A Letter to British Columbia’s Attorney General.
Three letters on the BC Rail Scandal: Part Two
This is the second part of a four part series. Three letters are to “officials” I believe are derelict in their responsibility to law and the administration of justice.
This second letter is to British Columbia Attorney General Michael de Jong. I have asked him to act on the evidence that the appointment of William Berardino as Special Crown Prosecutor in the Basi, Virk, and Basi case was
wrongly made. His ministry has refused even to discuss the matter!
March 26, 2010,
520 Salsbury Drive,
Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3Z7
The Honourable Michael de Jong,
Attorney General British Columbia,
P.O. Box 9044, Stn. Prov. Govt.,
Victoria, B.C. V8W 9E2
Dear Attorney General de Jong:
Earlier, I wrote to you on the matter of the clear and obvious violation of the prosecutor legislation: the improper appointment of William Berardino as Special Crown Prosecutor in the BC Rail Scandal case involving Dave Basi, Bobby Virk, and Aneal Basi – former cabinet aides appointed by Gordon Campbell.
I asked – and I ask again – that you take action to remedy the violation by removing William Berardino as Special Prosecutor.
I didn’t mean my last letter to you to be answered by someone else. I request that you, Attorney General, answer this letter.
Robert Gillen, assistant deputy Attorney General answered my last letter, refusing to discuss the appointment in violation of the legislation. The letter I received seems to me to be the kind that would be written in Gordon Campbell’s office and sent to Mr. Gillen to sign.
Mr. Gillen argues that the matter of Basi, Virk, and Basi is sub judice and that he cannot make any comment. That is sheer nonsense as both you and I (and, I believe, Mr. Gillen) know.
You may reply – correctly – that the legislation particularly names the assistant deputy Attorney General as the person who will appoint and (therefore, presumably) be in charge of matters concerning prosecutorial appointments. But we both know that practice was violated recently and the violation was blazoned across the province.
Wally Oppal, the last Attorney General, made it his personal job to bring the alleged bigamists of Bountiful, B.C. to trial. He first abandoned the regular prosecutors and then set about finding a Special Prosecutor to do his bidding in the matter, it seems. Unable to convince Richard Peck, Mr. Oppal moved on – twice more. For his alleged looseness with his trust, Mr. Oppal now faces a civil case over his Bountiful activities.
Robert Gillen was never mentioned in any report I saw, as Mr. Oppal moved on, in what I characterize as an (obviously cabinet approved) flamboyant vote-getting attempt at prosecution of people from Bountiful.
We may put Robert Gillen aside, for he was not seriously involved in Mr. Oppal’s Special Prosecutor hunting. We may assume, too, that he was not seriously involved when the Attorney General’s ministry appointed William Berardino as Special Crown Prosecutor in the Basi, Virk, and Basi matter.
What is relevant and what I insist you address publicly – and remedy – is the appointment of William Berardino in flagrant violation (I insist) of the legislation covering prosecutors and Special Prosecutors in British Columbia. His role as Special Prosecutor cannot (whatever any of us wishes) do anything but (A) damage, seriously, the administration of justice in B.C., and (B) assure from the start that the trial beginning on May 3 of Basi, Virk, and Basi takes place under a huge cloud of suspicion that must deny any credibility to anything the Crown does in the case.
Any Canadian may say, now, that he or she has no doubt the case against Basi, Virk, and Basi is a fraud, carefully planned and – about to be – carefully executed. That may not be true. But the improper appointment of William Berardino as Special Prosecutor opens the door, legitimately, to that or any kind of suspicion of wrong doing in the matter.
When your ministry refused to undertake its responsibility in the Special Crown Prosecutor appointment issue, I wrote to the Chief Justice, the Associate Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia and to the presiding judge in the Basi, Virk, and Basi case – Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie, asking them to act on the matter.
As with your ministry, they refuse to act – though I have no doubt that no court is bound to proceed with a criminal action to which the Special Prosecutor has been – as I insist – wrongly appointed.
In fact, I believe that to do so, knowing the appointment violates the prosecutor legislation is, in itself, to do knowing harm to the administration of justice. The matter may be put in the simplest terms: no judiciary in a democratic country may knowingly proceed with a criminal case in which the administration of justice is under visible challenge as it is in the Basi, Virk, and Basi case. To proceed – as the judiciary of the British Columbia Supreme Court apparently intends to do is not an answer to my letter.
It is, rather, I insist (with respect), a declaration of the elegant depravity of the British Columbia judicial system.
The question of the possibility of a perceived or real conflict of interest is a key factor. It is absolutely crucial. Long experience and tradition in the administration of justice in Canada leads all participants to take for granted that justice cannot be done and be seen to be done where even the possible perception of conflict of interest is present.
Mr. Berardino was appointed Special Prosecutor in a case where freedom from connection to “interested” government (cabinet and high civil servant) officers was absolutely essential.
Mr. Berardino was appointed by the Attorney General’s ministry in which the Attorney General, Geoff Plant, had been for seven years his partner and colleague in private practice. And in which the Deputy Attorney General, Alan Seckel, had been for eleven years his partner and colleague in private practice. And in 2007, Gordon Campbell changed a working protocol to review cabinet documents sought by disclosure application. Campbell named that same Deputy Attorney General to the new protocol, placing him in direct, consultative contact with the Special Prosecutor who had been his partner and colleague for eleven years.
Ironically, about eight weeks after the search warrant “raids” on legislature offices (December 28, 2003) – the question was raised in the legislature and is recorded in Hansard. Asked about the appointment of the Special Prosecutor in the BC Rail Scandal, then Solicitor General Rich Coleman said that a Special Prosecutor is appointed “to insulate a case with the Special Prosecutor – so no minister of the Crown has any input into the preparation of the case.”
Rich Coleman stated the matter simply and clearly. But the appointment of the Special Prosecutor in that matter was anything but an insulation, rather – the opposite. It flew in the face of that principle. In fact, it needlessly introduced complications that, obviously, cannot be tolerated if a fair trial is to proceed.
For your information, a copy of the letter I received from the B.C. Supreme Court follows.
“March 17, 2010
Mr. Robin Mathews
520 Salsbury Drive
Vancouver B.C. V5L 3Z7
Dear Mr. Mathews:
Re: Your letter dated March 3, 2010
I have been asked to respond to your letter on behalf of Chief Justice Bauman, Associate Chief Justice Dohm, and Madam Justice MacKenzie.
You request that judicial action be taken to remove William Berardino as Special Prosecutor in the proceeding involving Dave Basi, Bobby Virk, and Aneal Basi. Quite simply, Chief Justice Bauman, Associate Chief Justice Dohm and Madam Justice MacKenzie were not involved in any way in the appointment of Mr. Berardino and they have no authority to order his removal. Accordingly, no action can be taken in response to your letter.
Yours truly,
H.L. McBride
Supreme Court Law Officer”
Please – Attorney General de Jong – reply to my letter yourself, and please tell me what steps you will take without further delay to remedy what is clearly an intolerable condition. In upholding a wrongful appointment, and in supporting it (however tacitly) both your ministry and the highest officers of the Supreme Court of British Columbia are, I insist, bringing the administration of justice in the province into contempt.
Respectfully,
Robin Mathews
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