THE BC RAIL SCANDAL “CONSPIRACY THEORY”
One of the largest elephants in Courtroom 54 of the B.C. Supreme Court is The BC Rail Scandal “Conspiracy Theory”. The elephant is huge. It won’t go away. It hangs like an immense, dark cloud – if an elephant can do that – over every word spoken in the Basi, Virk, and Basi trial.
[‘An “elephant” in the room’ in ordinary speech refers to a major, fundamental factor that – by common consent, for some reason – is ignored by all those who shouldn’t ignore it.]
Bill Tieleman of Weststar Communications has created an A to Z summary of (almost) all the actors in the Basi, Virk, and Basi matter. Mr. Tieleman has provided an invaluable reference tool for anyone new to – or even well versed – in the story.
This presentation of The BC Rail Scandal “Conspiracy Theory” is intended to fill the same kind of need – to provide a place where people interested in the Basi, Virk, and Basi portion of the BC Rail Scandal can go to see what the Conspiracy Theorists believe.
Conspiracy Theorists, of course – we all know – are “theorists”. They try to find explanations for events that lack coherent and rational explanation. They are very often described as “freaks” and “nut cases” and people with “feverish imaginations”. They are described in that way for two reasons.
The first reason is because they are frequently “freaks” and “nut cases” and people with “feverish imaginations”.
The second reason is because … they aren’t people of that kind … but they are on to something that suggests corrupt links among forces that don’t want corrupt links to be seen. So they have to be called “freaks” and “nut cases” to invalidate their theories.
The Mainstream Press and Media have refused to take the BC Rail Scandal seriously, have refused to do investigative reporting on it, have refused – even – to report important facts presented to them. The Globe and Mail recently produced an editorial tut-tutting that Defence lawyer Kevin McCullough could be so rude as to name and involve Gordon Campbell in the BC Rail Scandal of which Campbell is the chief author and architect – and out of which has come the trial of Basi, Virk, and Basi.
The Mainstream Press/Media are staffed by jolly, rotund journalists, for the most part, who roll on the floor in laughter at the suggestion they might be serving another master than truth in their non-reporting of the BC Rail Scandal story.
“Sounds,” they say, “like Conspiracy Theory to us – sounds like what you’d expect from freaks and nut cases.”
The big story, the BIG Conspiracy Theory begins in 2001 … and before.
U.S, power in the world is being challenged by an enormous debt load and by rising economies – China, India, a South American (“anti-American”) bloc… and more. To remain “paramount”, the U.S. must consolidate undisputed power over global primary resources and infrastructures. And (connected) the U.S. must consolidate undisputed power over global movements of capital.
[That second part won’t be dealt with here : the “private” U.S. federal reserve board; the Goldman Sachs phenomenon – secretly helping Greece to fake its European Union position and then pulling the rug; the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund both U.S.-over-weighted demanding privatization of EVERYTHING when they get power over countries desperate for loans – privatization take-over by foreign multi-national corporations; the present run on the Euro to displace it as a competitor with the U.S. dollar, and …and….]
The first part is (principally) our “Conspiracy Theory” story: “The U.S. need to consolidate undisputed power over global primary resources and infrastructures” – and, as a part of that, increasingly to integrate Canada into the U.S. to end Canadian priorities in the use of Canadian wealth.
Paul Tellier was the magician who took publicly-owned CN Rail, privatized it, and delivered it – in fact – to U.S. private ownership. In 2001 Paul Tellier travelled to Vancouver. He gave a speech saying BC Rail should do what CNR has done. [And what better way than to melt BC Rail into the now privatized CNR? Gordon Campbell, we are told, was of that mind even earlier. Was Paul Tellier’s visit to Vancouver … a coincidence?]
In the 1996 B.C. election Gordon Campbell promised to privatize BC Rail. He lost the election on that promise. In the 2001 election he promised not to sell or privatize BC Rail. In power, he began almost immediately to break his promise, and – as events have proved – to get BC Rail into the hands of the CNR.
