Tuesday, March 15, 2011

 

The Ides of March ... and Anne MacKenzie rides again ... roughshod

.

Judge orders copies of BC Rail papers returned or destroyed

MARK HUME

Globe and Mail - March 15, 2011


More than one million pages of documents related to a political corruption trial, including confidential material from British Columbia government cabinet meetings and internal e-mails among MLAs, must be destroyed or returned to the Crown.

Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie of the Supreme Court of B.C., in a decision released Tuesday, has ruled that Dave Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi cannot retain documents they obtained through disclosure in the BC Rail case.

She stated the three former government employees only had the material, which included RCMP files, to prepare their cases – and they are not entitled “to use the material for purposes collateral to making full answer and defense in this proceeding.”

Dave Basi and Mr. Virk, former ministerial aides who were both convicted on fraud and breach of trust charges, had argued they should be able to keep the documents and to release it in the event of a public inquiry into the sale of BC Rail.

Aneal Basi, a low level former government information officer, against whom charges of money laundering were dropped, had wanted to retain the material for use in possible future litigation.

But Justice MacKenzie said when the material was released to them during disclosure, all three were bound by an implied undertaking, and that undertaking has not expired even though the trial has ended.

She ordered lawyers for the three men to “deliver forthwith to the Office of the Special Prosecutor or the RCMP. . . any and all documents disclosed by the Crown.”

As an alternative, stated Justice MacKenzie, the lawyers can file affidavits with the Crown saying the material has been destroyed.

{Snip} ...

“It’s got to be over one million pages,” she said.

Michael Bolton, Dave Basi’s lawyer, said the judgment means all the material gathered during the long-running case will not now be seen by the public.

“I would conclude its a decision that forecloses any public access to those materials,” he said. “I think the judgment is pretty clear.”

Dave Basi and Mr. Virk were convicted of leaking confidential government files in relation to the government’s $1-billion sale of BC Rail in 2003. They were sentenced to two-years less a day under house arrest.


Source.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-politics/judge-orders-bc-rail-papers-returned-or-destroyed/article1943329/


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Skookum1 says:


Anonymous 1:43 - the material has NOT been, to our knowledge, given to WikiLeaks. IT SHOULD BE But the person who has been making the leaks, as apparently provided by someone connected to the defence team, is not acting from the public interest, but for his own self-interest and self-promotion. I don't think he has all the documents, though he certainly has more - word is he's being receiving threats from the court and the RCMP as to what will happen to him if he continues to post the rest of what he has.

If he were the real hero he touts himself to be, he'd dump it all on WikiLeaks and go somewhere there's no extradition so he can't be jailed for contempt of court.

It would be refreshing to hear that he HAS dumped everything with WikiLeaks, or that someone who has access to them has. But so far it hasn't happened.

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A worthy comment by Kootcoot:

This judgment an OBSCENITY and an affront to justice and all British Columbians. When one considers the fact that the accidental (so-called) destruction of less than twenty minutes of tape contributed to the downfall of President Nixon the "legal" demand for destruction of all evidence of the BC Trial and the implication that the secret dealings have been exposed to the light of day through the mockery of a trial is simply a stunning obstruction of justice.

Quite a legal team that has spent the last many years defending the indefensible Campbell Crime Family, MacKenzie, Berardino and Associates with their own personal private investigation firm otherwise known as the RCMP under Insp. DeBruckyere.

Something is definitely rotten in the Province of British Columbia. Unfortunately it would seem we're not Egyptians as Laila suggested awhile ago, it appears that we are more comparable to Libyans willingly or otherwise submitting to the heel of our own Ghadaffi and cohorts.

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And from Skookum1,


This is a crime against justice itself.

My advice? Turn the whole shebang over to WikiLeaks. Once it's out there, there's f-all ACJ Mackenzie can do to silence the court of world opinion. Justice may be muzzle-able in Canada, but it's not internationally. It may mean that B&V have to do jail time; or it may mean that they are exonerated and the facts come out about the dirty public money that was used to buy an end to the trial.

The Supreme Court of British Columbia has been shown to be a Court of Misrule.

Hopefully this will be appealed to the Appeals Court, and hopefully it will land in Justice Bennett's lap.


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BC Mary commentBy golly, YES ... where is WikiLeaks when we need them?

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John Wood makes a strong point: 

It should come as no surprise to learn that Gordon Campbell has given up his seat as the elected representative for the riding of Vancouver - Point Grey, resigning  today. Is it a coincidence that the Supreme Court of British Columbia has also said today, that any and all evidence from the BC Rail Corruption Trial, must be destroyed or given to the RCMP.

