Friday, July 16, 2010

 

Special message to the guy who used my email address to tell me I should be doing more

.
Hi Barry,

I like your attitude. I like it very much that you want action on the BC Rail Political Corruption Trial. We all want that.

But I laugh when I see your "unsolicited call to arms" ... which is your demand for "someone to step up to the plate and actually tell us what's going on in the trial."  You go on to say: "What is all of this secret evidence that we can't hear about? What, exactly are all of these things that are apparently being withheld from us?" 

That's quaint, in its blissful innocence of what's been going on. Where have you been, the past 4 years? But your message gets better ...

Barry goes on to say: "If you won't [won't?] report these things, and the mainstream media won't report them,
then what can anyone hope for?

" I know why the MSM is playing into Gordon Campbell's hands, but why should everyone else?

"I'm asking you, and your assistants [ahem! will my assistants please stand up and report for work? Thought so. Ain't nobody here but me], to take the next big step and actually publish all that you've heard, either on the blog, or via
e-mail, or Wikileaks, or by any means available.

"Maybe it would anger the Judge. Maybe it would lead to fines or even an arrest for contempt of court. But maybe, just maybe it would lead to  some real changes.  Once the genie is out of the bottle there will be no putting it back in.



[Barry ... you do realize that you're inciting people to undertake an action described under the Criminal Code of Canada, don't you? Very, naughty
. You might want to reconsider that.]

"I believe that only by some brave person opening the doors and publishing will a real and just trial take place.  As long as everyone is willing to sit by and do nothing, then Campbell and his cronies will win, and will laugh in your face as they do so.

"Surely," continues our brave young friend,  "enough is enough - let's look these people right in the eye and say "OK, so what are you going to do now?" [Barry, you'll need to figure out for yourself, what those tough-nuts are going to do much earlier in the game you're suggesting. They play hardball.]


Barry's message ends here.


I've let it run on so that my seasoned readers can best understand his message. I wouldn't want them thinking I had made it up.

Some thoughts: I think that breaching the publication ban could result in a mistrial -- and the whole BC Rail trial would be tossed, the secrets locked away forever. Some people may be hoping for that; I hope not.

The really secret part about a Prosecution Witness whose identity is being kept out of the limelight, is laid down by the Supreme Court of Canada and we can leave that part alone; there's enough other stuff to worry about -- for example, Justice MacKenzie's almost-total publication ban is the worst feature and anyone reading the blogs will have quickly realized two things:

1) We're on the case, working to have the ban lifted (even partially, around the SCC Secret Witness), and

2) Planning ways like information pickets which -- lacking media coverage -- can bring the facts a little closer to the public.

All of that ground has been covered in detail on blogs like The Straight Goods, House of Infamy, Northern Insights, and Pacific Gazette. These are people of conscience and brainpower, with a deep affection for the Province of British Columbia. They haven't been fooling around, these past 4 years. No way. And if you're looking for someone of keen intellect who has studied the law, knows BC history, and who has been in court observing and reporting on The BC Rail Trial, read the scholarly analyses Robin Mathews provides faithfully on my blog, The Legislature Raids.

It's all there, for the public to see. It opens the Courthouse doors for British Columbians living in the northern parts of BC, British Columbians living in Australia or England -- it's all there.

Our friend "Barry" is on a mission Good luck to him. But why didn't he pause to read up on these reports, before demanding that we "do something"?

Where I start laughing is when I realized Barry had obtained my e.mail address from Dr Mathews' column about "doing something". Robin had explained one more thing which people could do. He had done his part. And he thought others might wish to "do something" too, and if so, he suggested they send a copy of their letter to BC Mary, and provided my email address.

Let me guess. You didn't do your letter, did you, Barry? Didn't think so. Sad, isn't it, when people know perfectly well that drops of water can wear away stone, but they can't write that latter which will help advise the BC Supreme Court that there is a valuable public interest in this BC Rail Case, and our needs aren't being considered.

By the way, there are 1,800 posts on The Legislature Raid, dating back to June 2006. Have you read them all? Have you been in court on the Basi Virk Basi days? It'd be nice, I think, if you tried to become part of the strong blogger movement which often requires us to  fulfill the media's role in informing the public.

BC Mary
The Legislature Raids
http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/





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Comments:
Thanks for the TGIF chuckle, Mary re: Barry's email musings:

"I believe that only by some brave person opening the doors and publishing will a real and just trial take place."

We will all wait with bated breathe to see "brave" Barry attend BCSC in September after which he lets the whole 'shabang' rip as he publishes it on his blog while we watch the repercussions rain down on his tiny head.

Comedy is good for the soul.

Now kick back and have a delightful well earned, weekend my friend!
 
to take the next big step and actually publish all that you've heard, either on the blog, or via
e-mail, or Wikileaks, or by any means available


Wikileaks is certainly an avenue of recourse for anyone in the courtroom daring enough to actually write up the unspeakable and send it off; the courtroom might be sealed, or Canadian web servers might see Wikileaks blocked People's Republic-style...