Conspiracy theorists point out that Gordon Campbell has appeared to keep close and strange contacts with various representatives of U.S. power.
The magnificent Canadian Mainstream Press/Media – as well as the fiercely aggressive (?) B.C. NDP Opposition – have never, ever investigated Campbell’s frequent trips to the U.S. – New York, California, and elsewhere – to find out what he does there, what he really does ….
We know he has sunk BC Ferries – watch for the bubbles on the surface. And he appointed a U.S. CEO to BC Ferries at, now, $1,000,000.00 per year. We know he has destroyed BC Hydro and has handed part to Accenture of the smelly U.S. ENRON energy debacle. We know he has handed control, in fact, of BC river energy power to U.S. interests. We know he has castrated what is left of BC Hydro so it can exist in name only – for public relations purposes. We know he is privatizing Crown land – almost as gifts to giant forest companies.
BC Rail is, alas, part of the larger sell-out, fitting neatly into the overall “Conspiracy Theory”.
In power, Gordon Campbell very soon lined up all his ducks for an unstoppable assault upon and transfer of BC Rail to CNR. [At this point hackles will rise and tempers fray – among the anti-Conspiracy Theory group.]
Who were the ducks who had to be lined up for a successful integration of BC Rail into the “North American resource and infrastructure takeover controlled from the U.S.A.” according to the “Conspiracy Theory”?
Of course, BC Rail officials had to be brought onside. (Like many BC Hydro officers, they came easily – for what price?) Major cabinet people had to co-operate. They did. (Some mysteriously left politics soon after, without convincing explanation.) MLA’s had to respond in the legislature like barking seals. They outdid themselves – except for Paul Nettleton who was run out of Liberal caucus for disagreeing with the destruction of B.C. Rail.
An Evaluation Committee and many, many other groups and operatives had to be put in motion in order to misinform the public and deceive it, to dismantle good parts of BC Rail, to weaken freight expertise, to end passenger services, to cook the books to show (fake) losses, to achieve muddy financial oversight from outside, and to build a wholly fake, conventional, standard bidding process by which to deliver BC Rail to the CNR.
All that was put together – the “Conspiracy Theory” postulates - with brilliant success (and only two Opposition members existing, who fought valiantly in the legislature against the fraud).
But more was needed.
The federal government had to be on side. Stephen Harper (a North American integrationist) was a knock-over. He is never mentioned in the sell-out.
The privatization process – The “Conspiracy Theory” argues – not only skirted the edges of criminal behaviour – but it crossed over into criminality in a way that involved major actors in the BC Rail Scandal. For that reason the Ottawa headquarters and the BC RCMP had to be brought on side. Getting them on side (in the BC Rail Scandal “Conspiracy Theory” version of the story) was achieved, but only with what has become an increasingly embarrassing compromise. The compromise required that [after all those years of investigation] a trial be held of what seemed to the RCMP to be an open and shut, easily insulated, allegedly criminal piece of mischief allegedly undertaken by three lower order (but not unimportant) government servants: Basi, Virk, and Basi.
Unfortunately, for the top wrong-doers (the “Conspiracy Theory” says), Basi, Virk, and Basi hold tightly to a steel rope that leads directly into the cabinet and into the premier’s office.
Unfortunately, for justice in British Columbia (the “Conspiracy Theory” says), the BC RCMP has so compromised itself that it can only refuse to undertake an investigation into wrong doing on the part of Gordon Campbell and his associates in the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to CNR.
To make everything move “as smooth as butter” a Special Crown Prosecutor had to be appointed to deal with the compromise case – while dodging all the major actors. Who could fill the position? The “Conspiracy Theory” suggests that a long-time partner and colleague of the Attorney General and of the Deputy Attorney General would be the perfect choice – even though that would be a violation of the legislation governing the appointment of Special Prosecutors. It was done. Easily. (And never reported by the Mainstream Press and Media.)
A further problem was present, the “Conspiracy Theory” believes. The B.C. Supreme Court had to get on side … or, at least, had to “go along”. All seemed to unfold as it should.
