Friday, October 22, 2010
As the BC Rail Political Corruption Trial continues in the Court of Public Opinion ... welcome words of encouragement
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lynx has left a new comment:
Behavior is always telling, more than words.... and right now the behavior of this government, of the AG, the SP and of the 'justice' system is revealing all.
The behavior being exhibited by those who set up this six million dollar plea bargain is making clear to all watching that bribery and influence has become normalized in this province. So normalized that they don't even think we will notice! This desperate and invasive action by government reveals the depth and scope of the corruption.
And they are all sinking in their own muck.
The good news is their own arrogance has tripped them up.
They have gone too far.
The people feel it and know it.
Our small town is a buzz with talk about the implications of the abrupt end to this trial. The MSM may have returned to their usual chasing ambulances mode - but there are a lot of people saying: "Not so fast......"
Blogs like Mary's, have made themselves relevant and meaningful to the lives of British Columbians, through their perseverance, their continued focus, and their caring about this province. While the largely toadying cheerleaders that make up the MSM at present have made themselves both irrelevant and meaningless to the people of this province through their superficial and head in the sand approach to reporting.
The most significant trial in the history of this province was kept alive largely through citizen journalism. They realized how important coverage of it was to the people of this province. To our future.
So Bravo! to BC Mary, Robin, Ross K, Kootcoot, Laila, Grant G, Ian Reid, Gary E, Norman Farrell, Peter Ewart, Merv in Terrace and so many others for keeping the candle in the window brightly burning for BC.
lynx has left a new comment:
Behavior is always telling, more than words.... and right now the behavior of this government, of the AG, the SP and of the 'justice' system is revealing all.
The behavior being exhibited by those who set up this six million dollar plea bargain is making clear to all watching that bribery and influence has become normalized in this province. So normalized that they don't even think we will notice! This desperate and invasive action by government reveals the depth and scope of the corruption.
And they are all sinking in their own muck.
The good news is their own arrogance has tripped them up.
They have gone too far.
The people feel it and know it.
Our small town is a buzz with talk about the implications of the abrupt end to this trial. The MSM may have returned to their usual chasing ambulances mode - but there are a lot of people saying: "Not so fast......"
Blogs like Mary's, have made themselves relevant and meaningful to the lives of British Columbians, through their perseverance, their continued focus, and their caring about this province. While the largely toadying cheerleaders that make up the MSM at present have made themselves both irrelevant and meaningless to the people of this province through their superficial and head in the sand approach to reporting.
The most significant trial in the history of this province was kept alive largely through citizen journalism. They realized how important coverage of it was to the people of this province. To our future.
So Bravo! to BC Mary, Robin, Ross K, Kootcoot, Laila, Grant G, Ian Reid, Gary E, Norman Farrell, Peter Ewart, Merv in Terrace and so many others for keeping the candle in the window brightly burning for BC.
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Could you re-post the 2001 letter of recommendation from Lara Dauphinee and Gordon Campbell which assured Bobby Virk's position as Aide to Minister of Transportation Judith Reid. Since the HST fiasco, you probably have many more new readers. who might not be aware of this endorsement. As all the Liberals try to distance themselves from Virk and Basi, it would be nice for the public to know that it was Campbell that recommended the two people that he is now characterizing as criminals.
# posted by 
: October 22, 2010 at 9:37 a.m.
: October 22, 2010 at 9:37 a.m.
It's a good idea, 9:37,
but honestly, I can't find enough time to do this,
especially since I don't think I posted the letter itself. It would've been a pdf file, not copyable.
But there's a clear reference to it here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/campbell-haunted-by-bc-rail-deal/article975886/page2/
Maybe you could start up your Search Engine and go farther.
.
but honestly, I can't find enough time to do this,
especially since I don't think I posted the letter itself. It would've been a pdf file, not copyable.
But there's a clear reference to it here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/campbell-haunted-by-bc-rail-deal/article975886/page2/
Maybe you could start up your Search Engine and go farther.
.
Here's an example of the damage-control-crew out in force:
I heard CBC Radio Victoria’s political panel this morning: Elizabeth Cull (former Finance Minister), Bob Plecas (retired deputy minister), and Clark Roberts (always billed by CBC as “former counsel to the Liberals in opposition”.
