Basi & Virk: CanWest Cover-Up?

But the public still knows very little about what the National Post recently headlined, "Judge refuses to unseal documents in B.C. government corruption case". When CanWest's B.C. newspapers used the same story, they eliminated the words "B.C. government corruption case" from the headline. That bit of censorship, in my opinion, describes what CanWest is doing: publishing as little as possible feel-bad news about B.C. Liberals allegedly being involved in government corruption. Where a decent newspaper would be searching for the whole story, debating on behalf of the public interest, CanWest seems to be keeping the "government corruption case" quiet, out of sight ... seeming to be hoping the public will forget about it. That's manipulative, distracting, and harmful to the public interest. That's not what people expect to see when they buy a newspaper to inform themselves on the issues of the day. But the judicial record reflects the same approach. Lawyers have been called into Justice Dohm's courtroom at least 7 times ... and still the public knows almost nothing about the government corruption cases, have no idea when even the basic Search Warrants authorized by this Judge will really open, nor do Basi and Virk know when they go to trial. So May 30, 2005 in B.C. Supreme Court, Vancouver, was no big surprise. Another postponement is what always happens. Lucky lawyers assigned to make 7 or more fruitless appearances in Vancouver must be rubbing their palms and high-fiving! Cynics see the puzzling postponements as electioneering -- as evading the serious issue (larger by far than the Sponsorship Scandal) until Paul Martin and Gordon Campbell were re-elected. But now there's another federal election looming. Will further postponements be kept going to protect Prime Minister Martin (after all, Basi & Virk were his top B.C. campaign workers) until this unexpected new election is over? You'd think that British Columbia's daily newspapers, radio, and TV would begin to reflect the public's unrest about this. You'd think they'd at very least ask "What's the hold-up?" How long can this go on? Heaven knows, it's a serious issue. If true, it affects the ability of Canadian governments to function effectively. If untrue, for God's sake, let's put it to rest. But let's stop pretending that government corruption doesn't directly affect every citizen of this country. How long can this be ignored by the CanWest media? It's important to fault CanWest, because the eastern media seem to get their news by reading CanWest. We cannot blame the journalists, who are often tearing their hair behind the scenes. As one of the best said to me privately: " ... it really shows how absurd our legal system has become. It will be eight months, at the earliest, before we finally get to trial on Basi/Virk, and when it does start my guess is there will be delay after delay while lawyers argue about whether the judge can hear the hundreds of hours of phone tapes the police made. My guess is I'll get to hear the material, but will never be allowed to report on it." Read it and weep for Canada. Saddam Hussein was captured on 13 December 2003 -- just 15 days before the R.C.M.P. raided the B.C. Legislature. Saddam goes to trial in 2 months. Why not Basi and Virk? Why not, CanWest?