Wednesday, January 12, 2011

 

Only a Public Inquiry into the corrupted sale of BC Rail can answer

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G West has left a new comment on the post "Basi, Virk, and Basi. Appearance and Reality ...":


Why is it that exhibits and the like are usually returned after the conclusion of a case?

Because there is no need NOT TO RETURN them - the matters before the courts, the exhibits and the trial transcripts are matters of PUBLIC RECORD and are accessible to one and all - in most cases on line.

That is what's wrong with the arguments advanced by the Crown in this case - because the material has NOT BEEN made public - for a variety of reasons that are no longer of any consequence since the case is now over and no one's rights are being protected any longer.

Justice, to be done, must be seen to have been done - it's a hoary old legal maxim - but on that principle rests the quality, character, trust and credibility of the whole system.

Not only has the government in this case failed to live up to its obligations - the legal system and the principles of equal justice before the law have been savaged.

One hopes that the arguments of counsel for the intervenors in the case will be persuasive and the judge on the bench will, at long last, rise to the challenge of defending the public interest.

Early on, Justice Bennett made a commitment to defend that interest - it's a long time since that happened and the disposition of this matter has fallen very far from that goal....



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For example:
Drug dealer linked to legislature raid imprisoned

RCMP oddly silent about key victory against cocaine ring

Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun - Feb. 17, 2009


The key figure in Project Every Which Way, the organized crime investigation that triggered the raid on the legislature half a decade ago, has been convicted and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment.

Jasmohan Singh Bains, the 33-year-old would-be Mr. Big of the Vancouver Island drug world, was also fined $242,170 and forfeited $12,718.11 seized by police at the time of his arrest five years ago. If he fails to pay the fine, Bains must serve another three years in prison.

Although then only 28, Bains headed a Victoria-based group that shipped kilograms of cocaine to Metro Toronto and remitted cash back via Federal Express ...

Read more HERE

http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=aec9020a-6175-4a9e-b2eb-3e0c8ba68119

Recommended: Print a copy before this column disappears. 

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BC Mary comments: It happens. Big, serious, costly trials are held and the wrong individuals are nailed. I like what Ian Mulgrew writes here: "Other liars in this [Air India] case should also be held to account."

I've shown excerpts from Mulgrew's column here, as a comparison to the BC Rail Political Corruption Trial: 


Opinion: More Air India perjury charges should be laid 
Other liars in this case should also be held to account

By Ian Mulgrew
VANCOUVER SUN - JAN. 9, 2011
 
The stiff, nine-year perjury sentence handed Inderjit Singh Reyat in the Air India terrorism case should be followed by the prosecution of the Crown’s key witness.

... the failed $100-million prosecution was built upon sand — the charges of another unmitigated liar: a former employee at the local Khalsa School who is in the witness protection program and whose identity is protected.

{Snip} ...

He also impugned the testimony of other Crown witnesses as impossible and fabricated.

Justice Josephson was clear and articulate — the Air India case collapsed because it was a house of cards.

I think Justice McEwan was right on the mark hammering Reyat.

But if perjury is the kind of crime he said it is, if it strikes at the root of the legal system, then Crown witnesses who misled the court should be as assiduously prosecuted as Reyat was.

{Snip} ...

But, like all who fall victim to scam artists, the prosecutors were all too eager to believe something that was too good to be true ... {Snip} ...

The most despicable kind of perjury leads to a wrongful conviction and is done not out of misplaced loyalty but out of spite ...

There is no question Reyat deserves our strongest denunciation.

But there are others in this case who should be held to account — those whose lies triggered a misguided $100-million prosecution that immunized from punishment the very men it sought to convict.

Justice is supposed to be blind: What is sauce for the gander should be also sauce for the goose.

imulgrew@vancouversun.com

Read Ian Mulgrew's full column HERE
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http://fwix.com/vancouver/share/07de715bc6/opinion_more_air_india_perjury_charges_should_be_laid

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Comments:
Mr. Bains was the sine qua non of this conspiracy," Provincial Court Judge Robert Higinbotham said at the sentencing on Sept. 11.

"He was the initiator, the driving force, and the chief executive officer of the trafficking enterprise, and he answered to no other person."

Higinbotham said that Bains answered to no one, yet Basi and Bains were talking, ostensibly, and the police knew that so they set up a wire tap.

In them there taps, there must be evidence that Basi was answering to Bains, not the other way round?

Is there any record of what was said?

Can we get those wire taps?
 
Ohh yes, 3:50 ...

copies of them thar wire tap conversations are amongst the documents in the possession of the Defence.

Bobby Virk has said that he will be making a written appeal showing why he must hold and protect that evidence in anticipation of any future actions, such as a Public Inquiry.

THAT is where we'll see what was said on those wire taps.

That's one of the many reasons why we need that Public Inquiry into the Sale of BC Rail.
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agreed!
 
great cartoon at this site.

http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/18984/1/what+holiday?
 
8:22,

It's a good one, all right.
 
Superb blog post, I have book marked this internet site so ideally I’ll see much more on this subject in the foreseeable future!
 
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