A Message
from Mary

Gordo packing for his Holiday Trip to Maui
early December 2003
BC Mary left the following comment on my last post here last night:

I went back to my place and checked out two of the most significant reports:

* There was time to destroy evidence before the raid, posted Jan. 16, 2008.

* Ken Dobell went through Cabinet files before police, posted May 15, 2008.

It's important and it's shocking.

Posted by BC Mary to House of Infamy
at Monday, September 21, 2009 8:50:00 PM PDT

I can only second her assertion that it is important and shocking. Well it maybe not so shocking to anyone who has been paying attention to the farce that has unfolded since the infamous Sunday afternoon raid on the Legislature during the Christmas Season of 2003. The shocking thing is how little attention the Assperson media that with the help of the Public Affairs Bureau controls the flow of information (and mis-information) in British Columbia has paid to the ongoing obfuscation, delay and apparent obstruction of justice that seems to be directed from the CEO premier's office.

It may be helpful for anyone with an interest and concern for our province to go back to the posts Mary mentions in her comment and I will make it easy for those who can't find the time or energy to search her archives or type URLs into the address bar of their browser.

* There was time to destroy evidence before the raid, posted Jan. 16, 2008.

This post is about some information brought forward by 3 Concerned Canadians and the CBC in 2004, before the CBC apparently joined the Assperson Media Monster in trying to ignore the entire issue. Here is an excerpt, but I recommend a trip to Mary's to read the rest.

During the month of December 2003, key people in the B.C. legislature knew that an unprecedented police raid was coming. The public ever since has been asked to assume that the Campbell government and staff sat meekly for 28 days, doing nothing to protect themselves. We question that assumption, in the light of the Special Prosecutor's continuing refusal or inability to disclose documents required by the Basi, Virk, Basi Defence.

Dec. 1, 2003 - B. C. Attorney General Geoff Plant is told by his staff that a case requires the appointment of a special prosecutor and may involve a search of the B.C. legislature.

Dec. 7, 2003 - Mandeep Sandhu is elected to the executive of the Liberals in Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca.

Dec. 9, 2003 - Police raid Mandeep Sandhu's home in Saanich. Police question Sandhu and seize a computer. Sandhu is later released. No charges are laid.

Dec. 11, 2003 - William Berardino is appointed special prosecutor to oversee an investigation involving a member of the Victoria police and appointees at the legislature.

From: IN DEPTH - B.C. RAIDS. CBC News Online, Sept 14,2004. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/bcraids/

* Ken Dobell went through Cabinet files before police, posted May 15, 2008.

This post is based on a rare Assperson published article critical of der Fuhrer Campbell by Michael Smyth, that was published in the Province. A year later, approaching the election, Smythe and the other Assperson drones weren't apparently allowed to publish anything that could bring attention to the duplicity and out right dis-honesty of Assper's white-haired boy from the West Side!

The shocking 2003 raid on the legislature created a bizarre and unprecedented situation for the police, prosecutors, politicians and parliamentarians.

Bashing down the door of a crack house or grow-op is one thing. But this was the legislature, the centre of our democracy, the people's house.

....../snip
The revelation that Dobell reviewed several of the most crucial cabinet documents in the case before releasing them to the police is mind-boggling. He was not covered by the Supreme Court protocol. He did not sign the undertaking not to discuss the evidence.

"This could jeopardize the trial," NDP justice critic Leonard Krog, who revealed Dobell's involvement, told me yesterday.

Now Krog has written to the deputy commissioner of the RCMP asking for a separate investigation into the Dobell bombshell.

The documents that Dobell reviewed were to be used by the police to conduct interviews with former cabinet ministers Gary Collins and Judith Reid and three senior bureaucrats, Krog notes.

"Mr. Dobell . . . at no time swore an undertaking not to disclose information about those documents and the use the RCMP intended to make of them," Krog wrote yesterday to RCMP Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass.

"Mr. Dobell, due to his unique position in the government, had greater day-to-day access to all the parties to the RCMP interviews than almost anyone in government.

"Given the gravity of the implications of these facts, I ask that the RCMP begin a separate criminal investigation immediately." {Snip} ...

I can't read these blasts from the past without being reminded of another seemingly immune "insider," namely Patrick Kinsella, who it seems could run two dozen gigantic grow ops with immunity because of his magical privilege and right to privacy, even when engaged in the public's business. During (in)Justice Bennett's last shameful performance down at the Erickson designed House of Mirrors at Robson and Smithe, she did rule that

"Kinsella’s lawyer had violated a court order not to provide access to transcripts of earlier hearings in the case and ordered that a list of the people who got access to the transcripts be released."

This being in direct violation of court protocol since Mr. Kinsella (Secret Agent for Gordon Campbell, BC Rail and CN and God knows who else) is almost guaranteed to be called as a witness, IF the Basi, Virk, Basi affair ever actually comes to trial.

Happy New Year
2004

Vancouver Sun - Friday, January 2, 2004

During the normally quiet days between Christmas 2003 and New Year's 2004, British Columbian's were stunned to watch the RCMP and the Victoria Police spend Sunday afternoon executing a search warrant on the Legislature and spend most of the day carting boxes and boxes of files and hard drives out of the offices of the Ministries of Finance and Transportation. As this was such an unprecedented event in the history of western democracies, the PR firms disguised as media could hardly ignore what had happened and GlowBall (or was it still CTV then?) and the local papers all covered the spectacle. The very first edition of the Vancouver Sun for 2004, published on Friday, January 2, (shown above) published twenty-seven questions in white letters on a black background. The question today, almost six years later, is whether ANY of these questions have been answered yet.

