A Time To Rage (Part Four) The Courts. The Police. The Law. And The B.C. Ele

First, from the scandalous witch-hunting of innocent Glen Clark, former NDP premier (involving, incidentally, allegations of fraudulent Party membership gathering by both Gordon Campbell and Ujjal Dosanjh), to his “Show Trial” before Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett, the courts, the RCMP, and Right political forces worked together, it would seem, with depressing consistency. The first allegations against Clark came from Gordon Campbell’s constituency office. The RCMP spent millions of dollars (dubiously) collecting 29 volumes of “evidentiary material,” but could not come close to proving Clark gave favours for the paltry few thousand dollars not paid for a deck he had built by an East End friend. My request to the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP for a thorough review of RCMP behaviour in the case was wrongfully terminated by two experienced RCMP officers in Vancouver – without a single, visible repercussion. Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett who should have thrown out the case against Clark as groundless and vexatious, kept a straight face throughout the long trial and then had the brazen effrontery to chastise as imprudent a man (Glen Clark) who may very well have been a victim of criminal conspiracy. (I have repeatedly called for a full Public Inquiry into all matters surrounding the unseating and trial of Glen Clark. Until that happens, the air will be thick with suspicion and innuendo.) Secondly. At this very moment, Mr. Justice Patrick Dohm is sitting on search warrants issued for the raids on B.C. legislature offices in December 2003. Those raids connect to charges of fraud, bribery, and influence-peddling by former ministerial aides David Basi and Bob Virk in relation to the sale of B.C. Rail to CN. But the involvements don’t stop with them, apparently. Not revealed by police or by the charges thus far, the raids may also reach back, as I have suggested elsewhere, to fraudulent Party membership buying, to Ujjal Dosanjh’s accession to Glen Clark’s position as NDP premier, to Gordon Campbell’s victory as leader of the B.C. Liberals, to Ujjal Dosanjh’s switch to the Liberal Party, and to the setting up of people to be federal candidates by means of fraudulent membership voting or without any competition for nomination. Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm has consistently refused to release the full slate of police search warrants. In fact, Dohm has ruled against releasing the warrants before the May 17 election. As John Twigg writes in the Twigg Report for April 11 05: “If the Basi evidence was to have come out before or during the B.C. election campaign that too could have affected the outcome adversely for the B.C. Liberals, but wouldn’t you know it, the B.C. Court system through the senior judges has decided to keep the search warrants sealed and to not even meet to set the trial date until May 30.” Let’s make one point very clear. Search warrants are public documents and are only supposed to be sealed under special circumstances. But judges like Patrick Dohm who give the appearance of acting more like Banana Republic despots than servants of Justice for B.C. and the people of B.C. have made judicial power over search warrants a scandal and a running sore in the legal system. That problem is being argued all over Canada. So Wally Oppal’s candidacy in the Vancouver Fraserview constituency comes at a time when the senior courts of British Columbia are fast shedding credibility as some judges brazen out what appears to be a kind of impenetrable bias in favour of power and privilege. Thirdly, a reasonable and prudent judge of a higher court would probably not run for office. To do so taints the courts. Judges should – by convention or regulation – be unable to run for office unless they have resigned the judiciary for at least five years. Opal is running for the B.C. Liberals whose time in government has been marked with scandals, breaches of promise, breaking of contracts, and outright deceptions – the latter maintained for months over the sale of B.C. Rail, just for instance. What are British Columbians to think of someone who happily leaves the so-called integrity of position held by a Supreme or Appeals court judge for the stench that rises from the offices where the Gordon Campbell Liberals do business? Sad to say, as a result of Wally Oppal’s Liberal candidacy, anyone may review his record of judgements and findings as an Appeals Court judge and theorize about a possession of bias in favour of Liberals, Liberal interests, Liberal political values. That is one reason his candidacy taints the whole court. That is one reason why he should not be running. What do we know of Wally Oppal? He was a bright, ambitious lawyer. He wanted to climb. Before being raised to the bench he was appointed to head a commission for investigation into police violence in the Province. The commission was set up because of a number of dramatic, violent incidents involving especially police in Vancouver. One of the incidents involved a raid on a house containing two Vietnamese (I believe), suspected of