I'm all for Barry "looking them in the eye" and "what are you going to do about it?" etc......fine, if you're somewhere beyond the court's jurisdiction and "watchingfromnextdoor" who I gather is in Washington might consider starting a Post-Intelligencer blog about this trial.....

But the last persons to look the courts of British Columbia "in the eye" with challenges to court bans, contempt citations/threats and calling them out on endemic corruption were Jack Cram, lawyer in the Delgamuukw case, and Bruce Clarke, lawyer in the Gustafsen Lake case.....who were beaten, electroshocked, and medicated before being brought before the judge to plead for leniency and who have been silent ever since......and the stakes in those cases were considerably less than in this one.....

Taser practice, anyone?

Canada is not turning into a police state, it's been one for a very long time.....

Great press kit, though, when you've got Americans believing we're the kinder, gentler version of themselves. Perhaps we are, but we're also very much more cowed and under clearly autocratic and arbitrary rule. We may have universal health care (deteriorating though it may be), but we don't have a workable democracy, we don't have an independent police force or judiciary, and we don't have an open political or judicial system.

It may well be, as Barry suggests, that it will take someone to lay themselves on the altar of public propriety and be sacrificed to the cause.....but if the media are looking the other way, and nobody in the other provinces or in the US or in the so-called Mother Country notices, there's not much point.

Entirely different, htough, if a US or UK documentarist were to produce a series on the trial's shenanigans and the railway racketeering and political electioneering that spawned it....but nothing interesting happens in Canada, that's the view on foreign production desks, carefully cultivated by our national spin machine...

It's almost as if on the map there was written, from Douglas Adams' books, "Mostly Harmless", such that nobody would think to look and consider exactly how important the place is, and exactly how corrupt and vicious those who have taken charge of it really are.....
 
Maybe it's my inexperience. Six years is a long time to destroy, damming evidence. I feel the trial is just a farce. Because, of other matters, the Judicial system, seems corrupt. Martyn Brown, seems to have a selective memory. I am astonished, he is able to function in his job position. I think they need to get a, real kangaroo to judge the trial. However, Campbell and Hansen, have a nasty way about them when they are opposed. Suddenly, these people find themselves without a job. Even if a decision, has to be made, following the law. If they don't lie for Campbell and Hansen, they are toast. How many Liberal Ministers, have been under investigation now? Seems to be no problem, for anyone other than the citizens, who are angered, by the, blatant nose thumbing from the BC Liberals.
 
Barry has a popular idea. Someone (else) should do something. You don't have to do big things. You don't have to be as eloquent as Robin Mathews or as good at research as NV Grumps. You don't even have to live in BC. Talk to friends, send links to Mary's blog. See if you can think of other ways to get the word out. This is not just a BC thing. It is a Canadian thing and BC is a main battleground. Let's all try and push in some small way and see what tips over. When I read my morning paper I often wonder if I am in Washington, Skookum1. Perhaps someone who really is there will use your suggestion as their 'small thing'.
 
Poor Old MLA Ida Chong has been nailed by Michael Smyth today for her $5,921 meal tab even though she lives no more than twenty minutes from home.

http://www.theprovince.com/opinion/Victoria+charged+taxpayers+meals/3285600/story.html

-----------------------------------

Well here's something that Michael Smyth missed when he wrote his column for today.

Under the skilled writing hands of the BC Liberals, dated September of 2001, this is one item that Ms Chong missed perusing when she raised her hand and voted on it (I'm guessing here, maybe she was asleep at the switch) or maybe she's read the ACT to be that she wasn't at "Home" in Victoria, she was at the Legislature in Victoria, a long Twenty Minutes which justifies her claiming $61 per day times 90:

"Meal allowance
7 If an official is not at home while discharging official duties, the official may be paid, for each
day or portion of a day the official discharges those official duties, either
(a) subject to paragraph (b), an allowance of $61 per day, or
(b) if the official claims an amount that is less than $61 per day, the amount the official claims.
[en. B.C. Reg. 151/2008, s. 2.]
Note: this regulation replaces B.C. Reg. 323/85
[Provisions of the Financial Administration Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 138, relevant to the enactment
of this regulation: section 27 (1) (c.1) and (d)]"

Source: http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/ocg/fmb/manuals/CPM/ODER.pdf
 
Who's the worst premier in Canada? You get your chance to vote in the Globe on line poll here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/you-tell-us/article1405166/

You know what to do!
 
Skookum1, very very astute. Very accurate –– especially re the (rare) lawyers with integrity, Jack Cram and Bruce Clark.

People may not believe their stories, but the truth is there for anyone who cares to look it up. And Cram and Clarke aren't the only victims of the police state of BC. Check out the case awaiting final decision in the Supreme Court of Canada regarding Vancouver lawyer Cameron Ward who was arrested, strip-searched and jailed on a silly, false charge just to teach him a lesson. Our authorities are out of control.

Your recommendations for bloggers to assert themselves in the Washington state media, and for other foreign media to cast an eye upon BC/Canada is an excellent one.

BC is a "closed shop" as far as justice and government authority is concerned. There is no hope of democracy or freedom from tyranny here in BC, or in Canada. Harper is galloping madly across the map, tearing up our rights and freedoms as fast as he can, as stealthily as he can. Master of the dirty, underhanded and dangerous, Harper and Peter Mackay make a good couple. We must get help from sources outside our borders.

