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BC Mary comment. Yes, I do know that mentioning the New Democrats is considered bad manners in media circles. But I've mentioned the despicable government of BC often enough ... so why not the BC Opposition? Oh, right: The BC Opposition doesn't like what I say about them [boo hoo!] which means I'm not on their Christmas card list ... and heaven knows, Big Media in BC rarely mentions the NDP except in a bad way. So this is a rare opportunity to hear news of the political party which is an honest-to-gosh alternative to the B.C. gang which couldn't even get its own name right [Well, they are NOT Liberals, are they? Stop it, stop it. No yelling, please.]

OK, here goes ... this old New Democratic party apparently held a convention this past weekend. Who knew? 

And by the end of the day, some impressive candidates were standing up to be counted ready for action. OK, so it's federal - not provincial -- but there's no denying that this is news of a hopeful kind, if only because it doesn't include our BC craptocracy. So here's the news they sent to me:


FEDERAL NEW DEMOCRATS PICK UP MOMENTUM IN BC

NDP candidate line-up grows after nomination-packed weekend  [I repeat: Who knew?]

BRITISH COLUMBIA – The federal New Democrats are poised to win more seats than ever before in BC, and their line-up of strong candidates in winnable ridings grew by three after a nomination-packed weekend.

“BC is going to be a contest between the Harper Conservatives and the Layton New Democrats,” said Deputy Leader Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver-East.

“We have a very strong team of candidates and we’re ready for the next election whenever it comes.”

On Friday SFU professor and public policy advisor Kennedy Stewart was nominated in Burnaby-Douglas - a battleground seat that New Democrats have held for 30 years.

Sunday saw the nomination of Courtenay city councillor Ronna-Rae Leonard in Vancouver-Island North, a seat that is historically a close race between the NDP and Conservatives.

Also on Sunday, former BC Teachers’ Federation president Jinny Sims was nominated in Newton-North Delta – a traditional three-way race.

Community advocate Meena Wong has announced her intention to seek the NDP nomination in Vancouver South. Nominations have closed, and she will be acclaimed next Sunday.

“People are very disappointed that every Conservative and Liberal MP voted to impose the HST on British Columbians,” said Davies. “Jack Layton and the New Democrats are working to make life more affordable, lift seniors out of poverty, and protecting our coast from oil spills.

“We would rather make Parliament work for Canadians rather than have an election, but if Stephen Harper forces a campaign we’re ready to make significant breakthroughs in BC,” said Davies.

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BC Mary comment: Nope, bits and pieces of inquiry won't do. The province needs full and complete answers: at least $17.3 million worth ... at least, the full disclosure of the BCR - CN deal. 

Note to Christy Clark: don't even think of pulling any more slick tricks on the public; we've had 7 years to study your leader's outrageous decision to dump BC Rail (while you were his Deputy Premier). Better still, we think, would be a full Public Inquiry leading unflinchingly to arrests of the treacherously guilty parties who perpetrated that corrupt deal.  Tell us: what harm could it do, if BC citizens know the truth? 



Excerpt from:

Michael Smyth column
Newest Premier knows the power of her appeal
The Province - Feb. 28, 2011

... Those same provincial Tories are already trying to drive a wedge in Clark's divided caucus. They were quick to target former solicitorgeneral John van Dongen, who has openly criticized Clark's links to the B.C. Rail scandal.

Van Dongen: "The B.C. Conservatives have already been on the phone to me, but I told them I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying with this government, and I will raise my concerns internally."

Van Dongen's big gripe is the government's disgusting decision to pay $6 million to lawyers of ex-insiders Dave Basi and Bob Virk in return for guilty pleas to corruption charges.

Clark was asked Sunday about her comments during the leadership campaign to support an independent review of the foul-smelling B.C. Rail plea-bargain deal. "That's a possibility," she said.

A possibility? It should be a priority. The B.C. Rail plea bargain stinks to high heaven. Clark needs to deal with it, or risk trouble from van Dongen, and other potential malcontents.

www.twitter.com/MikeSmythNews

msmyth@theprovince.com

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Comment on this story online at theprovince.com or email us at provletters@theprovince.com.
Include your name and address.

Read Michael Smyth's full column HERE.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Newest+premier+knows+power+appeal/4357845/story.html

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BC Mary comment: Sorry that I don't feel like congratulating the interim premier of my beloved home province ... because it doesn't matter a damn, does it? I've said all along, partisan politics cure nothing. It's working together, addressing the issues, that works. So ...


Itdoesn'tmatterwho is the current premier of British Columbia. So what. Nothing a new premier can say, will logically explain how partisan politics can heal a  province so grievously wounded. This new premier won't even try. She knows it was her particular brand of partisan politics which got B.C. into the mess. She knows exactly how B.C. got into a state of poverty and prevented the citizens from knowing about it. No surprise there, that's what the new premier's ideology is all about. Rape, pillage and making profits is an ideology which can cross oceans, cross continents, cross political borders. And that's why ItDoesn'tMatterWho is the new BC premier ... elected not by the citizens but by her own particular brand of partisan politics: centrist, indifferent, corporate, anti-union, anti-worker, ideologically driven, lame, boring, anti-family, petty politicians that avoid real human issues.


I assume (but am not sure) that the recent tiny session of the BC Legislature is over and done with. So no questions can be asked there, where they should be debated and agreed. Questions such as the ones a Tyee commenter is asking today:

Quote:
"Where the hell was the environment, social programs, water privatization, corporate responsibility, government accountability, carbon tax, casinos, BC Place, BC Rail, BC Hydro, BC Ferries, salmon farms and all the other other things that I hear British Columbians talk about every day? Politicians do not want to talk about these things, be it so-called left or right wing in political stripe. They do not want to talk about it because they all know that they have sold this province down the river. It is easy to talk about accountability over and over but this government has been in power for a decade and I feel that they are the most unaccountable bunch of arrogant toads I have ever seen ... " End of quote.

Comment - New Premier
Andrew MacLeod
The Tyee - Feb. 26, 2011
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Election-Central/2011/02/26/NewPremier/
But perhaps National Post has a healthier, happier "To Do List" of things the new premier (Itdoesn'tmatterwho) can do: 

Quote:
... 3) Commission a full inquiry to examine the compromised BC Rail sale. A very messy affair, the BC Rail bidding process resulted in a political corruption trial; it ended abruptly last year in B.C. Supreme Court when two senior Liberal government bureaucrats pleaded guilty to charges of breach of trust and accepting benefits in exchange for leaking confidential rail bid information. What? How? Too many questions linger. End of story? Not on your life. The whole business stinks — including that $6-million fee payment the BC government agreed to give lawyers for the guilty parties — and everyone in the province knows it. The scandal remains great fodder for the NDP opposition.

