Les Leyne writes
for the Times-Colonist
So What?

In that (Can)waste of forest fibre, today's Victoria Times-Colonist, Les Leyne wrote a piece that defies logic and reason, and basically questions the relevance of the revelations that have been spewing forth from the un-redacted portions of the 8000 documents pried into the light of day by Justice Critic, Leonard Krog's, FOI request. BC Mary, over at Truth Central regarding BC Rail, charitably characterizes his scribblings as "paradoxical." He starts off with:

It's a good question to keep in mind. Every time you see a new revelation from the B.C. Rail scandal ask yourself: "So what?"

Well, I'm sure that that is what our esteemed CEO Premier would like everyone to say, and before they have to hustle over to that second job to raise funds to buy a ticket to watch the Zamboni prepare the ice for the Ice Hockey match between Belarus and Switzerland.

But what's it got to do with the case against the aides, who are charged over a separate deal, the aborted sale of the Roberts Bank rail line? At this point, not much.

I wonder if old Les ever entertained the notion that those ministerial aides might be fall guys, cut outs, designed to divert attention from people who might have actually been able to manipulate the sale, giveaway or lease of W.A.C's railroad - kinda like the early RCMP statement that the raid was all about the tentacles of "organized crime" that were entangling the entire province in their grasp. Of course I always assumed that by "organized crime" the RCMP spokesman was referring to the Campbell government - silly me.

Kinsella's involvement with the actual corporation, B.C. Rail, was already confirmed earlier by the New Democratic Party.

So the NDP "confirmed" Kinsella's involvement, hell, they probably hired him and sold off the railway themselves and invested the money in crooked bingo halls in Haney - right? In case Les is reading this, I will type
S..L..O..W..L..Y so he can follow along. Kinsella's involvement was "confirmed" by documents that it has taken over five years for the public (and the defense) to pry out of the purgatory of an alphabet soup of various flavours of privilege. Or put another way, delays that appear to be orchestrated by the government whose legal issues are administered by that guy who loves to go on TeeVee and complain about delays in the justice system - think of walls made of rocks and mortar.

Les gets on track (I know) temporarily when he explains:

....here's something that needs to be said: His $297,000 contract with B.C. Rail was a flat-out farce. And the explanation given for it is an even bigger farce.

Imagine a government-owned entity hiring the ranking government relations expert in B.C. in order to get advice on how to deal with the government.

On what planet does that scenario make any sense? Since when do Crown corporations need government relations advice?

But then he goes back off the rails in a effort to obfuscate explain just why this arrangement with Mr. Kinsella is/was a farce.

If nothing else, the contract and the justification explain why B.C. Rail was such a dead loss as a business enterprise. The management was so completely bereft of business smarts they had to hire outside help to tell them how to get along with their only shareholder.

This is as valid as the usual BC liaR party and CanWest unsubstantiated, but endlessly repeated assertions that everything bad that ever happened in BC was the fault of either Davy Barrett or Glen Clark. Show me the numbers Les! I must not be the only one getting tired of the old "unions bad" and those nice corporations aren't really a "special interest" at all but more in the nature of philantrophic organizations put here by Jesus to comfort the downtrodden.

As an un-privatized Crown Corporation is it too much to suspect that the management of BC Rail may not have had much choice about whether or not to hire the Premier's right-hand (and left-hand perhaps, being as he can serve multiple masters with no conflict of interest - apparently). I'm also sure that the head honchos of BC Hydro came up with the idea of giving a select group access to decades of research on the hydrological potential of the province's watersheds and then signing long term contracts to buy power at times of low demand at prices double or triple the price they could sell it for - even in Arizona. Well maybe there were some suggestions (orders?) from the office of the top level CEO of the whole province, do you think?

Les closes this text book example of pretzel logic with:

It leads to a paradoxical conclusion: The sale of B.C. Rail was a good deal, if only because it rescued the company from management that didn't even know how to deal with the government, let alone run a railway properly.

There's that word, paradoxical, I wonder if Les was aware of the irony - a funny choice of words after all he wrote above? If Gordo's buddy Stevie in Ottawa doesn't bail-out his boss who is on the verge of going bankrupt from debt incurred trying to own every media outlet in Canada, Les could be seeking employment with a reputable newspaper or other journalistic outlet before long, if such a thing should arise to replace the current PsuedoTory/BC liaR public relations firms. They might be looking for reporters, commentators or columnists with credibility (or at least the ability to apply logic to prose). Just sayin'

I need to repeat one part of the quote above:

The sale of B.C. Rail was a good deal

Maybe in his next column Mr. Leyne can explain to his readers just why this is so. Nobody else (except for the premier and his associates) could make this claim. Most people, even those paying attention don't know if it was a sale or a lease or ?, or if it is a lease what does it include and then for how long, sixty years? with a option for thirty more? or just a temporary 990 or 999 years?

Come on Les, you obviously know more than anybody else!