The judge chosen to preside was the judge involved with what I call “the fraudulent investigation and trial of Glen Clark, former NDP premier”. [Indeed, the framing of Glen Clark – with ample RCMP help, the “Conspiracy Theory” has it – was very likely, like the speech of Paul Tellier in Vancouver, part of the preparation to place Gordon Campbell in the position to sell-off ownership and/or control of major B.C. wealth to U.S. interests.]
After 136 days of nasty trial and Mainstream Press and Media crucifixion, Glen Clark was ruined politically. Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett defended the trial that found Clark innocent of all charges.
Bennett seemed a natural for the Basi, Virk, and Basi matter. She took a conservative view of the law in the Glen Clark case. When Clark’s lawyer said the evidence was groundless and the charges should be stayed, Bennett pushed on…to find at the end of the 136 days of trial that the evidence was … groundless…. By then, Glen Clark was ruined.
In the Basi, Virk, and Basi pre-trial hearings (the “Conspiracy Theory” has it) Justice Bennett looked more largely at cause and effect, motivation and action, the accused, the accusers, and the superiors of the accused. As a result, she admitted to evidence a growing body of material that pointed to others – in, for instance, the matter of leaks of confidential information and of practicing to misrepresent the truth – others much, much more powerful than Basi, Virk, and Basi.
For that reason, the “Conspiracy Theory” alleges, Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett had to go. Was her promotion to Appeals Court a manipulation to get her out? Was she more or less herded out by then Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm? Was her replacement - Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie – a fix? The BC Rail Scandal “Conspiracy Theory” says YES. Being a “Conspiracy Theory”, what else can it say?
Now-Associate Chief Justice Anne Mackenzie closed all the doors to Defence applications for disclosure and … almost anything else. The trial, she said, must go ahead. It needs to be a fair trial, not a perfect one. Fully informed of the wrongful appointment of the Special Prosecutor, she refuses even to reply to correspondence on the matter. Is she so compromised that she can’t uphold the integrity of the administration of justice in her court? The “Conspiracy Theory” can explain her behaviour in no other way, of course.
The trial has begun. The Crown may call more than a few dozen witnesses. The first – Martyn Brown, Gordon Campbell’s chief of staff and top political advisor - is being tightly grilled by Defence Counsel’s Kevin McCullough. Brown begins to look … well … not too good. His cross-examination points forward to revelations that may well place senior actors in the BC Rail Scandal in perilous position.
After three days, one of the accused has fallen ill. The case is adjourned for a week. The “Conspiracy Theory” says the writing is on the wall. If all Crown witnesses are dissected as Martyn Brown is being dissected, the Gordon Campbell caravan may well drive over the cliff.
Being the BC Rail Scandal “Conspiracy Theory”, it says that unless a god drops out of the sky onto the case and takes it over – to assure justice is done, then all the forces working in collusion, in the “Conspiracy” will – by next Monday – have set about creating the machinery to blast the whole case out of the courtroom and off the books.
But we know that Conspiracy Theories are often the creations of freaks and nut cases. And so the Basi, Virk, and Basi case may make its way, slowly, correctly, painstakingly … to a conclusion in which justice is done and the “fair trial” of Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie is born out – and the guilty in the BC Rail Scandal are all, eventually, brought to appropriate judgement … and the innocent sent freely out into the world.
* My court reporter accreditation, a tiny right granted to reporters to record proceedings for accuracy of reporting, was denied by a four person committee of three CanWest employees and one CTV employee. I was advised by Neal Hall of the committee to approach the judge in the case, Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie. I did. She refuses to acknowledge my request. I have criticized both CanWest and the presiding judge during my three and a half years of covering the BC Rail Scandal proceedings.
Is it possible that they have combined to deny me a very simple right … to deny me a very simple right? Is it “Conspiracy Theory” to ask the question? Whatever the case, it is a tiny, tiny moment in the BC Rail Scandal – an almost meaningless moment. Almost ….
Stumble It!