Ms. Clark has already shunned calls for an inquiry, perhaps not surprising since her brother, federal Liberal fundraiser Bruce Clark, and her ex-husband, Mark Marissen, a federal Liberal party strategist, were among those approached by police investigating corruption around the BC Rail sale. But they were not accused of any wrongdoing, nor was any elected Liberal government member. Ms. Clark is now in a position to help clear the air, demonstrate openness and commitment to her promise of “change.” Forming an inquiry would be a courageous and creditable move. [End of quote]

From Full Comment
By Bruce Hutchinson
National Post - Feb. 27, 2011

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/02/27/analysis-christy-clark-must-win-over-skeptical-b-c-voters/



BC Mary comment: exactly how much faith can we put in any premier, and ItDoesn'tMatterWho? Consider the lady who occupied the BC Deputy Premier's chair throughout the pillaging of BC Rail -- she's now Premier -- is this the Hero who will chase down the villains, reveal the carefully-guarded secrets, and set the BC Rail record straight? I mean, she above all is wishing all those issues would go away, isn't she? She's the one who keeps saying "Just keep movin' along, folks; ain't nuthin' to see here now."


The other BC Liberal candidates fit this description too. They did the dirty deeds. Or they helped do them. Or they looked away while treachery was being done. It doesn't matter a damn which one of them became premier.  It really doesn't matter ... perhaps not until the next election, and perhaps not even then.  So ...


Citizens have work to do. Every day, we must do something -- no matter how small -- to push our M.L.A.s into action. To bring the issues to the public. 

BC Rail was, i.m.o., the first and the worst outrage perpetrated upon a wealthy province. I chose to get my teeth into that particular issue and to not let go until BC Rail gets the defense it has always deserved. You may feel equally  passionate about the rivers ... or BC Hydro ... or BC Ferries ... whatever it is, seize the issue and don't let go until the issue is brought into balance again. 


It's no good to moan and groan. In fact, that's worse than useless because it demoralizes everybody. Trying to do everything, that's also a bad idea because it's overwhelming. Pick your passionate favourite and stand by it day by day ... bit by bit ... if we all keep trying, it adds up.


Listen to me, cripes, you'd think I knew all about being an activist. Well, I don't know much about it at all ... all I know is that, deep in our hearts, we know perfectly well how to protect something we love. We know perfectly well that we'll go the extra mile for something precious in our world. And I'm pretty sure that the deep affinity I feel for the landscape of my home province, is amply shared by others. We can do this, y'know. We can put this chaotic, corrupted mess right again. The rightness of our project will carry us through. I know this. And I bet you do too.  Courage. Trust. Good cheer. 

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Ian Reid's posting on The Real Story just might be the basis for criminal charges.

http://therealstory.ca/2011-02-24/bc-liberals/the-leak-what-it-means

With Ian's permission, let's look at what he says:

The leak: what it means

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Ian

A purported RCMP “continuation report” document leaked to Alex Tsakumis reveals what appears to be a bribe offered by the chief officer of the BC Liberal Party to David Basi in order to secure action by the Finance Minster that will result in a large donation to the party.

Here is the key part of the conversation as apparently reported by the RCMP:  Basi and BC Liberal Party Executive Reichart are discussing a prospective donation of $10,000 to the party.

Reichart: “Did you get that email?

Basi: “Got the email and forwarded it to the boss.  Will talk to the boss once he’s finished his meeting.

Reichart: “It’d be nice to get it through.  He might even get a tip out of it.”

Basi: “I would just donate it back to the party, senator.”

Here’s the relevant section of the Criminal Code.
121. (1) Every one commits an offence who

(a) directly or indirectly

(i) gives, offers or agrees to give or offer to an official or to any member of his family, or to any one for the benefit of an official, or

(ii) being an official, demands, accepts or offers or agrees to accept from any person for himself or another person,

a loan, reward, advantage or benefit of any kind as consideration for cooperation, assistance, exercise of influence or an act or omission in connection with

(iii) the transaction of business with or any matter of business relating to the government, or

(iv) a claim against Her Majesty or any benefit that Her Majesty is authorized or is entitled to bestow,

whether or not, in fact, the official is able to cooperate, render assistance, exercise influence or do or omit to do what is proposed, as the case may be;

In the RCMP iteration of the conversation, Reichart suggests a donation depends upon the Finance Minister doing something.  If that happens “a tip” may be forthcoming from the donation.  Basi clearly understands that this is a monetary incentive as he says he’ll “donate it back to the party.”

If this report is accurate, it describes a classic “pay for play” scheme – the meat and potatoes of political corruption the world over – ‘you get this done for me, you’ll get a piece of the action.’  And it fits the description of Section 121 of the Criminal Code.

But a possible offence is just one of the difficult issues this leaked report raises.  Others  go far beyond this particular deal.

There are questions regarding the role of the RCMP beginning with: did the RCMP investigate this incident?  If not why not?

Kelly Reichart “happens to be” as the Vancouver Sun puts it,  the brother-in-law of the lead RCMP investigator Insp. Kevin deBruyckere.  Were decisions around this wiretap compromised by this relationship?

This leads to questions about the role of the Special Prosecutor.

Did the RCMP share this wiretap with the Special Prosecutor.  If not, why not.  If they did share it with the Special Prosecutor why did he not take action?

Then there are the questions about the deal that ended the trial.  How that deal came about continues to be a mystery compounded by the various different explanations the former Attorney General has offered publicly.

What we do know is that the Former Finance Minister Gary Collins – known as “the Boss” on this transcript – was scheduled for examination and cross-examination when the deal was jointly offered by the Government and Special Prosecutor.  It is not too far a step to suggest that the Defense would have likely taken the opportunity to ask Mr. Collins about this RCMP report.

So the question is, was this report a reason the Defense was made an offer it couldn’t refuse?

And one last question.  Where’s the media?


History footnote:   In times not so long ago, "Civil Servants" were required to keep their distance from politics, even in Canada. The British definition:


The traditional role of civil servants is to provide advice to ministers, regardless of which party is in power. The Head of the Home Civil Service, Sir Robert Armstrong, wrote a memorandum in 1986 which outlined the role that civil servants should play. It states that, 'the determination of policy is the responsibility of the minister. It is the duty of the civil servant...to give the minister honest and impartial advice, without fear or favour, and whether the advice accords with the ministers view or not.' He also mentions that the civil servant has a duty to carry out a decision with the same energy and goodwill as a minister would when taking a decision. They must pursue the decision made whether they agree with it or not.

Sometimes, if a civil servant has a fundamental disagreement with a particular policy or system of their government department, they can find themselves with no option but to resign.


BC Mary adds: I've heard that certain newscasters even in BC have refused to exercise their right to vote, in an honest effort to avoid political bias. Maybe that's not such a bad idea ... because look at this column (below) ... and  consider  how many bosses poor Bornman had, while carrying out his ... um, err... "duties". This quote is from March 2009 -- "Aides sold [BC Rail] data  ... "

... Bornman -- who was then communications director for the B.C. chapter of the federal Liberals and had worked as an organizer for former prime minister Paul Martin's leadership campaign -- may have recommended the two men for jobs with the federal government, police say.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Aide+sold+Rail+data+RCMP/1423893/story.html#ixzz1EtB6rXJu


BC Mary suggests: The new premier of BC must (1) immediately launch a criminal investigation into the "sale" of BCRail, (2) bring in legislation which requires that Public Servants swear a duty to their employers (that would be us, the citizens ... and after all, isn't HMTQ code for "The People"?) ... and that if a government employee splinters his/her allegiance by giving his time in service to anyone else (any other leader, political person, political party or criminal gang) then that's grounds for immediate dismissal.  Wow, I'd love to see the vote on that legislation!



