer truthfully.

2) He's making a fool of himself, but he doesn't seem to mind doing it for his puppet...er, friend.

Unless some of those fine pew warming folk who make up this government (they know who they are) start taking "Thou shalt not lie" seriously, he's setting the standard all following him will use.
 
Martyn Brown could remember some things with absolute confidence and clarity. He remembered that Paul Taylor, then ADM Finance, was a man of great integrity back in 2003. I wonder how he remembers that when he remembers nothing else, even being questioned by the RCMP.

When saying he did not recall, he said that with great confidence.
 
I am pretty sure that the "I can't recall and I don't remember" has not been lost on the jury - at least I hope not.

If nothing else, those answers shout either arrogance or contempt and have nothing to do with being honest and truthful - so help me God !!!

And, we ain't heard nothing yet - there is at least ten or eleven months to go and Campbells corruption will be mentioned daily.

Thanks
 
HAPPY CANADA DAY, EVERYBODY!

I sure hope school-children aren't hearing about Martyn Brown as he refuses to answer the whole truth when asked reasonable questions on topics he was involved with.

How long would a child get away with that kind of thing in a classroom?

And how long is Madam MacK. going to put up with something which looks very much like Contempt of Court to me.


BC Rail Girl: You've got me thinking back ... to some lessons learned about the power of words as instruments of action. This is especially evident in time of war, and forgive me if I begin to think that our homeland, is at war.

After a lifelong aversion to military history, I was flung into it by a famous British historian who wrote what History Today called "a tribute" on the 50th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid of August 19, 1942.

Professor Foot knew better than to write about history as he did, so I ripped his comments apart. I'm away from home, as you may know, so I don't have my books and papers with me. But one of the lines I especially resented was "At the first sign of trouble, the Canadians laid down. And having once lain down, they were disinclined to get up again."

History today published my ripost. M.R.D. Foot made an even more aggravating response about "several eyewitnesses" which set me off, good and proper. "Several" out of 5,000 didn't counter-balance the overwhelming reports of the blood-bath in which tanks couldn't crawl over the beach pebbles, and where soldiers died in their hundreds at the foot of the sheer cliffs. At the top of those cliffs were the German gun emplacements, pre-registered to cover every square inch of the landing areas.

(continued ... )
 
And besides, the German Army knew they were coming! It was said, after the war, that even the German soldiers felt pity for the troops coming ashore, as they had no chance to win, and slim chances of survival.

Even those who got back onto the landing craft for the journey back to Britain, were grievously wounded. I visited Brookwood Cemetery near London England, the first time I had ever seen a mass grave, which holds the Canadian soldiers who died en route back to England. There's a famous photo of the much-loved Canadian General, Andrew McNaughton, reading the eulogy at that grave-site, vowing to avenge the dastardly event remembered as The Dieppe Raid. But I've digressed again ...

Why did a famous British historian, himself a seasoned soldier, come out with such hurtful rubbish as a 50th anniversary tribute? I hadn't been reading about the raid for more than 2 hours before I realized that Professor Foot was up to something.

Searching his story, I found that early in WWII he had been captured in a raid on a European port, but his father, a Brigadeer in the BRITISH army, gave orders that Mikey should be sprung. And Mikey was sprung. Unlike the hundreds of Canucks who either died, or spent the next 3+ years in German prisoner-of-war camps (duly segregated, officers getting better treatment than the ranks). So from Day One of my studies, I saw Prof. Foot as using the wartime tools of disinformation. But again: why?


well, war is nothing if it isn't about power ... and about who gets to write the history of the glorious leaders' seemingly inevitable (divinely ordained) rise to power. One very powerful man during WWII was Lord Louis Mountbatten who, i.m.o., has never been fully understood. Talk about black and white ... he is both. I'm not making this up when I tell you that the Brits assigned him to invent a floating airstrip which "Dickie" (as he liked to be known, god knows why) manfully worked on in the vicinity of Lake Louise ... the "airfield" was a huge block of ice largely made of sawdust ... but the darn thing (named "Habakuk") kept melting. Nobody could figure out how to keep the stupid thing frozen long enough to provide a landing field for invading Occupied Europe. So eventually, the "Mulberry" scheme took its place on D-Day.

The thing is, Dickie was a genuine whizz in Signals, the technical area of radio communication, and RADAR. His problem (as I see it) is that Radar -- so commonplace to us now -- was 9n 1942 top-secret both for Air Defence and for the strategic bombing raids over Europe. Britain was always a bit ahead of the Germans in this, but not far enough ahead.

There was a radar component to the Dieppe Raid, hidden in plain sight where Jack Nissenthal was assigned to assault Freya Station #28 at Dieppe which, of course, he couldn't do. It was too well fortified. And his FAILURE to access Freya 28 was well publicized (which he fought against, and I was lucky enough to talk to Jack about it, before he died.) But ...

(continued)
 
Koot,

I'm not sure if I'm blocked, or what. But Happy Canada Day to you, too.

I wrote a lengthy comment this a.m., and no matter how much I snipped, it was rejected as too long.

I started again, and got to (continued #3) and lost it again.

Now I'm going to take a break. My saintly patience is wearing thin.

