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!