Read more of Ian Read:

http://therealstory.ca/2011-02-24/bc-liberals/the-leak-what-it-means

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Nothing to do directly with us, but a clear demonstration of the underhanded tactics the right will use to negate democracy....

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: C.C.
Date: Fri, Feb 25, 2011
Subject: "Shame, Shame!": Dems Protest As GOP Rams Through Vote on Walker's Bill (U.S.A.)



"Shame, Shame!": Dems Protest As GOP Rams Through Vote on Walker's Bill

Most Democrats didn't even know the vote on the despised bill--utterly eliminating Unions' right to collective bargaining--had taken place. Using what is essentially trickery, the Republican members of the Wisconsin State Asssembly broke the momentum of a Democratic filibuster by forcing a sudden, unexpected vote and passing the bill.

As the Wall Street Journal reports:

Debate had gone on for 60 hours and 15 Democrats were still waiting to speak when the vote started around 1 a.m. Friday.

Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer opened the roll and closed it within seconds. Democrats looked around, bewildered. Only 13 of the 38 Democratic members managed to vote in time. Republicans immediately marched out of the chamber in single file. The Democrats rushed at them, pumping their fists and shouting "Shame!" and "Cowards!" The Republicans walked past them without responding. Democrats left the chamber stunned.  ....more

[Video]

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/485833/%22shame%2C_shame!%22%3A_dems_protest_as_gop_rams_through_vote_on_walker%27s_bill/#paragraph6

Here's the link to the Wall Street Journal article it quotes:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704150604576165630210533872.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

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An Era Ending in Chaos.

By Robin Mathews
February 24, 2011


We walk through the obvious, not seeing what is falsely imposed upon us as reality.  Then tiny, troubling pieces of falsehood fit together … or a large piece falls into place, and the whole pattern of false reality becomes exposed.  That’s “when it all becomes clear….”

The BC Rail Scandal is a part of the moving evolution and revolution sweeping the globe – in the Middle East, in parts of Europe, in parts of South America, even now in some U.S. states.

That is – more and more plainly – because two gigantic forces are in conflict.  One is the force moving Private Corporate Power into control of governments, to wring from their territories whatever wealth can be torn from the backs of ordinary people.  The other is a growing resistance movement welling up from (genuinely) oppressed peoples who are being sacrificed to the greed and rapacity of the small-group alliance. [Yesterday, calm announcers reported home electricity bills in B.C. will rise ten percent each year for the next three years – to pay, in fact, the Private Corporations who are more and more in cut-throat control of B.C. natural wealth.] 

Consistently serious work of communication, truth-seeking, comprehension of the scene (across the world) is falling upon the “social media” not upon the Mainstream Media. That is plainly the case in British Columbia.

Wikileaks, for instance, is credited with providing information that may have ignited the Middle East spark, the cry for the end of oppression, and for the opening of genuine democratic processes.

Well before the “press of the world” reported Tunisia – before Tunisia became “news”,  “Anonymous” (a silent social network force) was there in Tunisia, informing, assisting, reporting….

The conflict between the social media and the MSM, here in B.C., as elsewhere, is said to stem from an “old order” and a “new” one facing off  for ‘reporting rights’.  Careful, experienced experts and professionals of the Mainstream Media (MSM), it is said, are coming up against mavericks, ungrammatical newbodies, not trained to do ‘responsible’ coverage.  Conflict erupts …..

Except that simply isn’t true.  The cause is deeper, darker, more dangerous.  The MSM is, quite simply, a part of the gigantic Private Corporate force moving on governments to own and control their directions. The MSM chides ‘the rulers’, pretends … to appear “representative”, but it can’t help letting its mask slip at important moments.  It lets a large piece of the false reality fall into place – for all to watch – and then the jig is up … “all becomes clear”.

The large piece of false reality that just fell into place here in B.C. is an almost incredible piece of theatre, highly controlled, almost – one thinks – rehearsed, when the Globe and Mail and CTV requested of the B.C Supreme Court (unopposed) that the RCMP investigation documents alone (called ‘everywhichway’) dealing with the personal, wrongful connections, associations, and acts of Dave Basi, Bob Virk, and Aneal Basi be released.

What I believe was a Private Corporate, MSM, RCMP, cabinet, Court game was played out – so obvious that the moves to keep everybody else outside the group away from the documents were and looked ridiculous.  The speed with which Globe and Mail and other reporters had enough to unwind blood-curdling stories from the revealed wire-taps belied the statement that they did not have the material before it was “released” in court.

There seems to be a genuine claim that a few, hand-picked (insider) reporters were given exclusive access to the documents before the application to release them was addressed in court. All the processes and careful, protective means of bringing court materials to public light were, apparently, trashed in this case.  Private Corporate rule erases law and due process.

The story of the released documents is much, much worse than it seems.

Dave Basi, Bob Virk, and Aneal Basi were accused and tried. Convictions came down for two of them in a “deal” that was ridiculous, farcical beyond rational belief.  Justice was not done, and it was widely seen to have been thwarted.  The administration of justice in Canada was brought flagrantly into disrepute.  That truth is becoming clear to more and more Canadians.

The trial was finished.  Social media insisted the conclusion was a farce bordering on bribery, buried in secrecy, allegedly covering up for harsh, major, high-level criminal action: “the BC Rail Scandal” in fact. That perception will not go away.

Which top-level strategists went to work to “change the optics” cannot even be guessed at.  They were some very, very stupid people.  Because to get the results they thought they could get [but couldn’t], they had to bare the fact that almost all the people suspected of chicanery (and much more) in the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR had to be “in on” the move they set up. It all becomes clear.

The Globe and Mail lost its credibility totally and, one hopes, forever.  CTV (the other applicant for the documents) had little credibility left to lose.  Mark Hume’s (Globe and Mail) “stories” must be kept and treasured as examples – I believe – of the complete debasement of serious journalism. The story of the Globe and Mail.

Mark Hume’s work is paralleled, I believe, by that of Ian Mulgrew (The Vancouver Sun, Feb 18, 2011, A4).  Mr. Mulgrew tells his readers that “the public finally got an uncensored view of the backroom shenanigans that occurred in the controversial $1-billion sale of BC Rail assets in 2003”.

How can Mr. Mulgrew say that unless he is actively wishing to mislead?  How can he know “the backroom shenanigans that occurred in the controversial $1-billion sale of BC Rail…” when cabinet documents weren’t released, BC Rail documents weren’t released, third party documents weren’t released – when none of the major actors in the transfer appeared in the trial that was slammed shut precisely (many believe) to protect them from ever revealing “the backroom shenanigans that occurred in the $1-million sale of BC Rail assets in 2003”?  When none of the documents were tested for truth?