In fact, Clark Roberts is much more than that.
Clark Roberts is Gary Collin’s lawyer in the BC Rail Corruption trial. As I understand it, he has served in this capacity for the last seven years, and his legal fees are being, and have been all along, paid for by the taxpayer. Man those benefits just keep kicking in, don't they? No matter how long after you've "served" your province.
Neither CBC nor Clark Roberts disclosed this fact to the listening public, even though the show was devoted exclusively to the (Surprise!) guilty verdict that ended the "show trial" of the century.
Clark Roberts dominated today’s panel discussion. Here’s a selection of his comments, not verbatim, but very close.
- As a taxpayer, I’m angry that Basi and Virk’s legal bills were paid!
- The process was done fairly by INDEPENDENT people (a constant refrain, the word ‘independent’)
- But the decision made by the “rookie” deputy ministers* who were politically naive, so that it looks bad, and Premier Campbell would not have agreed to that deal, but they didn’t bring the matter to him*. (Poor Gordo, so out of the loop.)
- Did I mention, “Independent”? (x 4 )
- There is no smoking gun, not a single bit of proof of anything else was turned up in the thousands of documents delivered. This govt does all it’s business by email; all documents were submitted.
* The two "rookie" DMs are DM Finance and Deputy AG (David Loukedelis,formerly Freedom of Information and Privacy Commissioner) who can hardly be called a "rookie" anything).
Bob Plecas was an occasional bobbing head doll, parroting Clark Roberts: it was the right decision, rookie deputy ministers, it’ll all blow over, yada, yada, yada.
Elizabeth Cull was barely present, made a few half-hearted statements, but didn’t have her head around the biggest issues (and she, a former finance minister!).
At one point, Clark Roberts started yelling at Elizabeth Cull when she said she thought that the political wing – the cabinet ministers – had to have known about the deal beforehand.
Clark Roberts went ballistic: “Are you calling them liars!? They both denied it! Are you calling them liars?!? And when Cull tried to reply, he barged in again with “Are you calling them liars!???”
Typical bullying liar, um, lawyer, he is, that Clark Roberts.
Last point: an article I saw last night, can’t recall where, stated that David Loukedelis, deputy AG refused to comment to the media.
Hmmmmm. Might he be regretting having jumped ship a few months ago? He had a very good rep as FOI & Privacy commissioner. That’s pretty much evaporated by now I suspect.
Way to go CBC Radio Victoria for giving Clark Roberts a precious public media platform from which to spew his misleading, obfuscating and down-right untruthful (yup, look it up in a thesaurus Mr. Clark, quite close to lying, isn't it?) SPIN.
I just hope CBC isn't paying Clark Roberts to be on this panel, on top of the rest of the taxpayer dollars he's been sucking in.
Message to Clark Roberts: We as taxpayers are very angry at the undisclosed sums we've paid you to keep Gary Collins, flight instructor and former "Finance" Minister* off the stand for the last seven years.
* Gary Collins' performance in the job kind of gives a new twist to the meaning of the title "finance" minister, doesn't it?
I heard CBC Radio Victoria’s political panel this morning: Elizabeth Cull (former Finance Minister), Bob Plecas (retired deputy minister), and Clark Roberts (always billed by CBC as “former counsel to the Liberals in opposition”.
In fact, Clark Roberts is much more than that.
Clark Roberts is Gary Collin’s lawyer in the BC Rail Corruption trial. As I understand it, he has served in this capacity for the last seven years, and his legal fees are being, and have been all along, paid for by the taxpayer. Man those benefits just keep kicking in, don't they? No matter how long after you've "served" your province.
Neither CBC nor Clark Roberts disclosed this fact to the listening public, even though the show was devoted exclusively to the (Surprise!) guilty verdict that ended the "show trial" of the century.
Clark Roberts dominated today’s panel discussion. Here’s a selection of his comments, not verbatim, but very close.
- As a taxpayer, I’m angry that Basi and Virk’s legal bills were paid!
- The process was done fairly by INDEPENDENT people (a constant refrain, the word ‘independent’)
- But the decision made by the “rookie” deputy ministers* who were politically naive, so that it looks bad, and Premier Campbell would not have agreed to that deal, but they didn’t bring the matter to him*. (Poor Gordo, so out of the loop.)