drug dealing. Across the lane from the raid someone filmed the police using unnecessary violence. That is why I met Wally Oppal, chief investigator and soon-to-be appointed judge. Because I, also, looking down the lane from my house, witnessed the police – having one of the suspects lying flat on the ground and completely helpless – repeatedly kicking him so that I was upset at what I saw. I was, apparently, the only other witness to the event. Though not relevant to the acts of violence by the police, not a shred of evidence was found in the raid on the quarters of the two suspects. Chatting with a lawyer family friend who was – unknown to me – also an acquaintance of the lawyer for Wally Oppal’s commission – I told my story. In short, he badgered me repeatedly, told me I had a Civic Duty, and that I had to write a report of what I had witnessed for the Oppal commission. Because of his ethnic origins, my friend told me, Wally Oppal was especially sensitive to discrimination and violations of civil rights. I was not eager, but my friend said the lawyer for the commission also believed I should do it. And so I did. Then my lawyer friend urged me to appear before the commission, partly, I believe, because I was also a specialist in Canadian culture and traditions and had written a good deal on the subjects. I didn’t want to appear. He told me that the lawyer for the commission believed I should appear. He told me, as well, that if I did go, Wally Opal, the secretary for the commission, and the commission’s lawyer would all be present and that I would have ample time for a serious exchange of ideas on the subject of the investigation. So I applied to be heard, and a time was set in the commission’s offices at the Robson Street media centre complex. I prepared to give up a half day to public duty and made my way across town to the appointment. The receptionist in the office ignored me when I sat down. After a time she asked me why I was there. I told her I had an appointment with the Oppal group at 2:00 p.m. After letting me sit long enough for me to understand my truly minimal importance, a tall, slender man appeared nonchalantly from the commission offices. Wally Oppal. Would I come in. I went into a small office with no one in it but Wally Oppal and myself. He said nothing. Surprised, I was, however, canny enough to avoid asking him where the other two were. (“What other two? No one official told you there’d be another two. Nor did the secretary who made this appointment. Surely you don’t think you’re important enough to require three people in this room?”) Since Wally Oppal said nothing, I said a few things, referring to my written submission. He said, vaguely, he agreed with some and disagreed with some of it. Though I was only one of two witnesses to the particular police violence, Wally Oppal didn’t ask me a single question about that incident, or about anything else. He hardly spoke. In a very short number of seconds, I knew he wanted to get me out of the office as fast as he could and wanted to hear nothing whatever from me on the subject of the commission. He did absolutely nothing to engage or question me in any way. He simply sat and waited for me to leave. At an extravagant guess, I would say I was in his office for about four minutes. Wally Oppal treated me like so much garbage that he had to encounter in his day’s work. Garbage is there but it should be ignored if possible. Since I had never wanted to go before the commission, and since I did it out of Civic Duty alone – giving up an afternoon to do so – I concluded several things. (1) Wally Oppal may have wanted me recorded as a reporter to the Commission to help give it legitimacy. I, after all, had witnessed police violence. (2) I believe – more than that – he did not want any suggestions about desirable police behaviour in the province or anything else. (3) I believe, further, he was there as commissioner to whitewash the police. His report made no waves. If it said anything, doubtless it said what it was supposed to say and nothing else. He was commissioned, I believe, to do a job – a snow job. Not very long after the submission of his Report, Wally Oppal was elevated and named Mr. Justice Wally Oppal, and he joined the ranks of senior B.C. judicial dignitaries. In an interview recently he said he was entering politics because of his fierce, lifelong concern for human rights and civil liberties. Gordon Campbell says that sort of thing, too, quite frequently. In fact, on Monday, May 2, having been caught accepting campaign donations from municipalities, native governments, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver Airport, Prince George Airport, Kwantlan University College, the College of the Rockies, some charities, and a publicly funded medical research foundation, Gordon Campbell expressed ardent belief in a just Elections Act and his desire for changes to the present Act. Having done nothing to create a just Elections Act in the last four years, perhaps Gordon Campbell hopes he will win the election and then Wally Oppal will come up with a new Elections Act, or bury the need to have one. Why not? [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on May 9, 2005]