The story gets worse. The MSM people stepped away from their keyboards, from telling their tales of outright fantasy – based on ‘facts’ supported by RCMP investigation documents. Then a chorus of questions began to rise…again.

What I say here is not intended to cast aspersions on ‘independents’ and ‘bloggers’.  It is said to show the chaos that has entered law, the courts, the RCMP – in front of our eyes!

One blogger appears with (leaked) copied documents of RCMP wiretap information (from where?) showing – at the very least – imperfect, muddled evidence taking.  Promising more.  Another contacts Dave Basi and a friend (for ‘exclusive’ interviews!) to report the wiretap materials involving them are completely misread by the MSM reporters.

Frustration grows.  Leaks open.  Clowns dress in high court robes. Top RCMP officers pose like Banana Republic thugs.   Lies and lock-down increase popular rage.

There is more.

Back in early 2010 (if not earlier), the accused decided they wanted to “re-elect” from judge alone to a trial by judge and jury.  Negotiations went on, various agreements were made, the accused and their lawyers signed an admission of facts (in February 2010) which covered “a range of topics, including wiretap, search warrants, exhibits, documents, employment of the accused and financial matters”.

The accused and their counsel agreed that the materials were correct.

In May of 2010, however, the accused (Dave Basi and Bob Virk) applied to withdraw certain admissions especially related to wiretaps and emails. Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie denied the application.

I don’t have to report anything that went on in the courtroom because foyer and hallway conversation – and mere observation of body language – showed all that needed to be shown.  Dave Basi and Bob Virk had set to work to study hard the material admitted as fact, in preparation for the trial.  To their dismay, they alleged they found so much of it faulty they felt they couldn’t proceed as if it were correct. (The dribs and drabs leaked and being argued over now apparently are part of a much larger body of questionable material.)  And ‘faulty’ email reproduction, apparently, also was included in the questionable material. Carelessness?  Bad organization? Shoddy workmanship?  RCMP intention? Basi and Virk in error? Who knows?

And so they instructed their counsel of the dilemma.  But their counsel had also signed that they would proceed with the admissions.  And so counsel were ready to proceed; the accused were not.  The atmosphere grew thick and heavy in the lounge area … for at least a few days.  Everything seemed to stop. The accused were advised to “seek advice”. “Advice” was not easy to come by. I was convinced that the accused believed they had come upon irregularities of kinds they considered very serious in the apparent “evidence”. Eventually, the accused decided, as I remember, to proceed and to tackle error when and if it appeared in “evidence”.

My point is that the release of the documents from the RCMP that came about on February 16, 2011 was a release of documents many of which had been called into question, which had caused a huge flurry in trial activity, and which have never been tested in a trial brought to any kind of reasonable completion.

And yet those documents were released, without qualification, to a limited group of trusted journalists who would handle them, apparently, in the right way.  We have been witness to “the right way”: flamboyant cover-up.

Unfortunately, there is more.  In that same month of May, 2010, Defence counsel received a large cache of cabinet documents they felt was overwhelming.  They asked on May 13 to have a week of adjournment to read and assemble the large body of material (about 18,000 pages). Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie dismissed the application with reasons.

In her Reasons for Judgment [2010 05 18, Docket 23299] she wrote a few interesting things.  “The defence know the Crown’s case against their clients, and what evidence the Crown will lead in its attempt to prove that Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk disclosed sensitive and confidential information about the BC Rail bidding process to Pilothouse.  Whether others may also have done is an entirely separate issue; the persons on trial are Mr. Basi, Mr. Virk, and Aneal Basi.

[20]  As the defence contends, the credibility of the principals of Pilothouse is seriously at issue and may well be the most important issue in this case.
…. “

First, “Whether others may also have” … disclosed sensitive and confidential information is NOT an entirely separate issue, I would say, with respect.  Indeed, if the trial had proceeded, and if Defence had been able to show that the persons on trial did not disclose, but others did, those others would have had to be, somehow, addressed.

If Dave Basi and Bob Virk were shown to have disclosed sensitive and confidential information among several who also did so, that would have thrown a different light on the charges – for the jury if not for the judge.  Whatever the judge has written, a jury of reasonable men and women might have seen the meaning of such added evidence quite differently than she would.

What is more, if the trial had continued – as it began – and the jury had continued being subjected to top-level politicians and corporate actors who, over and over and over, used every ruse and trick and ploy to avoid providing truth in answers, the jury would have grown tired very soon.  It would likely have made judgements quite different than those the presiding judge would have considered ‘fitting’. [Was that why the trial was aborted?]

Notice in the passage quoted above, Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie also writes: “As the defence contends, the credibility of the principals of Pilothouse is seriously at issue and may well be the most important issue in this case.”

That is the judge on the case making a statement about the credibility of “the principals of Pilothouse”.  But when she released the RCMP investigation documents –  I am not aware that she included a word of caution about the veracity of the statements, none of which was tested in trial and found true or found lacking in truth.

With respect for the Associate Chief Justice, I am alarmed she released a large amount of material – in contention from the start of the case – to a highly restricted, in-group, without, it appears, a word explaining, defining, cautioning that all of the material was untested and some of it she herself described as “seriously at issue”.

The whole situation, I believe, is most unusual, almost inexplicable.  Shouldn’t the RCMP have presented objections?  It had to know many statements it was given were doubtful, at least. Shouldn’t the judge herself have entered objections on the basis of her own recorded doubts about truthfulness of at least some testimony given to police? Shouldn’t the Crown – which has the role of protecting good process as well as conducting prosecution – have entered objections on the grounds that the materials have never been tested for truth in the only place they could be – a trial completed rather than cut off in what many believe was a shameless piece of skullduggery?

Dave Basi and Bob Virk, (the convicted) to their credit, urge that all the disclosed material be protected, all be available for a Public Inquiry as the only way of coming to understand the full scope of corruption and wrongdoing in the BC Rail Scandal.  They are saying, in effect, that all the disclosed material should be tested for truth under rigorous judicial or semi-judicial conditions.

We are surely inside chaos when the apprehended and convicted criminals are calling for full, fair, open, democratically driven judicial examination of the BC Rail Scandal.  Chaos is surely here if (as I believe) the “guardians of our society”, the RCMP, the (wrongfully-appointed) Crown, the cabinet (in silent withdrawal), the Associate Chief Justice of the B.C. Supreme Court and judge on the scandalously aborted trial, and the Mainstream Media give every appearance (to me) of working together to defeat justice by whatever means they can.

Can a reasonable British Columbian believe that cabinet interests, RCMP, the (wrongfully appointed) Prosecution, the Court, and the Mainstream Media all agreed to select a distinct portion of documents disclosed to the Court and to release only them – regardless of their possible biased, incomplete, and potentially misleading quality – to a small, selected, in-group propaganda team - access denied to all others?

That is very, very hard to believe.

But in a world in which Private Corporations are fighting for the control of governments – and are winning the fight – the scenario is entirely possible.

In a world exploding under the thrones of dictators the real owners of the dictators are fighting to keep supremacy … and are showing their hands.