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BC Mary comment:  How did I miss seeing that? It's Gordon Campbell thumbing his nose at British Columbia one last time. The %$^#@*^!

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And Kim points out that

Gary Bass retired on the 13th of March too Mary. Isn't that a neat and tidy package!


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Canadian Canary has left a new comment on your post "BC Rail: seize and destroy all Basi-Virk documents...":

And I think we all need to be enlightened about the direct role BC's mainstream media have in Christy Clark's "new" government. Please permit me to provide this excerpt from another blogger, because Lord knows we won't be told this by the mainstream media:

Guess who Premier Clark’s new Deputy Communications Director is?

Rebecca Scott.

Don’t know her? Let me help. She is the immediate past producer of ‘The Bill Good Show’ (she just left). I know, I know, queue the maniacal laughter. But here’s where it gets interesting, and a CONFLICT!

She is engaged to be married to Stephen Smart, formerly of CTV Vancouver and now the CBC Vancouver-Victoria Bureau Chief.

So, let’s do the math: Not-So-Sweetie and Smartie are NEVER going to talk shop at home on the couch or the breakfast nook? Of course not. No plums there, nope, none.

The CBC needs to clean this up pronto considering the Belle Puri fiasco (they put Puri on political ice permanently, now they need to take some steps with Smart).


There's more at:
http://alexgtsakumis.com/2011/03/15/premier-christy-clarks-oath-omen-her-revenge-first-agenda-and-ctv-vancouvers-credibility-in-freefall/

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BC Mary comment:  But hey, we're the ones who have paid Lara Dauphinee's handsome salaries (two, that we know of) year after year in the former BC premier's office and we don't even know what exactly she does, or if she's still "working for us" ... but I take your point, CC. These "open and transparent governments" (stephen Harper has one in Ottawa, too) are often opaque and self-serving. 

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Comments:
We, the people, want the history and everything that pertains to our railroad including the sale, (lease) turned over to the archives of our province now. It is and belongs to the public. Not the legals, not the police.
No judge, in my opinion, has the right to destroy this history.
 
I & my fellow taxpayers have just spent millions on the trial of the century. And now an appointed Judge wants to destroy material related to the biggest scandal in BC history. WHY ?
This should not be allowed. How long are going to let the Liberal gang & friends walk all over us and laugh all the way to the bank ?

GuyinVic
 
wow , i can't believe how corrupt the legal system in B.C. is. Is there any way to stop the destruction of this evidence? We need an election today!
 
This judgment an OBSCENITY and an affront to justice and all British Columbians. When one considers the fact that the accidental (so-called) destruction of less than twenty minutes of tape contributed to the downfall of President Nixon the "legal" demand for destruction of all evidence of the BC Trial and the implication that the secret dealings have been exposed to the light of day through the mockery of a trial is simply a stunning obstruction of justice.

Quite a legal team that has spent the last many years defending the indefensible Campbell Crime Family, MacKenzie, Berardino and Associates with their own personal private investigation firm otherwise known as the RCMP under Insp. DeBruckyere.

Something is definitely rotten in the Province of British Columbia. Unfortunately it would seem we're not Egyptians as Laila suggested awhile ago, it appears that we are more comparable to Libyans willingly or otherwise submitting to the heel of our own Ghadaffi and cohorts.
 
This is a crime against justice itself.

My advice? Turn the whole shebang over to WikiLeaks. Once it's out there, there's f-all ACJ Mackenzie can do to silence the court of world opinion. Justice may be muzzle-able in Canada, but it's not internationally. It may mean that B&V have to do jail time; or it may mean that they are exonerated and the facts come out about the dirty public money that was used to buy an end to the trial.

The Supreme Court of British Columbia has been shown to be a Court of Misrule.

Hopefully this will be appealed to the Appeals Court, and hopefully it will land in Justice Bennett's lap.
 
It should come as no surprise to learn that Gordon Campbell has given up his seat as the elected representative for the riding of Vancouver - Point Grey, resigning today.

Is it a coincidence that the Supreme Court of British Columbia has also said today, that any and all evidence from the BC Rail Corruption Trial, must be destroyed or given to the RCMP.
 
Gary Bass retired on the 13th of March too Mary. Isn't that a neat and tidy package!
 