- Did I mention, “Independent”? (x 4 )
- There is no smoking gun, not a single bit of proof of anything else was turned up in the thousands of documents delivered. This govt does all it’s business by email; all documents were submitted.
* The two "rookie" DMs are DM Finance and Deputy AG (David Loukedelis,formerly Freedom of Information and Privacy Commissioner) who can hardly be called a "rookie" anything).
Bob Plecas was an occasional bobbing head doll, parroting Clark Roberts: it was the right decision, rookie deputy ministers, it’ll all blow over, yada, yada, yada.
Elizabeth Cull was barely present, made a few half-hearted statements, but didn’t have her head around the biggest issues (and she, a former finance minister!).
At one point, Clark Roberts started yelling at Elizabeth Cull when she said she thought that the political wing – the cabinet ministers – had to have known about the deal beforehand.
Clark Roberts went ballistic: “Are you calling them liars!? They both denied it! Are you calling them liars?!? And when Cull tried to reply, he barged in again with “Are you calling them liars!???”
Typical bullying liar, um, lawyer, he is, that Clark Roberts.
Last point: an article I saw last night, can’t recall where, stated that David Loukedelis, deputy AG refused to comment to the media.
Hmmmmm. Might he be regretting having jumped ship a few months ago? He had a very good rep as FOI & Privacy commissioner. That’s pretty much evaporated by now I suspect.
Way to go CBC Radio Victoria for giving Clark Roberts a precious public media platform from which to spew his misleading, obfuscating and down-right untruthful (yup, look it up in a thesaurus Mr. Clark, quite close to lying, isn't it?) SPIN.
I just hope CBC isn't paying Clark Roberts to be on this panel, on top of the rest of the taxpayer dollars he's been sucking in.
Message to Clark Roberts: We as taxpayers are very angry at the undisclosed sums we've paid you to keep Gary Collins, flight instructor and former "Finance" Minister* off the stand for the last seven years.
* Gary Collins' performance in the job kind of gives a new twist to the meaning of the title "finance" minister, doesn't it?
# posted by : October 22, 2010 at 12:10 p.m.
: October 22, 2010 at 12:10 p.m.
CC--
It is also worth noting that back in the pre-trial days (ie. May of 2007), the good Mr. Roberts issued a statement from his client, Mr. Collins, that demanded the release of the RCMP surveillance tapes which recorded a conversation between Mr. Collins and the CEO of OmniTRAX (who fronted the money that was used to bribe BVB via Eric Bornmann [but not, at least according to him this morning, via Brian Kieran]) at a swanky Vancouver restaurant in 2003.
Funny.
I don't recall having heard either Mr. Roberts or Mr. Collins call for the release of those tapes recently.
_______
My take on this matter, for anyone interested, is here....
.
It is also worth noting that back in the pre-trial days (ie. May of 2007), the good Mr. Roberts issued a statement from his client, Mr. Collins, that demanded the release of the RCMP surveillance tapes which recorded a conversation between Mr. Collins and the CEO of OmniTRAX (who fronted the money that was used to bribe BVB via Eric Bornmann [but not, at least according to him this morning, via Brian Kieran]) at a swanky Vancouver restaurant in 2003.
Funny.
I don't recall having heard either Mr. Roberts or Mr. Collins call for the release of those tapes recently.
_______
My take on this matter, for anyone interested, is here....
.
One thing I forgot to mention in my post of 12:10 pm about Clark Roberts HUGE LIE that all communications were turned over to the investigators and prosecutors:
...thousands of emails were destroyed (in 2006?) by Gordo's GuvMint even though they were from ministries that were involved in the BC Rail Corruption scandal when it was knee-deep in investigation and before the court. Why? 'Cause ooh, they made a mistake. Sure we believe you... Uh, huh.
All substantive government correspondence is required to be saved, and everyone from cabinet minister to secretary knows that, it's nothing new. Did anyone suffer any penalties, any consequences as a result of this mysterious, huge destruction of emails (oddly only from select ministries)? Nah, don't be silly. If a member of the public destroyed any evidence in a court case, they'd be in deep trouble, maybe looking at jail time. "Civil" servants of politico crime bosses, not a problem.
