May Day!      
May Day!

This is the day that the children in small communities all over British Columbia do the dance around the May Pole thing. There are beer gardens, bocci tournaments, pancake breakfasts and smaller and/or larger parades presided over by the May Queens and princesses from the communities.

As well as Spring in general the holiday celebrates Queen Victoria's Birthday. It is usually the first summer like holiday of the year, even though it isn't summer yet, the weather is often quite nice and many British Columbians get out and get away from home and onto the beach or into the countryside. It also gives the government a break from answering questions, or maybe more accurately, from not answering questions. The opposition also gets a break from not asking the right questions or getting sucked into can't win arguments about irrelevant issues.

I find it incredible that this excuse for a government can manage to totally break most campaign promises such as not selling BC Rail, having open and accountable government, improving access to health care and then award themselves with gold-plated retirement parachutes and up to an over 50% pay raise in the case of the Soup Nazi himself with a minimum of 29% for the lowest of backbenchers and somehow convince the public that it is the NDP, the powerless and apparently inarticulate NDP, for all that is rotten in Queen VickyVille. Of course having Canned West and their minions such as Keith Baldrey, Vaughn Palmer and Michael Smythe acting as a PR firm on retainer rather than journalists is very helpful in portraying a false reality. As one of the commenters over at BC Mary's blog pointed out:

Only in BC would the press turn on the opposition who have rejected a 29-50% pay increase, instead of the porkers who introduced this.

The same anonymouse also points out that Michael Smythe can hardly contain his glee, as he misplaces the blame for the greed and somehow convinces many of the readers that the NDP are the bad guys in this scenario. As if somehow they could do anything to stop Gordo the Greedmonger from receiving his 53% or 54% raise and retirement package worth an estimated $2,000.000+. Fortunately for both of us I only have to see the sneering face of Minister DeJong on TV as he attacks the NDP and Carole James for lack of leadership, because if I was in the same room his face would suffer some trauma and I would get arrested for assault; and that's a best case scenario. They look like slime, they sound like slime and they act like slime. What's the odds that they are actually sleazy slime?

The past couple weeks have been quite dramatic in the ongoing pre-trial activity surrounding the charges against the two Basis and Mr. Virk. The defense has brought up myriad allegations that would suggest that their clients were at worst following the instructions of their bosses, the elected officials who we have been repeatedly assured (but I've always had my doubts) are squeaky clean. I won't go into the details of the various allegations and the relatively lame, so far, responses from the prosecution as Bill Tieleman in the Tyee and on his blog and BC Mary at her blog the Legislature Raids have been performing yeoman and well appreciated service at digging up and reporting on available information. Robin Matthews of course has also been present as much as possible and publishing his observations and analysis both on Mary's blog and at ViveleCanada.

This year May Days has yet a third meaning, for me anyway. I like to think that the Criminal Cabal generally known as the BC Liberal government is springing leaks. In spite of a compliant media, possible obstruction of the Justice system and the power to be investigated or not by an RCMP perhaps tainted by relationships of blood and/or marriage, the good bad ship captained by the Soup Nazi himself seems to be springing leaks almost daily. So I manage to squeeze a little more enjoyment from the holiday by imagining the Soup Nazi, Colin "I perfected the Sneer" Hansen, Mike "ding-dong" deJong, StoneWally Oppal and the rest of the cabinet full of crackers running around the good bad ship H.M.S Lieberal yelling Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

The image above brightens up for me what was already a holiday and I wish the rest of you a very pleasant and enjoyable May Day. In my part of the province even the weather seems pretty darn nice today. So.................

Enjoy....

Monday,
Monday
Trial(?) Resumes

The activities on Smithe Street that may or may not be a trial yet resume this morning. Rumor has it that the Special Prosecutor and his team will begin answering the myriad allegations that the defense lawyers have made for the last couple of weeks in their ongoing quest for disclosure. For the last two weeks the defense has demanded documents and tossed accusations towards the RCMP, the prosecution and the seemingly criminal conspiracy generally known as the Campbell Lieberal Government.

The Basi boys and Mr. Virk indeed are on the schedule for today with their approximately normal 7 pages of charges and applications. A few of the items are described like this:

Disclosure applications
scheduled to commence 11
Sep 2006 be adjourned.

Now I hadn't realized that anything was scheduled for September, especially PRE-Trial applications, but now they are adjourned - forever or until September? I would like to remind everybody that this is May, September is on the other side of summer. Just how long do the prosecution, defense and Justice Bennett think this whole putrid affair can be delayed and stalled?

Interference?

Neal Hall wrote an article that was tucked away on page 11 of the second section of the Vancouver Stun titled Lawyer challenges solicitor-general. It outlines some defense allegations that the Solicitor General interfered in the investigation and "inserted themselves in the police investigation as early as October 2003." Joe Doyle alleged that.....

.....RCMP acting deputy commissioner Gary Bass got a call Dec. 29, 2003 from Kevin Begg of the solicitor-general's ministry. Begg was appointed assistant deputy minister on Feb. 1, 2004.

Begg advised Bass that the government was concerned about police interviewing Collins while he was in Hawaii because he might reveal cabinet confidences, so he asked police to hold off, Doyle said.

The court has heard how RCMP had wanted to interview Collins immediately after the RCMP raid on the legislature offices of Collins' ministerial assistant, Dave Basi, and Bob Virk, then a ministerial assistant to the transportation minister.

It would appear that somehow the Ferret got a free pass or Get Out of Jail Free card, in spite of the fact that a Special Prosecutor was named specifically to remove any government involvement or interference in the investigation. As the article points out:

Lawyer Joe Doyle argued that the Crown counsel manual has a policy on when to engage a special prosecutor when cases involve cabinet ministers or other senior public or ministry officials, so as to avoid any conflicts of interest.

