An 'Expert' Summary Of The BC Rail Scandal Fiasco - What's Left Out

                  About An Expert Summary of the BC Rail Fiasco and the Aborted “Trial” of Basi, Virk, and Basi – With a Few Key Missing Pieces Pointed Out (October 27, 2010)

                  My friend Bill Tieleman has delivered the piece on the Basi, Virk, and Basi trial that we’ve been waiting for.  Acknowledged as one of the best-informed observers watching and prying into the meaning of the BC Rail Scandal, Bill Tieleman’s wisdom needs to be studied by everyone who cares about British Columbia.  His October 26 article, “Hung Out To Dry” is one of the best summary articles written to date.

                 But its flaws are dazzling. 

                 Mr. Tieleman (like all the mainstream press and media people) studiously avoids a few absolutely central matters – and the question must ring through anybody’s mind: Why?  Why?

                 Hitting the nail squarely on the head, he writes that former “BC Liberal ministerial aides Basi and Virk do not deserve to spend a single day under house arrest, let alone the two years less a day they were sentenced to last week under a guilty plea bargain agreement….” They were, he says, “Hung Out to Dry”. 

               And then he steps away from his statement and turns to the huge, calamitous, devious doings of Gordon Campbell and associates. 

                 Nowhere does Mr. Tieleman say there is sound legal basis to exempt the two men from any charges whatsoever. Under perfect conditions there may have been reason to charge all three men – which he does not acknowledge.  And, now we’ll never know - a situation, itself, which creates a gigantic slander of the men.

                  And –  humourously (as well as unfortunately) – Mr. Tieleman uses Shakespeare’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (two minor figures in the play HAMLET) as (innocent) parallels to (innocent) Basi and Virk. Except Mr. Tieleman seems to forget Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are, in effect, hired by the villain of the play, Claudius, knowingly to accompany Hamlet to England with a secret letter in their possession instructing Hamlet’s future hosts to murder him! Nice guys.

                   The sound basis for disallowing any charges (which Mr. Tieleman and all the other mainstream press and media people refuse to mention) is plain.  In December 2003, before the search warrant raids on the legislature offices of Dave Basi and Bob Virk only (not on any of the offices of the people who gave the two men orders), a Special Prosecutor was named.

                 In such a case in which two men (instruments of government) were to have their offices raided and then, a year later, were to be charged, the legislation covering the appointment of Special Prosecutors is unequivocal: the Special Prosecutor must be visibly independent and unbiased.  He or she must have no connection whatever with the accused. He or she must not have even the potential to be perceived as being biased.

                He or she must have no connection whatever with elected government officials, civil servants, police or like persons.  And in this case – compellingly – in which the cabinet is believed to have been deeply involved in the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR, the Special Prosecutor should have been chosen from the 11,000 lawyers in B.C. so that he or she was obviously and unequivocally clear of any attachment to interested government figures.

                But the appointed person, William Berardino QC, had been for seven years partner and colleague (and, one assumes, friend) of Geoff Plant, Attorney General in the ministry which appointed him, directly linked through membership in cabinet to Gordon Campbell and all senior operatives in the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR.  William Berardino had been, as well, eleven years partner and colleague (and, one assumes, friend) of the Deputy Minister in that same ministry, Allan Seckel.

                 That was enough to rule out Mr. Berardino, categorically.  But then in the Spring of 2007, Gordon Campbell entered the pre-trial process, dissolved the working protocol to vet cabinet documents sought by the Defence counsel, and replaced it with Allan Seckel, then Deputy Attorney General.  Mr. Seckel, Gordon Campbell said, would consult with the Special Prosecutor, William Berardino.  Mr. Seckel and Mr. Berardino had been partners and colleagues in private practice for eleven years.  Mr. Seckel had worked on the election campaign of Geoff Plant who became Attorney General, and not long after that Allan Seckel was appointed Deputy Attorney General.

                The action of Gordon Campbell – entering the judicial process – stank to high heaven, and underscored the mess “the Crown” was in.

                The Special Prosecutor (1) in the Basi, Virk, and Basi case was wrongfully appointed in violation of the legislation governing appointment.  (2) Therefore, he could not act.  (3) If he were to act, as he did in the case, the trial had to be illegitimate – and it was. (4) Since it was illegitimate, the charges which he organized and placed against the three accused were without legal force.  (5) All of the accused, all three, were, therefore, subjected to a pre-trial and trial process that was improper and without validity. (6) And so Basi and Virk “do not deserve to spend a single day under house arrest, let alone the two years less a day they were sentenced to last week under a guilty plea bargain agreement ….”