So, CLARK ROBERTS, stop misleading the public, because we'll call you on any lies every chance we get.
Anyone who lives in Victoria might want to journey down to CBC Radio and stand outside the glass walls of the studio which is just 20 feet from the sidewalk with some messages next Friday morning (7:45 am). This political "panel" convenes every week at this day/time.
Maybe see the whites of Clark Roberts eyes, ask him why he no longer wants to see those surveillance tapes of his client from the Villa Lupo, among other things...
...thousands of emails were destroyed (in 2006?) by Gordo's GuvMint even though they were from ministries that were involved in the BC Rail Corruption scandal when it was knee-deep in investigation and before the court. Why? 'Cause ooh, they made a mistake. Sure we believe you... Uh, huh.
All substantive government correspondence is required to be saved, and everyone from cabinet minister to secretary knows that, it's nothing new. Did anyone suffer any penalties, any consequences as a result of this mysterious, huge destruction of emails (oddly only from select ministries)? Nah, don't be silly. If a member of the public destroyed any evidence in a court case, they'd be in deep trouble, maybe looking at jail time. "Civil" servants of politico crime bosses, not a problem.
So, CLARK ROBERTS, stop misleading the public, because we'll call you on any lies every chance we get.
Anyone who lives in Victoria might want to journey down to CBC Radio and stand outside the glass walls of the studio which is just 20 feet from the sidewalk with some messages next Friday morning (7:45 am). This political "panel" convenes every week at this day/time.
Maybe see the whites of Clark Roberts eyes, ask him why he no longer wants to see those surveillance tapes of his client from the Villa Lupo, among other things...
# posted by : October 22, 2010 at 4:22 p.m.
: October 22, 2010 at 4:22 p.m.
It is worth filing a complaint with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council if indeed they failed to disclose the facts about Mr. Roberts' conflict. In fact maybe it is worth filing many complaints. Volunteers?
Thanks RossK. We all need to be reminded of all these deeds done, and keep being reminded until it's printed on our retinas when we get a chance to vote.
I for one sure wish Campbell hadn't switched to elections to only every four years. No accountability, just lots of opportunity for the incumbent government to lie the pants off the public before each election.
Under what circumstances, besides recall, would a sitting MLA, especially a premier, be forced to quit, I wonder. Are there no limits? Any ideas out there? Recall isn't enough as an option for me anymore.
I for one sure wish Campbell hadn't switched to elections to only every four years. No accountability, just lots of opportunity for the incumbent government to lie the pants off the public before each election.
Under what circumstances, besides recall, would a sitting MLA, especially a premier, be forced to quit, I wonder. Are there no limits? Any ideas out there? Recall isn't enough as an option for me anymore.
# posted by : October 22, 2010 at 5:36 p.m.
: October 22, 2010 at 5:36 p.m.
"Under what circumstances, besides recall, would a sitting MLA, especially a premier, be forced to quit, (?)"
Well if the RCMP would get off their asses and perform their job and actually investigate things like breach of the public trust, rather than kissing criminal butt and trying to get their contract renewed and writing self serving letters to the Vancouver Sun - then they could arrest Gordon Campbell on all sorts of conspiracy and organized crime, breach of trust etc. charges, in which case EVEN a BC liaR MIGHT feel compelled to resign - then again, Gordo would probably insist on remaining CEO from a gaol cell.
Here in BC the buck stops WAY down below the big desks. Kash Heed gets elected due to criminal activity in his campaign - he keeps his seat and his underlings take the fall.
Improprieties in the sale/giveaway/theft of BC Rail - the three brown guys did it!
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Well if the RCMP would get off their asses and perform their job and actually investigate things like breach of the public trust, rather than kissing criminal butt and trying to get their contract renewed and writing self serving letters to the Vancouver Sun - then they could arrest Gordon Campbell on all sorts of conspiracy and organized crime, breach of trust etc. charges, in which case EVEN a BC liaR MIGHT feel compelled to resign - then again, Gordo would probably insist on remaining CEO from a gaol cell.
Here in BC the buck stops WAY down below the big desks. Kash Heed gets elected due to criminal activity in his campaign - he keeps his seat and his underlings take the fall.
Improprieties in the sale/giveaway/theft of BC Rail - the three brown guys did it!
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