Friday, August 20, 2010
When BC Supreme Court trials are resolved by other means
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BC Mary comment: It seemed to begin with the Supreme Court of Canada releasing some evidence which had been withheld from the Pickton trial.
After the trial, and after an appeal, the public was allowed to see and hear some Pickton evidence. It wasn't just odds and ends, it was Pickton himself on video describing how many women he had killed, etc., which undoubtedly could have swiftly brought that trial to a guilty verdict. But that evidence was withheld. And the trial went on. And on.
What would the Basi Virk jury be thinking, I wondered, as they recently learned via the media that verdicts in BC Supreme Court may be reached without juries even knowing?
Gary Mason has written an excellent column about this ... and I can't help hearing echoes of the BC Rail Political Corruption Trial all the way through what he says about the process. (Not the evidence, but the process of privately agreeing on a verdict.)
See Gary's full column HERE.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/gary_mason/the-mounties-got-their-man-and-the-taxpayer-paid/article1646832/
Excerpt:
The Mounties got their man, and the taxpayers paid
By Gary Mason
The Globe and Mail - July 21, 2010
The trial of Allen Dalstrom versus the Organized Crime Agency of B.C. had been under way in B.C. Supreme Court for only a few days when lawyers representing both sides approached Madam Justice Catherine Wedge asking for a temporary adjournment.
It was granted. And although no one knew it then, a wrongful-dismissal case that threatened to level serious allegations of misconduct against high-ranking RCMP members would never resume.
The Globe and Mail has now learned that $2-million of B.C. taxpayers’ money was used to quietly end the affair in September, 2008. The secret arrangement was hatched on the courthouse steps during a break in the proceedings. Lawyers for the Crown approached Kevin Woodall, Mr. Dalstrom’s lawyer, saying it was not in the public interest for the trial to go ahead ...
Today, few who played a part in the story are willing to talk about the events that destroyed the career of one of Canada’s most accomplished gang investigators.
Gary's report is well worth reading at this time, with the BC Rail Political Corruption Trial scheduled to resume on September 13, 2010.
BC Mary comment: It seemed to begin with the Supreme Court of Canada releasing some evidence which had been withheld from the Pickton trial.
After the trial, and after an appeal, the public was allowed to see and hear some Pickton evidence. It wasn't just odds and ends, it was Pickton himself on video describing how many women he had killed, etc., which undoubtedly could have swiftly brought that trial to a guilty verdict. But that evidence was withheld. And the trial went on. And on.
What would the Basi Virk jury be thinking, I wondered, as they recently learned via the media that verdicts in BC Supreme Court may be reached without juries even knowing?
Gary Mason has written an excellent column about this ... and I can't help hearing echoes of the BC Rail Political Corruption Trial all the way through what he says about the process. (Not the evidence, but the process of privately agreeing on a verdict.)
See Gary's full column HERE.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/gary_mason/the-mounties-got-their-man-and-the-taxpayer-paid/article1646832/
Excerpt:
The Mounties got their man, and the taxpayers paid
By Gary Mason
The Globe and Mail - July 21, 2010
The trial of Allen Dalstrom versus the Organized Crime Agency of B.C. had been under way in B.C. Supreme Court for only a few days when lawyers representing both sides approached Madam Justice Catherine Wedge asking for a temporary adjournment.
It was granted. And although no one knew it then, a wrongful-dismissal case that threatened to level serious allegations of misconduct against high-ranking RCMP members would never resume.
The Globe and Mail has now learned that $2-million of B.C. taxpayers’ money was used to quietly end the affair in September, 2008. The secret arrangement was hatched on the courthouse steps during a break in the proceedings. Lawyers for the Crown approached Kevin Woodall, Mr. Dalstrom’s lawyer, saying it was not in the public interest for the trial to go ahead ...
Today, few who played a part in the story are willing to talk about the events that destroyed the career of one of Canada’s most accomplished gang investigators.
_________________
Gary's report is well worth reading at this time, with the BC Rail Political Corruption Trial scheduled to resume on September 13, 2010.
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For background information on how police investigated Pickton charges:
Leaked Pickton report: Scathing document details how police failures led to 'tragedy ... that could have been averted'.
By Lindsey Kines and Les Leyne
Times Colonist - August 20, 2010
Read this report HERE.
Excerpt:
... [Vancouver Deputy Chief of Police Doug] LePard pulls no punches against his own department -- particularly senior managers of the day -- for failing to recognize sooner that a serial killer was preying on the city's sex trade workers.
The reluctance to commit to the serial killer theory meant that front-line investigators and managers never got the resources they needed to handle such a difficult case, LePard concludes in the report. The draft copy, obtained by the Times Colonist yesterday, is titled Missing Women Investigation Review and labelled "privileged -- prepared in contemplation of civil litigation."
The members of Vancouver's Missing Women Review Team "performed in what could fairly be described as a heroic manner in the face of great adversity," LePard writes. But it's clear from the report that they were often working with one hand tied behind their backs ...
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Leaked+Pickton+report+Police+turned+away+from+Pickton+suspect+continued/3421604/story.html#ixzz0xB0pAi4S
Leaked Pickton report: Scathing document details how police failures led to 'tragedy ... that could have been averted'.
By Lindsey Kines and Les Leyne
Times Colonist - August 20, 2010
Read this report HERE.
Excerpt:
... [Vancouver Deputy Chief of Police Doug] LePard pulls no punches against his own department -- particularly senior managers of the day -- for failing to recognize sooner that a serial killer was preying on the city's sex trade workers.