                 Why won’t Bill Tieleman and the other writers for the mainstream press and media point that out? It provides indisputable proof of Mr. Tieleman’s main point. 

                 The whole process from the beginning has  - it is estimated – cost nearly 20 million dollars … almost all of it without legitimacy because the Special Prosecutor was wrongfully appointed.

                 My friend Bill Tieleman doesn’t fill in the canvas.  He – and the whole corps of Mainstream Press and Media people - ignore the fact that the assistant Deputy Attorney General, the Attorney General, the Chief Justice and Associate Chief Justice of the B.C. Supreme Court, the government appointed Reviewer of the Special Prosecutor appointment system, Stephen Owen, and the investigator for the Canadian Judicial Council - Chief Justice of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench - ALL lied, ducked out, equivocated, made empty excuses, or refused altogether to acknowledge the fact of William Berardino’s wrongful appointment.

                 All of the people from the Mainstream Press and Media refuse even to refer to the fact that the presiding judge, Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie, was fully informed that the Special Prosecutor was wrongfully in the courtroom … and she would do nothing whatever to inform the jury of the fact or to remedy the situation.

                   Had the Mainstream Press and Media done their work fairly on that matter, the whole course of the trial in the last six months might have been completely different … and much, much better as far as achieving some measure of justice is concerned.  The Mainstream Press and Media – many observers, I am sure believe - constitute a major part of the sell-out of justice in the BC Rail Scandal and the matters involving the three accused men. Their coverage of the Basi,Virk, and Basi case has been obscene.

                    There are those who say the role of the Mainstream Press and Media at the present time is to work for Private Corporate Capital and to sell out the people of the country.  That seems to be what happened here.

                   Bill Tieleman is correct in his headline that says: “Media quick to close the book”.  He suggests they closed it after the trial.  They closed it long before the end of the trial, as I have just shown.  Moreover, instead of challenging the police investigation from the start of the pre-trial hearings four years ago … the press equivocated, as Mr. Tieleman does in his expert summary.  Even now, he will only write about “the astonishing disregard for good judgement repeatedly demonstrated by the RCMP”.

                   The more than three years of pre-trial hearings, I insist, gave every indication that there should have been a deep and total RCMP investigation of the major actors in the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR – up to and including Gordon Campbell. I asked RCMP Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass for that investigation … and he refused.

                   There still should be that investigation– and the Mainstream Press and Media refuse to say so. They fail … and fail … and fail.

                  The pre-trial hearings, I believe, revealed the RCMP stalling, delaying, shadow-boxing, giving every indication the Force was attempting to obstruct the process. I believe that would be the conclusion of any reasonable and prudent British Columbian attending.

                   The aborted “trial” of the three men, which followed, revealed key actors who hardly dared answer a single direct question. Martyn Brown and Brian Kenning looked so bad … I believe … desperation fell upon the Campbell group. I believe that group decided they had to do almost anything to close up the trial. We know what happened….

                   It must be said … and not a single member of the Mainstream Press and Media will say it.  The actions of the RCMP in the whole matter of the BC Rail Scandal give the appearance –  I believe that would be the conclusion of any reasonable British Columbian who observed the legal process – of being devoted to covering-up for the major actors in the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR, to confusing the real sequence of events and the scope of wrong-doing, to acting on behalf of highly suspect persons, and to co-operating in the concentration upon certain allegations against the three men accused.

        Bill Tieleman underscores the dubiousness of the trial by emphasizing the strange set of events when then-Finance Minister Gary Collins met Dwight Johnson and Pat Broe from bidder OmniTRAX at the famous Villa del Lupo restaurant in Vancouver in December of 2003.  Mr. Tieleman points to the offer of a “consolation prize” to OmniTRAX for staying in the bidding process for BC Rail. The reference is contained in the “statement of facts” which the accused agreed to that forms the basis of their reduced conviction. The reference to the “consolation prize” is there in the statement, it seems, specifically so that the accused can sign a statement exempting Gary Collins from any part in offering it.

        What Mr. Tieleman doesn’t say is Defence argued in pre-trial hearings that Gary Collins was under “investigation”, and that investigation (after the December 12 meeting at Villa del Lupo) was dropped, and that there is no available record of an order to end investigation.  As I remember, the presiding judge accepted those allegations by Defence as reasonable and said there must be record of the termination of the investigation of Gary Collins … somewhere.  If so, it has never seen the light of day.

        An investigation of top government figures in the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR appears to have been begun … and closed down sharply.  Every representative of the Mainstream Press and Media should be on their hind legs demanding that investigation be re-opened and pursued to the last tiny shred of evidence. 

       Okay, Mr. Tieleman, over to you and the others in the Mainstream Press and Media.