In a world in which the grip of a toadying and sycophantic Mainstream Media is loosening daily, its lunge for central position in the handling (and mishandling) of information is becoming more brutal and more obvious.

An aroused public is becoming more informed and more and more alarmed at alliances for dominance among previously democratic institutions and Private Corporate exploiters. Such alliances as the one I suggest may have formed – to engage in the release of partial, biased, incomplete, misleading, and diversionary RCMP gathered materials – become wholly possible in our time.

The present picture of the BC Rail Scandal seen with clear eyes is a picture of unfolding Chaos.

The democracy we think we have is in collapse. Brutal force is struggling for dominance.  That surely means an Era is ending. The pained and struggling state of peoples in all parts of the world today suggests – that despite disaster - a better Era may lie ahead. 

.
BC Mary comment: This is Skookum1's comment following on from Bill Tieleman's column on Dave Basi ... 

Quote from another comment on Bill's blog: Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie has given them documents that BC tax payers paid for through a 6 million hush fund. 

Skookum1 responds ... 

No, these aren't what that $6 million hush fund bought.  What that bought was a premature end to the trial before all the evidence was heard, and before our famous cast of characters had to hit the stand, and face an even worse grilling than the amnesiac Mr. Brown or the disappearing "birthday boy" Mr. Kenning.

Given that we know the defendants slandered in these "uncensored" documents were offered incentives, and also mildly threatened, to come back to the fold and keep their mouths shut, and they would be rewarded and should be concerned for their families yadayadayada (all mob-talk dressed up in finery), you do have to wonder what led to the case [being] dropped against the third defendant in this trial.

And y'know, we still don't really know what went on [in] the related ALR trial, do we, and what that cost.  And what evidence we were not allowed to hear during that trial, nor is it available for our viewing now.

The price of what we paid for not being allowed to see these documents ourselves is not just the cost of the trial and proceedings but also the time paid to staff of Crown lawyers and RCMP who prepped and selected these materials.  And we paid for it with a railway, which proper court proceedings would have shown to be have been improperly shucked off and which should be rightfully returned to us WITH DAMAGES.  Not having that railway anymore, nor its revenues, nor the tax indemnities and other locked-in benefits in debates which are still marked "confidential", and debates about which are marked "privileged" - we don't have that.

We also don't have our democracy, or what we thought was our democracy.  And we don't have an honest press.  We have a press that is part of the machinery of lies and thievery and institutionalized deception and systemic corruption and closed proceedings, and courts and police and Crown lawyers beyond reproach by the public.  Indeed, even showing contempt for the public, in no small measure.

Can you spell "parochialism"?  I can, but this is something much more than simply parochialism.

It is piracy.  In Her Majesty's much-benighted name.

The public inquiry must now be much broader than simply the tainted sale of BC Rail.  It must be about the process itself, about what our government is, and how to stop it from doing this or anything like it again.  It must be about abuse of process - in the courts, in the offices of the Crown, amongst the RCMP involved in this case, and the pack of lobbyists (=Liberal insiders) serving as intermediaries to expedite, and profit from, helping companies buy out not just our province, but our very government, from beneath our feet.

As long as our media lie to us, they keep the public fed with entertainment and "soft news" and all manner of deception and distortion and deflection in order to keep the system of corruption of which they are a part from being visible to the public at large.

The internet has changed that; not so sharply here as in other countries at the moment; but they cannot muzzle us, and for every bit of mud they hurl, as they have done here to the defendants, only serves to underscore what a vicious system it is and how far they'll go to keep what they have stolen.  And who they have bought.....

We just don't want the railway back.  We want it all back.  And if it means that those running for the Liberal leadership were involved in it, we need to know that NOW, not a long ways down the line.  We need a court to overrule ACJ Mackenzie, who has shown no concern for the public interest since she was parachuted into the case, none whatsoever.

If our press won't help us, and in fact does the kind of thing it has done this week, we need the international press to find out about this, and we need to be loud about it; maybe not in mass protests like those sweeping countries with more open tyranny than our "hidden" one, but in reaching out to papers and writers and friends around the world.  By engaging in "internet warfare".  Not denial of service attacks and viruses, but dissemination of the truths we have all now so grimly learned; a war of information.  Our own media try to silence us; that is good enough reason for other media to sit up and take note, who are not part of the webs of power which seek to rob us and dominate our economy, and take our resources, while building zillion dollar homes at the same time as shutting down our social institutions, health care, schools etc.  Since when should the operations of government be a money-making business for someone from another country????

Perhaps all these people don't have to look at themselves in the mirror.  Perhaps they have no reflection at all....
--
... given the previous rulings to do with this case, that the public interest is paramount and the public is an interested party - as made by Justice Elizabeth Bennett, who also lifted the original publication ban and also ordered released thousands of pages of documents - that that should be the basis of a case to the Court of Appeal to release all the evidence to the public and also to make it digitally available, so easily searchable and sources.  Even what she released was only in physical copy and limited access - a primitive method rooted in the colonial, pencil-and-pen driven past.

Like Dave Basi, we want everything released without filter and without control.  It's our right, as interested parties to a transaction that affected all of us, to demand that.  If Justice Bennett does not live up to her own prior principles here and "does the right thing", the next step up is the Supreme Court of Canada, and the other apparatus of the federal justice system.

But Justice Bennett, as previous presiding justice on the case (if not on the trial itself, though that's debatable), has the power and interest and, we hope, the same generosity towards the public interest before the Crown's complaints saw her removed from the case.

And THAT, also, should be part of the public inquiry.  As should the mysterious and heavy-handed role of ACJ Dohm, in so many ways...

Somewhere there's a fox ready to rampage through the chicken coop.  We need to find that fox.

.

By Bill Tieleman 

The Tyee - Feb. 22, 2011

{Snip ... } Basi says the selective release of only a small portion of the millions of pages of evidence, including more than 7,000 intercepted phone conversations, is wrong.

"I want everything released, all the transcripts of the wiretaps -- not just snippets -- let's get it all out," Basi said. "I have consistently called for all documents in this case to be released and for a public inquiry, which I will fully cooperate with."

{Snip} ...

Regardless of the situation, the wiretap transcripts of that conversation and many others appear to have no bearing on the charges Basi and Virk pled guilty to, and received a two-year house arrest sentence for.


Basi and Virk also had their $6 million legal fees in the marathon case paid for by government, even though they admitted guilt, a decision that stopped the trial before dozens of possible witnesses -- like Basi's boss former finance minister Gary Collins or Christy Clark -- could have testified.

Why were these pages released by police and the Crown in negotiations with CTV news and the Globe and Mail newspaper in response to their court application, and not other documents -- like those obtained by the defence that might tell another side to this important story?

We will never know what really happened in this complex and confusing case unless, as the New Democrat opposition is demanding, a public inquiry is held into the $1 billion deal in 2003 that saw publicly-owned BC Rail sold to CN Rail.

Please join my group Basi-Virk Public Inquiry on Facebook and demand accountability.

Read Bill Tieleman's complete column HERE. 