Something has changed today! Something inside of me I mean, something I find hard to express or explain because it is so deep inside like maybe the first time a cancer cell divides on it's journey to becoming a malignant tumor. The kind of thing you wish never happened but are helpless to alter or reverse things back to the way they once were.Today I have lost all hope of hope! I will no longer live life under the illusion that things will get better for B.C. I will no longer spend my waking hours believing that this is a democratic county with values we should be proud of, I will no longer be a fool!I am angry, yes very angry! I am angry that a handful of lowlifes whom we trusted to keep democracy alive, people we let into our lives with trust, have now abandoned us and mock us for being such fools as not to notice their true purpose that of deceit!
Today they have awakened in me someone even I didn't fully realize existed, the protector of my children and my grandchildren, I cannot and will not see them hurt by these scoundrels who's intent is to feed of their future.
I don't care who Justice McKenzie is or Christy Clark or Gordon Campbell but I can tell you they have just identified their worst foe and that is me.
Don
 
WikiLeaks operates by contributions, not as an organization exactly. There are numerous ways for anyone to contribute material for WikiLeaks to publish, and will publish if it's contributed. What this will take is the person(s) who have copies of these documents/data to just upload them, in defiance of the court, just as Bradley Manning defied his orders and military obligations to serve the public interest.

"Gatekeeping" on these documents has not worked, and has brought things to a head as the court and the Crown are now threatening punishment if any more documents are released. The onus right now is for the person(s) who have them is to return the documents; but to make sure that copies of all of them also reach WikiLeaks servers, where they will be immune from the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, and outside the powers of the Crown or the RCMP to destroy them.

Period.

"Person(s)" in question, I hope you are listening. It's time for moral bravery now in the interests of truth. Playing poker will no longer work as the dealer is trying to shut down the gaming table.

Exoneration lies in the truth; not in obedience to the Court of Engineered Untruth.

WikiLeaks is there and waiting; all it takes is someone with enough moral fortitude to "do the right thing". This is no longer a province ruled by laws, or by justice, only by expediency and despotism. It's time to end the farce NOW.
 
And what do "they" mean when they say the defence/defendants "have no right to these documents"? If they serve the purpose of justice and truth, WE ALL HAVE A RIGHT TO THEM. Not to arbitrary and obviously partisan rulings by a questionable and blatantly corrupt system to order their return and destruction.

Thanks to the careful wording of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we do not have absolute rights as the Bill of Rights confers on citizens in the US, nor the similar documents governing human and political rights in the EU, of the UN's Declaration on Human Rights.

Gordon "Mubarak" Campbell and Christy "Muammar" Clark do not have the right to escape unscathed from the justice we all know they deserve, nor to escape from the justice that all British Columbians and Canadians deserves.

If the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not confer and protect such rights, then its title is obviously a farce every bit as much as these proceedings have been.

We don't just want our railway back. We want BC Hydro back, we want the BCER and E&N back, we want BC Ferries back, we want all the government agencies and services which haven outsourced to foreign owners/operators returned to the public of British Columbia.

A BC Rail Inquiry only does not go far enough. We need an Inquiry into the whole operation and conduct of the powers of the Crown in British Columbia since the so-called "Golden Decade" began.
 
Has anyone emailed wiki leaks? I think that is a splendid idea!!! I am sure they would help. It would be great to air BC and CN's corruption on the world stage...
 
Don,

The hand you feel on your shoulder is my hand ... and a thousand other hands of people who love British Columbia, and who grieve as you do.

Thank you for coming to TLR to share your sorrow ... we do understand. And yet, the only thing worse is to abandon British Columbia (as we know it in our hearts) to the treacherous money-changers.

I know it sounds infantile to suggest that we take advantage of even the smallest form of protest, to fight back.

Before your message arrived, I had just finished changing the banner on this blog; I was trying to express something of this, and how to cope. See what you think ... [and there's a strict word-limit on it, dang!]

For now, I wish you courage.I do believe that every single thing we do, no matter how small, in our efforts to protect BC, will add up ...

and if the Do-Nothing NDP Opposition becomes government, we must fight on, helping if we can, but always reminding them of the core values: to serve and protect this blessed province.

I hope your kids grow up feeling very proud of you for caring ... and for showing them how to cope. Strange that our moment of crisis is coming at the same time as the Japan disaster.

Thanks for writing to us, Don. You remind us that we're all in this together.
 
Dear Mary,
After reading Don F.'s post this morning, and the information from Kim, I was compelled to contact RCMP headquarters with this message.

"Now that Gary Bass has retired, are the citizens of British Columbia going to get a real investigation into the theft by conversion of BC Rail, perpetrated by former premier Gordon Campbell and CN chairman David McLean.

Also I believe an investigation into the judiciary involvement is warranted."

I will let you know what their response is, if they do respond.