The reluctance to commit to the serial killer theory meant that front-line investigators and managers never got the resources they needed to handle such a difficult case, LePard concludes in the report. The draft copy, obtained by the Times Colonist yesterday, is titled Missing Women Investigation Review and labelled "privileged -- prepared in contemplation of civil litigation."
The members of Vancouver's Missing Women Review Team "performed in what could fairly be described as a heroic manner in the face of great adversity," LePard writes. But it's clear from the report that they were often working with one hand tied behind their backs ...
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Leaked+Pickton+report+Police+turned+away+from+Pickton+suspect+continued/3421604/story.html#ixzz0xB0pAi4S
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Comments:
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Note the date/time stamp at the bottom of when this Anonymous writer left a comment on your blog BC Mary.
"Anonymous said...
Is this a blunder on our court system, the releasing of all of the information that was banned.
The Basi jury is free to read anything, and if I were on that jury, and reading this morning's newspapers of what was held back from the Pickton trial by the police/Crown prosecutor because they "thought" the victim wouldn't be believed, there's enough evidence without going the route of the six women that were murdered, of the one woman that got away six years before all of the women were presumably murdered.... to hang Pickton once.
With all of the delay in the Basi trial thus far, the jury could be thinking that there's far more evidence that goes against the defendants that against the Crown eg. the BC Liberals.
There'll be a mistrial called on this current one because of the latest fiasco by the courts and it won't happen until it goes to the Appeal stage. Guaranteed, the Defense team will raise the release of the Pickton details as the basis for the their appeal."
5 August, 2010 6:58 AM
Source:
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Sheesh, I dunno. What do you think of "too much train noise" in and around Squamish, B.C.?
.
Squamish Chief story is HERE.
Me? I just wonder if CN is up to something.
"Anonymous said...
Is this a blunder on our court system, the releasing of all of the information that was banned.
The Basi jury is free to read anything, and if I were on that jury, and reading this morning's newspapers of what was held back from the Pickton trial by the police/Crown prosecutor because they "thought" the victim wouldn't be believed, there's enough evidence without going the route of the six women that were murdered, of the one woman that got away six years before all of the women were presumably murdered.... to hang Pickton once.
With all of the delay in the Basi trial thus far, the jury could be thinking that there's far more evidence that goes against the defendants that against the Crown eg. the BC Liberals.
There'll be a mistrial called on this current one because of the latest fiasco by the courts and it won't happen until it goes to the Appeal stage. Guaranteed, the Defense team will raise the release of the Pickton details as the basis for the their appeal."
5 August, 2010 6:58 AM
Source:
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Sheesh, I dunno. What do you think of "too much train noise" in and around Squamish, B.C.?
.
Squamish Chief story is HERE.
Me? I just wonder if CN is up to something.
# posted by 
: August 20, 2010 at 7:52 a.m.
: August 20, 2010 at 7:52 a.m. 
What took the MSM so long to write what was obvious to one of our readers/writers who noted it way back on the Fifth of August?
LOL, maybe the MSM have been on summer vacation and they have to read your blog to get the facts.
LOL, maybe the MSM have been on summer vacation and they have to read your blog to get the facts.
# posted by : August 20, 2010 at 10:26 a.m.
: August 20, 2010 at 10:26 a.m.
I heard that BVB will DO NO TIME regardless of which verdict is handed down. Can anyone confirm?
yeah. What joke BC is.
yeah. What joke BC is.
# posted by : August 21, 2010 at 11:27 p.m.
: August 21, 2010 at 11:27 p.m.
In a Neal Hall report for the Vancouver Sun on March 24, 2009 there are four paragraphs that clearly shows the direction by which the Basi/Virk/Basi trial has transpired, even going so far as to show why Madame Justice Bennett was turfed from the trial.....:
"The defence position at trial will be that Basi and Virk were simply representing the wishes of the ministers to keep OmniTRAX in the bidding process because, had OmniTRAX dropped out, the process likely would be seen as being flawed.
"It was clearly in the provincial government's political interest to have an auction with more than one bidder," says a defence document filed in court last Feb. 26.
The two former government aides hope the trial will exonerate them, similar to what occurred at the trial of former B.C. premier Glen Clark, who was accused of accepting a benefit from a neighbour in the form of modest home renovations at the time the neighbour was involved in a pending application for a casino licence.
Clark was acquitted at trial after the judge -- B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett, who will also hear the Basi and Virk case without a jury -- found that Clark paid for all the work, which had been undervalued by his neighbour, who was convicted."
Source: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Former+Victoria+aides+trial+Dave+Basi+Virk+were+charged+after+police+seized+documents+raid/1423877/story.html
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"The defence position at trial will be that Basi and Virk were simply representing the wishes of the ministers to keep OmniTRAX in the bidding process because, had OmniTRAX dropped out, the process likely would be seen as being flawed.
"It was clearly in the provincial government's political interest to have an auction with more than one bidder," says a defence document filed in court last Feb. 26.
The two former government aides hope the trial will exonerate them, similar to what occurred at the trial of former B.C. premier Glen Clark, who was accused of accepting a benefit from a neighbour in the form of modest home renovations at the time the neighbour was involved in a pending application for a casino licence.
Clark was acquitted at trial after the judge -- B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett, who will also hear the Basi and Virk case without a jury -- found that Clark paid for all the work, which had been undervalued by his neighbour, who was convicted."
Source: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Former+Victoria+aides+trial+Dave+Basi+Virk+were+charged+after+police+seized+documents+raid/1423877/story.html
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