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/02/22/BasiVirk/


Bill Tieleman is a regular Tyee contributor who writes a column on B.C. politics every Tuesday in 24 Hours newspaper. E-mail him at weststar@telus.net or visit his blog at:

http://billtieleman.blogspot.com.

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Fakery, Disinformation, Manipulation: The Release of RCMP Basi, Virk, and Basi Investigation Documents (“Everywhichway”) to politically “safe” insiders. 



By Robin Mathews
February 21, 2011


Two questions hang over this latest shame and charade - never broached by the small list of in-group people allowed to see the investigation documents.

One: if the documents nail the accused to the mast (as claimed), why didn’t the Prosecution continue the trial to its proper end and see the accused convicted as originally - and much more fully - charged than they were in the closing “deal”? And why were they literally “paid off” to make guilty pleas?

Two: why weren’t there applications from press and media – as well - to see the BC Rail documents, the cabinet documents, the third party documents – all the documents disclosed in the course of the pre-trial and trial?

The sleight-of-hand, the chicanery here, is almost more than can be believed.

Fact.  On the unopposed application by the Globe and Mail and CTV for RCMP investigation documents, Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie ordered the release to a strictly limited, in-group, safe list of Mainstream Press and Media people.

Fact.  She was opposed in that decision by Defence lawyers who requested that the release of documents “to the public” should mean just that, and that they should be examinable by the public.  She rejected that request.

Interpretation:  The documents – I have no doubt – show a great deal more than the ‘chosen few’ have revealed to the public.  Both William Berardino (wrongfully appointed Special Prosecutor) through his ventriloquist doll Janet Winteringhm QC (and Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie) appeared determined to prevent any critical eyes from looking at the documents.

The references made by Defence for the need to open the documents to others than “accredited journalists” was meant, I believe, to refer to the fact that I was denied “accreditation” though I have been reporting on the case since pre-trials began four years ago.  I was denied accreditation, I believe, for wholly political, revenge reasons.  The denial is supported by Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie. I can’t look at the recently released documents – nor can any other British Columbian.  The documents were not released to the public.

I call Ms. Winteringham “ventriloquist doll” because she is not Special Prosecutor and she acts on behalf of William Berardino, wrongfully appointed  to that position.  Ms. Winteringham speaks for William Berardino.  She doesn’t make Prosecutorial policy. In a sense she mouths his words.

Fact.  The narrowness of the ‘permission to see’ the ‘released’ documents insults the grand tradition of “open courts”.  It insults the right of British Columbians to know what is being done in their name.  It puts a near-Fascist interpretation on the public’s “right to know”.

In the years of pre-trial and trial, I argued (a) that the most significant, the enormous crimes in the BC Rail Scandal were not effected by Basi, Virk, and Basi but by Gordon Campbell and associates in the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR. And I have argued (b) that “targetting” of Basi, Virk, and Basi took place, that it was diversionary, and that it extended to racist targetting.

Fact:  Keith Fraser, reporting for the Vancouver Province paper (Feb.18, 2011) quotes a conversation in the released material between Dave Basi and Bruce Clark, lobbyist for the Washington Marine Group.  Clark wants confidential information.  He says: “Yeah, but are you going to be able to get me those docs?” Basi assures him he will.  Confidential materials were found in Clark’s hands when the RCMP executed a search warrant on his property.  Investigation of Bruce Clark stopped quickly.  He was not charged.  He is white.

Nothing more needs to be said – except – think of little vignettes like that one repeated, we can’t know now many times, in the documents – and how explosive they would be in the ‘wrong’ hands.

I am as certain as I can be that the careful exclusion of any except ‘the safe in-group’ was undertaken because the documents unloaded were unloaded to be used to whitewash major Liberals involved with the BC Rail Scandal, and can only be used in that way if the documents are not made available “to the public”.

Fact.  Through the whole long process of pre-trial and trial that took four years, a persistent pattern was present.  Members of the public seeking to know when and where procedures were taking place by consulting postings on the Supreme Court website were frequently misinformed, or, when processes were cancelled could find no notice of cancellation.  As someone who went to the court regularly, I came to see that the in-group circle of approved court hirelings were always told … somehow.  I would sometimes arrive – the only one not informed of a change, a cancellation, because not posted on the website.  Why should the Supreme Court care if British Columbians want to know about scheduling?

Fact.  William Berardino was wrongfully appointed to the position of Special Prosecutor through the agency of the of the Attorney General’s ministry in which the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General were Mr. Berardino’s long-time partners and colleagues, and so accusable of making the appointment with strong political motives to assure the ‘safety’ of cabinet members and other ‘friends’.

Fact.  William Berardino was wrongfully appointed before the famous “legislature raids” (of December 28, 2003) on the offices of Dave Basi and Bob Virk (and others elsewhere).  Mr. Berardino was connected to all further matters arising from the raids. In fact, at one point when press and media were asking to see the Search Warrants, Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm had Mr. Berardino write a synopsis.

Fact. Any reasonable and prudent Canadian may fairly claim that NOTHING about the Basi, Virk, and Basi trial can have legitimacy in the light of the wrongful appointment of the Special Prosecutor.

Fact:  Mr. Berardino presented a motion to Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm to have Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett moved from the case in favour of someone different … the someone became Justice Anne MacKenzie.

Fact.  Not one of the Mainstream journalists revelling in their reporting on the sleaze of Dave Basi and Bob Virk from the dumped RCMP documents – not one – has reported that William Berardino was appointed Special Prosecutor in violation of the legislation covering the process and is, therefore, not legitimately Special Prosecutor.

Fact.  When Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie was appointed to replace Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett, I wrote to the Supreme Court.  Saying that the public would like to know something about the new judge on a case which was probably the most important public criminal action in B.C. history, I asked for Justice MacKenzie’s professional resume.  The Court wrote me and told me they did not have one and would send me nothing.

Fact.  Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie (twice formally acquainted with the matter) refused to act in any way to remedy Mr. Berardino’s wrongful appointment, and she continued pre-trial and trial knowing the Special Prosecutor was, in fact, illegitimately in the courtroom.

Fact.  Shortly before the “sudden” deal which ended the trial, William Berardino was in a media scrum outside the courtroom.  I intended to join it.  He turned to me and said that he was in a private conversation.  I asked if the Special Prosecutor could have a private conversation with members of the press and media.  Mr. Berardino told me that the conversation they were having was not about the case.  I left.  Several minutes later he approached me in the lounge area and repeated that the people gathered were not talking about the trial.  I thanked him and said I didn’t want to intrude….

Ian Reid [blog: The Real Story] who was present in the scrum reported that those present WERE talking about the trial, and what Mr. Berardino said to me was … simply not true.

Fact:  On the famous day, October 18, 2010, when the “deal” was reached, the charges against Dave Basi and Bob Virk were considerably lessened and those against Aneal Basi erased altogether.  The Defence costs of $6 million would be paid by the British Columbia taxpayer (in a very unusual move).  And the sentence imposed upon the two men was – many believed – extraordinarily light.  I was standing near William Berardino when the press asked him, in effect, who was responsible for the deal.  His answer was (as I witnessed it) that he did it all; the decisions were his.