"It creates what is supposed to be a separation from government," he told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett about the special prosecutor policy.

Personally I've always been suspicious about the Ferret resigning as Finance Minister shortly before getting to deliver a balanced (?) budget so that he could go be the CEO of a small scale, almost fly by night, regional airline. At a time when big airlines are falling into bankruptcy like flies, it hardly seemed to be an opportunity that was too good to turn down. It always seemed to me like a place to go when desperation makes one anxious to escape from where he is. Of course the Ferret has moved on from this magnificent opportunity already, I can't remember exactly which crony his new job came from, but I think maybe he should try manufacturing license plates.

Hall's piece ends with this sentence which is one of the reports that leads me to suspect that the prosecution gets to explain its position starting this morning.

The case resumes Monday with the prosecution's reply to the defence application.

That's Today!

Just What's
Going on
HERE!

While perusing the Jumbles Court Listing this morning, I was struck by what I discovered in the part of the AG's site that shares (?) information about the results of cases before the Supreme Court of BC.



The Ministry of the Attorney General doesn't just publish schedules (?) to upcoming legal activities at the various courthouses in BC, but a section called "Adult Completed Court Lists (Supreme)," as well. They tell you what happened also...........well...sorta.......kinda.....

Adult Completed Court Lists (Supreme) which list results of Court from the past five days

.
Being the Ministry of the Attorney General there are lots (maybe even TOO many?) lawyers around so they always say exactly, I mean exactly, did I say how precisely?, what they mean. As in the above - when they say five days, they are counting Saturday and Sunday you want to bet your patootie. So I won't link you to the results from Thursday (last) April 27 (five actual court (you know WORKING) days) ago)as they are gone, gone with the wind into cyberspace. Gone to the place where I suspect certain people would like this whole issue to go. You can go all the way back to Monday or three days ago.

Basi, Virk and Basi issues were on the docket for April 27, April 28, April 30(thurs, fri and mon) and Tuesday, May 1. Each day the column with the heading "Next Appearance" would have something like this for - a result for April 30.

01-MAY-2007 10:00 AM 054
CNA

This has been the standard next appearance entry for many occasions to date and then the column under results would be entirely blank.

So maybe you can imagine my state of shock when I went to today's (Thursday, May 2) and found that the column for "next appearance" was in each instance EMPTY, and the column for Results has an entry in each of the usual seven or eight (or even a dozen or more, some days) pages of BVB charges, 23299-n and so forth dealing with Inherent Jurisdiction, disclosure and warrant authorization now say "No Results Entered." That's right:

No Results Entered!

Now excuse me if my reading skills or comprehension are slowed by dementia, drugs or natural born dumbness (not meant to insult the mute). But that information would would suggest to me that there is NO scheduled next appearance and that there WERE some results, just none that the public were deemed worthy of knowing about.

Come on people go there yourself, compare the listings before and and for May 1. Hurry though because they disappear daily, even on weekends, apparently.

Anybody have any ideas what this actually means? I hope I'm not correct in jumping to the worst possible conclusion (or that it is the complete and total disappearance of the BC Rail Trial)! Lucinda, tell me it isn't so, because I'm pretty sure that would be news, wouldn't it?

Two out of
3
Ain't Bad...maybe

Today's online Court Schedules indicate that Aneal Basi and Bob Virk will be appearing to face criminal charges, namely - Accepting bribe as a government official, Breach of trust by public officer, Accepting bribe as a government official, Accepting bribe from person dealing with gov't, Offering to influence government official, Breach of trust by public officer, Fraud over $5000 (two counts). Does this mean those two Basi (but not that Basi) boys are going to be there? Does this mean the trial has actually started? I mean, can the trial actually begin without the bad guys (alleged of course).

Then again, there have been court actions involving myself and criminal charges that occurred in abstentia, in Amerika. Hell I even committed crimes in jurisdictions where I never went in premises I had never visited, etc. This was all straightened out eventually, with an emphasis on the EVENTUALLY.

Of course I looked at the court listings a couple hours ago now, who knows what they say now, unless one goes there again. I'm not saying anybody is practicing obfuscation at the Ministry of the Attorney General, but if they wanted to do so not posting anything until a couple hours before court time and then changing it throughout the day might be a valuable technique. You can't convince me that a group of administrators and lawyerly types convene at logging or cow milking time in the morning to set up the day's schedule so the AG's own web wizard can post it by or at or after 6:30am. I mean, I would be willing to bet serious money that the schedule is pretty well set the previous afternoon at the latest, after all, defendants, counsel and other staff need to actually.....like.....show up.

I will also admit that the court's business is even more the defendant's, counsel's and other staff's business than everyone else in BC. However, what goes on in the British Columbia Supreme Court, barring privacy concerns in certain situations, is the business of every one in the province. Otherwise why not just have Star Chambers and don't even bother us with it at all. In this case where government officials are accused of committing crimes while in government employ at taxpayer expense and the entire government stands accused of many questionable actions and CONVICTED (as in proven to be) as LIARS, it is most definitely in the public's interest to be informed. Especially when the crimes in question may very well have been against the public's interests even more than most crime.

I'll be in suspenders all day, not wondering what happened on Smithe Street, but wondering whether Lucinda thinks anything has happened or NOT. Lucinda, use the deck in East Van as your reference point for important enough to qualify as news. Then using that as a benchmark, explain why you don't have to break into regular programming on a daily basis to follow the BC Rail Trail - (I thought it was a trial too, but someone in Hansard or the Listings referred to the Trail, and I'm not learned enough to debate the point).