I hope Robin wrote his final paragraph here, had a twinkle in his eye as he did it.
.
 
The CBC article at the link above has been updated and they are still allowing freedom of expression aka, comments.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/06/30/bc-rail-trial-resumes.html

Tamsyn Burgmann has this over at the Globe and Mail where comments are disabled

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/defence-in-bc-rail-case-allege-government-struck-deal-with-police/article1624892/


Neal Hall at the Sun has an article (link below) but commenting on the piece is not allowed.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Blabby+deputy+minister+knew+lobbyist+court+told/3223559/story.html


Keith Fraser at the province has an article at the link below but commenting on the piece is not allowed.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Witness+denies+knew+Liberal+officer/3223433/story.html

From reading the articles above it would seem that Mr. Brown has a much easier time remembering certain issues whereas other memories have evaporated. Similar perhaps as certain e-mails have evaporated and others are plentiful.
 
Warmest wishes on Canada Day to you, BC Mary.

You are a true Canadian, Warrior Woman with courage, wisdom and intellect in spades - that steadily shines over the MSM modis operendi.

See you soon!
 
I wonder what Paul Taylor thinks about his description as "blabby".
 
(Continued ... #3)

The history of the Dieppe Raid has been distorted and manipulated from its beginning. Only a day afterward, it was proclaimed a glorious victory in the British, Canadian, and U.S. newspapers. A glorious U.S. victory, in fact, because 60 US observers had accompanied the Canadians (and 1,000 British soldiers). And because Mountbatten's office employed a Hollywood publicity guy to write up the press release!

But the casualty lists soon began to tell a very different story. It was not a victory, it was a terrible botch-up, and Canada was hit hard.

However, the lies continued, as blame was cautiously explored. And above all, the powerful man who had dreamt up the raid, had to be protected. Dickie was a great friend of Winston Churchill and it's thought that they invoked the scheme together; but the actual planning was from Mountbatten's office.

No less important was Dickie as a cousin of England's King George VI, who enjoyed the military status of a demi-god. He certainly had to be protected from blame because it was wartime, because there was despair and defeat in the air ... and because hope is a powerful tool in war.

This is where I began to see similarities between that wartime situation, and British Columbia's predicament right now, in its war against the seizure of its public assets. BC has been invaded, assets seized, and those responsible appear to be protected. I think I can see comparisons between Dickie's powerful, protected position and the way Gordon Campbell has arranged matters to shield himself.

Mountbatten, too, managed to keep the situation confused; he shuffled the blame onto Canada's top general (McNaughton) and then onto the Cdn. Army Commander for the raid.

Just like Martyn Brown's situation right now ... the blame. Everybody knows that Gordo is responsible for the sale of BC Rail ... but somehow the only persons being accused for the major botch-up of BC Rail, isn't Gordo; it's 3 employees of his government. And the blame for the Dieppe Raid isn't laid upon its instigator, Lord Louis Mountbatten, who fussed until the end of his days trying to re-write the Dieppe history ...

(continued ...)
 
{continued ... #5)

With various computer difficulties, I'll try to wrap this up now.

Thinking back to that personal battle I had with Professor Foot, on the topic of the Dieppe Raid 1942), I was caught up in thinking how vitally important words can be, even in the most desperate situation.

What did Britain's wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, mean to the U.K. in a time of their most desperate time? In 1942, the U.K. had fortified their beaches because they expected a German invasion. They were malnourished, depending upon the embattled convoys bringing food and fuel from North America. And the German Luftwaffe was bombing them to bits on a nightly basis.

What Churchill provided was hope. With his words, he got people up on their feet again. "We will fight in the hills. We will fight on the beaches. We will never surrender ..."

And before anyone could debunk him for talking nonsense, he came across with his promise: nothing but "blood, sweat, and tears." In other words, defeating their enemy wouldn't be easy but it could be done.

It took powerful words to convince a desperate nation that they could overcome their situation. And they did overcome it.

There's power in a positive immagery. And I've gone around and around in remembering how these things happen ...

not by constantly pointing out how bad things are, but by saying "We will never surrender."

British Columbia needs us to say those things.

Happy Canada Day, everyone.
.
 
Our Canadian soldiers got all the dirty jobs. They were the ones who fought the Italian and German army, and won, guess who insisted they would take the Glory of riding into Rome, as the savior's, the USA. Guess who liberated Holland, the Canadians, The Dutch citizens were furious, the Canadians didn't even get an invite, to the liberation ceremonies. I had three brothers, a brother-in-law and a sister, in the services during WW11. A brother and my brother-in-law, who helped liberate Holland. They are, our friends for life. We are still in touch with many Dutch people. The idea, that two dictators from this country, had the gall to go to Holland's remembrance services, makes a person want to barf
 
Why is it, everybody in the trial, of the corrupt BC Rail, end up amnesiacs? The judge should really be replaced by a real Kangaroo, from Australia, a few kicks in the ass, may bring Martyn Brown's memory back. Campbell, Hansen and the BC Liberals, are objects of ridicule and contempt. We know exactly what will happen, before, the Fiberals even open their fibbing mouths. They are pathetically easy to see through. As far as newspapers from Vancouver, we Joe blows, stopped buying them long ago. They were also, pathetically easy to see through as well.
 
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