Within hours, his statement came crashing around him – and an embarrassing game of hide-and-seek was conducted all the way up to Gordon Campbell to try to find who had okayed that the  $6 million be paid by taxpayers – who had really “made” the deal.  Mr. Berardino might easily have said he made all the decisions, but of course had to have the Attorney General check that the $6 million would be forthcoming.  Why didn’t he?  Because there is more to the story than meets the eye?

Fact. From that day forward, William Berardino has not appeared in court.  He was in Vancouver, but his ventriloquist doll Ms. Winteringham has spoken for him in court since then, saying what he would say if he were there.

Interpretation.  When the deal-making was going on in order to prevent the trial from continuing, and to prevent top Liberals and Corporate representatives being exposed in a way that would have created rage among British Columbians, (and – critically – would have focused on the major crime, the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR) the real story was exposed again.

Whatever personal, self-aggrandizing wrongdoing the accused were involved in, they were also instruments of cabinet policy in the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR.  They had a huge story to tell about that odious deal.  They had to be stopped.

That was why there was a “deal”.  That’s why the February 16 splash of sleazy information about the personal wrong-doings of Basi and Virk is all over the Mainstream Press and Media.

The “deal” stopped the trial.  It allowed the single story of the personal corruption alleged against the accused to take centre stage.  It provided for the outrageous release (on February 16) of RCMP materials to “selected” in-house journalists so that they could whitewash suspect Liberals and others and could focus on the three accused as if their’s was the only story in the BC Rail Scandal.

If anyone reads the seven or eight thousand pages of material the NDP got released before Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennet ‘moved on’, it is plain that in the ‘preparation’ to dump BC Rail, Bob Virk took an active part for the cabinet.  He had major work to do for his superiors – and did it.

He attended the top-level Evaluation Committee meetings, representing the Transportation Minister and clearly, from questions asked Brian Kenning, Virk took active part.

 The papers released at the request of the NDP also make clear that there was, elsewhere, much planning, much meeting (in which Mr. Virk took part), and there is much to question about legality. Some believe those pages alone provide a basis for criminal investigation (which  RCMP refuses to undertake).

At all the meetings was Yvette Wells, Executive Director of the Crown Agencies Secretariat.  She mattered.  She kept reams of notes.  Here’s a little entry from October 22, 2003:

“dilema:

-       don’t want to mislead other bidders


-       don’t want to tell them CN are getting other info – don’t want them to do work, spend $


-       don’t want them to drop out b/c if can’t resolve issues – we may go back to other bidders.


-       CN got data from CIBC that they shouldn’t”


And then there’s the Dave Basi ‘memo to file’ of November 25,03.  Mr. Basi writes:

“The bc rail deal was concluded yesterday!!  After a long and tortuous path that had many peaks, valleys, stresses, strains, plots, sub-plots, agendas, egos and old fashioned politics the deal was finally done.  The Minister seemed relieved and happy that the process was over.  The next step after Caucus and some meetings was to call the unsuccessful bidders to thank them for their participation….

I briefed the Minister ….  I advised the Minister ….  I advised the Minister…. I made phone calls to a number of mayors up and down the line….”

Dave Basi and Bob Virk were in the thick of the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR.  They know more than is good for … Gordon Campbell and associates in the transfer. Many British Columbians think a huge criminal act was perpetrated on the province with the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR.  They want criminal investigation.  Forces  located in the cabinet, in the mainstream press and media, in the RCMP, in the Supreme Court of British Columbia – it would seem – will move heaven and earth to prevent that criminal investigation. 

What other candy floss will they throw into the eyes of the public to keep it away from the real story?

.
For those who can figure out what the BC Supreme Court is talking about, see:

See pages 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 of the 80 page list. These 5 pages are identifiable only by their Case No. 23299, which is the Case Number for Basi, Virk, and Basi. Note especially, the final comment as follows ...

Vacate all and
any remaining
sealing orders
and publication
bans, allowing
access to
Applicant's
(including
entitlement to
obtain copies
from Registry;
Release Roger
McConchie from
Undertakings;

.
Wiretap tales of sex trysts, bribes, and kickbacks reveal Basi Virk's sliminess [and more wire-tap conversation Basi + Bruce Clark]

By Michael Smyth
Regina Leader Post - Feb. 19, 2011

"The case for a Public Inquiry has never been stronger."

Read about it HERE.

http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Wiretap+tales+trysts+bribes+kickbacks+reveal+Basi+Virk+betrayal+slimier/4315987/story.html

With more about Bruce Clark ... 

And this, from The Province, Vancouver: 

... But if there's anything more disturbing than these new wiretaps, it's the realization officials in our criminal justice system knew the tawdry details, and still decided to give $6 million of the public's money to Basi's and Virk's lawyers anyway.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/deal+with+Basi+Virk+needs+aired/4316970/story.html#ixzz1EVsLiBUm

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The jaunty, unabashed Indo-Canadian LINK reports ...



Convicted Former BC Liberal Insiders Called Themselves The "Punjabi World Order"


There are no new revelations in the new search warrant documents released this week other than salacious and profane information like former BC Liberal insider Dave Udhe Basi arranging for a prostitute for a political favour. “She’ll be putting out like you wouldn’t believe, pal,” Basi boasted. “I’ll say, ‘Look, keep that guy happy.’”

But mostly such revelations illustrate the stupidity of Basi and his cohort Bob Virk, who thought that they could use their positions of power to make money, get high ranking political friends in the federal Liberals while helping to steer the rail bid to a rival American company to that of CN Rail, which was fronted by Premier Gordon Campbell’s friends and big BC Liberal party donors. Basi and Virk ultimately come across as pawns in this high stakes poker game, which was already fixed by Campbell, who is referred to as Roman despot “Caesar” and Campbell’s crony and chief of staff Martin Brown, aka the “Little Dictator”, in favour CN Rail.

Contrary to the mainstream’s assertions that former BC Liberal cabinet ministers and the Premier have been cleared – there is no such thing. The new documents don’t clear any of them since there is so much evidence that has not been disclosed.

And while former minister Gary Collins and Clark might feel vindicated – nothing can be said of any of the BC Liberals innocence until all documents have been disclosed ...

Read more HERE.

http://thelinkpaper.ca/?p=4566

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Alaska Power and the Bleeding of the Northwest

Critics say plan to tie state of Alaska to BC's power grid will enable shipping Canadian resources from US port.


By Christopher Pollon
TheTyee.ca - February 18, 2011


Click HERE to see Stikine River wetlands near Alaska border - looking up Stikine River towards the Iskut River confluence. This area is threatened by one proposed Alaska/BC inter-tie route under study.
Photos by J. Bourquin.

http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/02/18/AlaskaPower/

Quote:

For nearly a decade ... James Bourquin has been sounding the alarm about the Bradfield Canal Road. A wilderness river guide and environmental researcher based in the heart of the Stikine country, Bourquin formed the Protect Our Ports Committee in July 2002, and within about two years, had received resolutions and motions of support from four local governments and more than 500 signatures on a petition ...