You are also very right when you identify Americans as one of the best potential allies. They would be shocked to learn what is going on here.

Thanks for your pearls of wisdom. More desired, as often as you care to put them forth.

CC
 
Skookum1, very very astute. Very accurate –– especially re the (rare) lawyers with integrity, Jack Cram and Bruce Clark.

People may not believe their stories, but the truth is there for anyone who cares to look it up. And Cram and Clarke aren't the only victims of the police state of BC. Check out the case awaiting final decision in the Supreme Court of Canada regarding Vancouver lawyer Cameron Ward who was arrested, strip-searched and jailed on a silly, false charge just to teach him a lesson. Our authorities are out of control.

Your recommendations for bloggers to assert themselves in the Washington state media, and for other foreign media to cast an eye upon BC/Canada is an excellent one.

BC is a "closed shop" as far as justice and government authority is concerned. There is no hope of democracy or freedom from tyranny here in BC, or in Canada. Harper is galloping madly across the map, tearing up our rights and freedoms as fast as he can, as stealthily as he can. Master of the dirty, underhanded and dangerous, Harper and Peter Mackay make a good couple. We must get help from sources outside our borders.

You are also very right when you identify Americans as one of the best potential allies. They would be shocked to learn what is going on here.

Thanks for your pearls of wisdom. More desired, as often as you care to put them forth.

CC
 
Barry, you are a bit like the chickenhawks Bush/Cheney, Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh, et al. They wouldn't risk their own toes in combat but were more than willing to send others into battle.
 
Barry, you are a bit like the chickenhawks Bush/Cheney, Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh, et al. They wouldn't risk their own toes in combat but were more than willing to send others into battle.

What we need is a "BC Rail Cult" version of Bill Good or Limbaugh, a hot-line show (and obviously a station owner with lots of dough) ready to whip up the public mindset about the BC Rail rip-off and all the illegality that has gone with it. Maybe that could be, um, broadcast from Whatcom County, if only for effect. Radio Free British Columbia or whatever....

Laila interviewing Paul Nettleton, for example, discussing issues hear in trial and relayed to them, but doing so on American soil. Or a cable talkshow with a PBS host interviewing Robin and Krog etc.

PBS might be he first US major media to take nan interest in this. I continue to manitain that the involvement of a US-owned companhy in overtaking a public asset owned by a foreign govenrment through underhanded and manipulated means is exactly what the Democratic view of US foreign policy is against; if the story was told without placenames or ethnic identifiers on the players, most Americans would assume it was Honduras or Peru or PRI-era Mexico (well, probably PAN-era Mexico too).

US Democrats (including the President) should also take into account the influence of the Republic Party not just on political iedology of the Tories and other right-wing parties and factions, but also in direct corporate involvement in helping buy elections, with major capital returns the actual reason for the political support. The Democrats labour under the notion that Canada is "the Nice Country" and have rather unfortunately limited understanding of our political structure, much less of its manifold problems. And its entrenched, century-old-and-more corruption, "the way of doing things", "business as usual", "the way things are done".

Californians at least have rejected IPPs as "clean power", but they remain unaware of the nepotistic and corrupt origins of the projects; they rejected them only because of their self-evident environmental liability, denial of which is part of the Liberals' political marketing of why they're a good thing.

But unwrapping Kiewit's, Gates', Bufeet's, Maximus' and other US companies' incestuous relationship with a Canadian government and its ruling party should be of interest to US foreign trade committees and panels, and examined for violations of US laws. I keep on wondering if the citizens of BC can sue the stockholders of CN for that companies' apparent collusion with the wrongfully-elected (by dint of overt lying) government of British Columbia in defrauding the people of British Columbia of owner of a major public asset; a major strategic asset no less.

cont.
 
Could Barry be a not so clever Troll?
 
BC Mary you were asking earlier who writes the Opinion pieces on the Vancouver Sun Editorial page.

One more member of the Vancouver Sun editorial board has cropped up which leaves me wondering just how many more there are. In this morning's paper it appears that columnist Pete McMartin is another one and he isn't even acknowledged as being on the "team".

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Mayor+owes+voters+duty+listen+before+speaking/3290746/story.html

"Mayor Gregor Robertson visited the editorial board of The Vancouver Sun on Thursday afternoon, and it took every ounce of will power I could muster not to ask him, "How the f---are you?" Instead, we exchanged pleasantries, as people are wont to do when a recorder or microphone is set to "On."

The mayor was then informed by Sun city hall reporter Jeff Lee that an enterprising clothier had set forever in cotton the mayor's profane-laden reference to "NPA hacks," now on sale in ladies' and men's sizes. It is official: Gregor Robertson has suffered the worst fate a politician can. He is a T-shirt."

SNIPPED


Correction here BC Mary, TWO who are not mentioned as being on the Vancouver Sun Editorial Board, so too is Sun city hall reporter Jeff Lee.
 
Short answer to Ballz:

Yes, he could be.
 
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