P.S.: Hang in there Don, we all feel your pain. My mother often put her hand on my shoulder when I was dismayed and expressed one of these sentiments. 'Every cloud has a silver lining' and/or 'It's always darkest, just before dawn'.

This may be our darkest hour, but the tide is turning and we have only just begun to fight. We all must do whatever we can to communicate Mary's message to the rest of Canada.
 
There is no end to the evils of. Campbell and the BC Liberals. Christy is just as evil, she too needs to kill, a review of Campbell's corrupt sale of the BCR.

Some of us have e-mailed friends and relatives overseas, to tell of the corruption of, the BC Liberals. Some have warned friends and relatives, in other provinces to be careful, the same thing doesn't happen to them. Harper is a snake in the grass. Everyone has to watch their backs.


They are shocked, by the corruption of Campbell, our judicial system, by the corrupt RCMP, Elections BC, FOI tampered with. Campbell's theft and sale of, our assets and resources. Our distrust in our media, who support, the BC Liberals corruption. That yes, Campbell thieved our BCR and sold it. That Campbell thieved our rivers, and sold them too. That BC is the most corrupt province in Canada.

I e-mail them every day. They thought our troubles would cease, with Campbell's resignation. I told them, we traded one tyrant for another. I have asked them, to pass it on, to all of their friends and relatives.

I don't know what good this will do. However, I am so pissed off, I want the entire world to know, about the rot of corruption, lies, deceit and, the way Campbell lied and cheated to win, two different elections. I told them about, Christy and her brothers, involvement in the corrupt sale of our BCR. I gave them a list of all the bloggers, and asked them to pass the list on.

I'm not allowed to say, what the opinions are of, people living in Europe.
 

I'm not allowed to say, what the opinions are of, people living in Europe.


And why is that?? Tell us those opinions, we're all ears!!

And I like your posts always....but please don't over-use commas like that - both in that sentence are not just unnecessary, they're wrong to use that way; I gather maybe your English is a second language to you and the comma-usage may be from another language, maybe French or German - ? Just guessing. Your sentiments are always welcome here....but sometimes hard to follow because of "too many commas".
 
Don F. I too feel anguish and despair as to what is happening in this province, this country and the world as a whole. It seems that corporations, more and more, have taken the reigns of power over governments (whether they be democratic or not). U.S. courts have now ruled that corporations can donate undisclosed amounts to politicians' election campaigns.
I read daily briefings of the BC Rail trial. An insult to justice and any notion of Law and Order. A Judge Judy would never have allowed witnesses to obfuscate as they did at the BC Rail trial; nor would she have allowed a grown man time away from court for his birthday celebrations. Justice Anne MacKenzie should be reprimanded by a higher authority as well as fined for waste of (taxpayer paid for) court time. We did not get our monies worth, we were denied a full accounting from all the forthcoming participants/witnesses in this billion dollar railway heist. A payoff for a guilty plea (after years of pleading innocence) is 'fishy' to say the very least. Now years of evidence gathering (at taxpayers expense) is deemed to be destroyed. There should be retention dates in place of at least 10 years. When I worked (as a clerk) at a provincial government office, files were retained and stored for two years on site then transferred to a storage facility for a further 10 years. Why is this not the case for these most important legal documents???? Or are we missing some information here?
 
In regarding to my previous Anonymous posting ---

I have now read that the RCMP are committed to keeping the BC Rail trial documents.

So...my despair has been slightly alleviated (very slightly). Still waiting for some courageous, truth seeking power to bring BC Rail trial material the justice it deserves in the interest of all BC taxpayers who in previous years enjoyed income to General Revenues for Education, Health, etc from BC Rail profits.
 
I get so dammed mad, the comma's just fly. I had three brothers, two brothers-in-law and a sister in the armed services, during WW11.

Some of them still communicate with friends they made in Holland, Italy and England. I e-mail back and forth with some of them.

I have been sending them all the blogger's information. As time went on one of them said, (now we are not to use the H word or the N word on Mary's site) but, that's what the Dutch people said, they feel what is going on in BC reminds them of. I see I left out too many comma's.
 
Come to think of it, re Ms Dauphnee - it would be interesting to see her stock portfolio, wouldn't it? As a political/personal appointee, she isn't bound by conflict of interest regulations nor freedom of information etc.

And given the double-dipping of Mr Kinsella and others, and the lobbying racket that underlies the way "business as usual" is done in this province, it might also be interesting to know if SHE has been providing lobbying services (paid or otherwise) to companies and persons who are "clients" of our "government".
 
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