.

BC Mary comment:  Some of us hold the view that journalism is part of the public trust. This editorial fails that critical test.  It is one which might be studied in J-School for its lapses, twists, turns, and relapses. This segment is especially dark with meaning ... almost comical, except that the topic is too deadly serious:




One issue left to close BC Rail case - who pays legal bills

Editorial
Vancouver Sun - February 19, 2011

Quote: 

... As a lawyer and a politician, he [Mike deJong, BC Attorney-General] should know a moot point when he sees one. Political responsibility for the decision rests with his government, not just because it signed off on the decision to override the existing policy, but because it maintained that policy in the first place.

What matters now is getting rid of the policy that encouraged Basi and Virk to run up $6 million in legal fees in the first place, regardless of whether they would be required to pay them back.

The policy was created by the NDP government, but hasn't been changed by the Liberals. It allows the government to pay for the defence of public servants or politicians against criminal charges but requires that if he or she is found guilty, the money must be paid back to the government. It is an extension of the quite reasonable policy that shields public servants from lawsuits that arise from their work.

Where the policy starts going wrong is in the idea that there could be any situation in which a public servant's work could legitimately lead to criminal charges.  [End of quote]


Read more HERE:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/issue+left+close+Rail+case+pays+legal+bills/4314711/story.html#ixzz1EPkdFPTP

and HERE:


http://www.vancouversun.com/news/issue+left+close+Rail+case+pays+legal+bills/4314711/story.html#ixzz1EPmrKRsG

BC Mary is seriously asking: do others see that new legislation is being suggested here that would remove protection for public servants who are found NOT guilty of crimes committed while employed by government? Of course, we do have the precedent in the federal House of Commons where the Prime Minister condones the bald-face lies committed -- in writing ["NOT"] -- by one of his cabinet ministers. Like ... it's OK to lie to parliament or a legislature therefore there's no need for legal protection ... ?? 

.
BC Mary comment: I wish I had a better explanation for why I draw your attention to this column. Certainly, there are reasons. One is that this kind of raw sensationalism will rarely be seen in the Mainstream Media ... and that's because (Reason #2:) the MSM seems to be going flat-out in an effort to paint the Campbell Gang as lily-white, angelic creatures "more sinned against than sinning". 

Ian Mulgrew's report must be factored in ... because of Reason #3: it reveals something important about the nature of those early years of the Campbell administration -- when 77 MLAs on the government side, hooted and bawled at a 2-person Opposition; the Campbell trademark was stamped on those early years when they voted to deprive the BC Opposition of regular office space or staff, such as an Opposition requires. 

Those must have been fiercely wild times in the BC Legislature, and the Mulgrew column provides the background picture against which the Basi-Virk activities must be considered. It's a picture which, we now know, has been vividly described by the actual trial documents. We shouldn't be lulled by the "accredited" MSM into thinking such things never happened.

Call girls, cronyism and corruption: backroom dealings in B.C. Rail sale revealed in B.C. Supreme Court


There are no major revelations in terms of the breach-of-trust charges in the newly released documents, but the sleaze drips off hundreds of pages, as does the profanity


By Ian Mulgrew,
Vancouver Sun -- February 17, 2011


Premier Gordon Campbell was called "Caesar"; his chief of staff Martyn Brown "the Little Dictator"; lobbyists Bruce Clark "the Mexeecan," and Erik Bornman "the Baron."

Seven years after an unprecedented raid on the legislature and an aborted trial, the public finally received an uncensored view of the backroom shenanigans that occurred in the controversial $1-billion sale of BC Rail assets in 2003.

It's not a pretty panorama.

The transcripts of thousands of intercepted telephone conversations, interviews with key witnesses and police investigative reports released by B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday read like episodes of television's Boardwalk Empire or The Sopranos.

Need a prostitute? How about a celebratory big-ticket dinner, hot tub, cigars and wine -- all on a corporate client who doesn't know any better?

How about a political job?

"Who's your daddy? Do I come through?" disgraced bureaucrat Dave Basi crowed.

There are no major revelations in terms of the breach-of-trust charges in the newly released documents, but the sleaze drips off hundreds of pages, as does the profanity.

Only two men were convicted -- Basi, 44, and Bob Virk, 36, pleaded guilty Oct. 18 to two counts each of breach of trust and accepting benefits in exchange for leaking confidential information about the railroad bidding process. They were sentenced to two years less a day of house arrest.

The audacity and hubris of the convicted former civil servants and their lobbyist pals as revealed in the four thick volumes of material is staggering.

The erstwhile ministerial aides gave not a second thought to their oath of office or government confidentiality.

"You sure you don't have any documents, man?" Basi said in one intercept toward the end. "You wanted me to seal the deal, I've sealed the deal now. You must have some other papers beside the paper you already gave me."

Virk had provided so many private documents he replied: "I can't even remember what I gave you, seriously."

They schemed and talked of manipulating federal and provincial ministers, revelling in a breathtaking culture of political cronyism and unethical behaviour.

In fact, those who thought politicians such as former finance minister Gary Collins or Liberal leadership hopeful Christy Clark (the lobbyist's sister) might have been involved may rest easy for no other reason than that these fellows had too much disdain for politicians to cut them in.

They didn't even have that much respect for each other if they weren't in the room -- they misled each other as easily as the people they were playing.

There was no honour among this crew.

The police investigation dubbed Project Everywhichway began in May 2002 as a drug investigation but quickly morphed and sprawled to include anti-corruption and breach-of-trust cases.

It climaxed dramatically in December 2003, when the Mounties raided the legislature, lobbyists' offices and other locations.

The investigation captured calls between Basi and drug-dealing friends along with a treasure-trove of Victoria gossip and hearsay.

Just about everyone hated lobbyist Clark.

"You're the one that got in bed with him," Virk complained.

"Yeah, well it's better me than you," Basi replied.

There was little beneath them.

Basi even lined up a prostitute as a political favour.

"She'll be putting out like you wouldn't believe, pal," he boasted. "I'll say, 'Look, keep that guy happy.'"

Lobbyists Brian Kieran, the "fat little buddy," and Baron Bornman, who both were to be Crown witnesses had the trial proceeded, figure prominently.

Bornman started making monthly cash payments to Basi in April 2001 for referring clients and other help for his firm Pilothouse.

Basi considered him his "best friend" and when you have read the transcripts of their tight connection, it's easy to understand his bitterness at Bornman's betrayal.

Nevertheless, the audacity and hubris is unbelievable -- these men blithely talked of manipulating provincial and federal ministers.

They cherry-picked their own federal political posts and put together a list of their friends who should receive plums from the incoming administration of former Liberal prime minister Paul  Martin. They called themselves the "Punjabi World Order."

{Snip} ...

A police wiretap caught Basi crowing: "What a, oh, what a web we weave, man."

He was still telling Virk "the gravy train" had arrived only days before police kicked in the door and that web ensnared them.


imulgrew@vancouversun.com

Source:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Call+girls+cronyism+corruption+backroom+dealings+Rail+sale+revealed/4305501/story.html