The Week-Long Adjournment of the BC Rail Scandal Trial Is Fraught With Implications. (May 25, 2010)
The Basi, Virk, and Basi trial has begun to strip away layers of ‘disinformation’ engaged in by Gordon Campbell and his associates in the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR.
The sudden and unexpected sickness of Aneal Basi (about which there is, apparently, no doubt) has – in a sense – derailed the momentum of the trial. Mr. Basi’s illness, surprisingly, seems a gift to the prosecution and, perhaps, to Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie – not, I think, to the Defence. I will explain….
Madam Justice MacKenzie, we remember, took over the matter mid-stream in a way that has never been satisfactorily explained, She set about closing off all Defence access to “disclosure” materials that are key to its operation. Mr. Berardino, “Special” Crown Prosecutor, announced this morning that, when court sits again on Monday next [May 31] at nine in the morning, he will bring up the matter of “relevancy. [He means “relevance”, but maybe “relevancy” sounds more important.]
What he will say, doubtless, is that the Defence is throwing a huge net
Canadians (and British Columbians, especially) need to pay close attention to that argument. Upon it, I say, hinges whatever possibility there is for some degree of justice to come out of the Basi, Virk, and Basi trial.
The Defence – as I have gathered from its uninterrupted momentum from the beginning of pre-trial hearings three and a half years ago - will claim, in its catalogue of counter-claims, that the accused didn’t leak confidential information to anyone. That is one of the crimes charged against the accused.
But if the accused didn’t commit the crime, who did?
If the accused are not guilty of the charge, who is? Who broke oaths of confidentiality and leaked confidential information? Someone is guilty of doing so?
Because that is a real question of primary importance, Defence has been pushing Martyn Brown, Gordon Campbell’s chief of staff and top political advisor, on the question.
If there was (as I have been saying for a long time) (a) a Campbell policy and program to make BC Rail fail, and if (b) there is evidence (to support the claim of) a faked bidding process, and if (c) ‘Campbell and associates’ were leaking privileged information to CNR (as other bidders insisted they were) to make it “look” the best bidder, and if (d) all but one other bidder left because of the stench of impropriety in the bidding - and there was a push to keep Omnitrax in the bidding at all costs … there is every reason to believe there could have been “leaking” of confidential information from top sources, not from the accused … to Omnitrax.
For that reason, the Defence is NOT casting a wide net. It is addressing directly the claim that two of the accused men leaked confidential information that was very likely leaked – for policy reasons – by people in commanding positions in the transfer of BC Rail to the CNR. Others may be guilty of the crime alleged to have been committed by the accused. Mr. Berardino, “Special” Prosecutor does not, I think, want questioning to go in the direction it is taking. I believe Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie doesn’t either. [Much more on this in following columns.]
Attempts to close off the Defence line of argument may be rachetted up when court sits again on Monday, May 31. Watch for it. Watch Mr. Berardino. Watch Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie. The integrity of the trial, I believe, depends on the Defence being able to pursue its line of argument. But the matter goes deeper, even, than that.
There is a publication ban on all matters of evidence, submissions, rulings, and reasons for judgement in the court in the full scope of the pre-trial hearings (“in the absence of the jury”). But there can be no ban on the records of Hansard (the day-to-day presentations of evidence and argument in the Legislature concerning the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to CNR).
Using Hansard records, contributing editor of Tyee, Will McMartin has just written about the astonishing abuse of trust in the whole, sleazy operation of dumping BC Rail. His language about the Campbell group reinforces a demand I have been making insistently.
“The biggest contribution of the premier and his MLAs was to drastically distort and misrepresent BC Rail’s financial health….” “…the claim that profits sent to Victoria prevented the rail company from up-grading its fleet of passenger cars was, and is, ludicrous….” “The BC Liberal disinformation campaign got seriously underway in February 2003….” And so on….
A disinformation campaign is one in which a whole program is set on foot to make the false appear to be the true.
What Will McMartin points to, yet again, I insist, is my allegation that the Campbell and his associates didn’t just lie to the people of British Columbia. They didn’t just set about destroying the integrity of an asset owned by the people of British Columbia in order to hand it to private corporate “friends”. They didn’t just involve a large number of civil servants to create a false picture. They didn’t just engage in an expensive make-believe bidding process that was not legitimate.
They also, I allege, - in doing all those things – engaged in criminal breach of trust. That is why I asked RCMP top officer Gary Bass to begin a public investigation into Gordon Campbell and associates in the transfer of BC Rail to the CNR in order to clear the air forever on the matter. And that – I believe with great sorrow – is why Gary Bass refuses to undertake an investigation.
The brief series of events that happened in courtroom 54 this morning – surrounding and leading to an adjournment of the court until next Monday morning – does not bode well for a trial of integrity. British Columbians must try to see the trial in clear terms. It is about the betrayal of British Columbians by the Gordon Campbell group and “government”.
Those of us familiar with the long proceeding would be very happy to believe it is simply about three lower level operatives who put their fingers in the pie. If it were that, we could feel happy. It might mean, then, that otherwise, the people of British Columbia have a top government administration of integrity.
The trial is about the integrity of the Gordon Campbell government. It cannot help being that. And it may, also, be about the disintegration of the administration of justice in the province – happening before our eyes.
That part is still up for grabs.
Stumble It!