Here are the questions, and my thoughts on some of them.

The 27 Questions for British Columbians

1. What triggered this investigation?
   
   I keep thinking it must have been Chief Battershill, because the way they've been obfuscating ever since, it is not likely it was initiated by the RCMP! And it appears that Chief Battershill paid for his efforts to perform his duty to the people of BC and Victoria with his career.
   
   
2. How closely linked is the drug investigation led by federal prosecutor Robert Prior to the investigation led by special prosecutor William Berardino?
   
   This is territory that little attention has be given to in the last few years, indeed I didn't realize Wild Bill was "special" before the raids!
   
   
3. What if anything is the link between drugs, organized or commercial crime to staff in the B.C. legislature?
   
   Does the rigged auction of BC Rail count as commercial crime and how about members of the B. C. Legislature rather than staff?
   
   
   
4. To the federal Liberal party?
   
   
   
5. Who are the nine people recently arrested and why have none of them been charged?
   
   People had been arrested already by Friday?
   
   
6. What premises were searched on Sunday?
   
   Let's see, wasn't it Mark Marissen/Christy Clark's? and maybe Pilot House, but who knows for sure
   
   
7. Who was arrested Sunday and then released?
   
   Was anybody? Who would have been at the office on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year's?
   
   
8. Have other arrests been made?
   
   None of the appropriate people, so far!
   
   
9. Were other search warrants executed prior to Sunday's action?
   
   As I recall there were, and also a couple of "polite requests" were made to "important" individuals, too special to serve search warrants on.
   
   
10. Have any criminal charges been laid in either investigation?
    
    Eventually three minor fall guys were charged.
    
    
11. If so, when and against whom?
    
    Basi, Basi and Virk, almost a year later
    
    
12. Does the government know more than the public is being told?
    
    DUH!
    
    
13. How is the suspension of Victoria police officer Ravinder Dosanjh linked to this investigation?
    
    I don't know, you tell me!
    
    
14. Why would RCMP spokesman Sergeant John Ward choose a press conference on the raids at the legislature to say that "organized crime is a cancer eating away at the social and moral fabric of British Columbia"?
    
    Maybe to divert attention from the real issues and actual (as yet un-indicted) criminals?
    
    
15. Does the fact so many individuals have connections to the BC Rail deal mean anything?
    
    Again .......DUH!!!
    
    
16. Has the investigation uncovered evidence that government policies or decisions may have been illegally or inappropriately affected?
    
    It seems likely, but disclosure seems to be a foreign concept in the BC (in)Justice System
    
    
17. Were phones at the legislature or politicians' private phone lines tapped?
    
    Basi's cell, at least...........
    
    
18. Are there connections to Indo-Canadian gangs?
    
    Is/was Basi connected to Indo-Canadian gangs, other than by blood to his Indo-Canadian cousin who was recently sentenced to a long stretch in prison for being the king-pin of the Island drug trade -(almost secretly, as no one would have heard about this without the diligence of BC Mary).
    
    
19. Other criminal groups?
    
    Does the Gordon Campbell government count?
    
    
20. Does it mean anything that so many of the individuals have links to the federal Liberal party, Prime Minister Paul Martin's organizing team in B.C. and his leadership campaign?
    
    Nobody seems to want to go there (or anywhere, really)!
    
    
21. Why did a 20-month investigation come to a head on a Sunday between Christmas and New Year's?
    
    Perhaps somebody thought nobody would notice, they would all be home celebrating with family? Or perhaps the cops needed some super overtime to pay for Christmas? OK I give up, you tell me!
    
    
22. Why was Dave Basi fired and Bob Virk only suspended?
    
    This one always puzzled me, especially since Mr. CampBULL and his chief of staff knew NOTHING!
    
    
23. Why would the government fire someone who has not been charged with any crime?
    
    This is the same as 22, just worded differently, and I still don't know the answer.
    
    
24. Have the province's $28-billion operations been compromised?
    
    The whole province has been compromised since the Campbelloids came to power, so yes!
    
    
25. How long will this investigation cast a shadow over B.C.?
    
    Almost six years so far AND COUNTING!
    
    
26. With so many unanswered questions, can the citizens of this province be confident in the government's ability to function effectively?
    
    I'm not, how about you - have you noticed how on top of things Ida Chong and Colon Handsome Sneer are looking lately? But that was sure a nice 1/2 million dollar party in Richmond earlier this year, sorry I wasn't invited.
    
    
27. Will this affair adversely affect the province's economy and reputation?
    
    What reputation - as the leading banana republic north of Nicaragua?
    
    

After publishing this eye-catching edition and asking the questions above, the drones of Canned Waste soon lost all interest in the Legislature Raids and the subsequent, still ongoing by fits and starts, kafkaesque legal farce that may or may not actually lead to a trial someday. Herr CEO Campbell has been re-elected twice with this cloud hanging over the head of him and his government. Of course with the help of the tax-payer funded propaganda machine, the Public Affairs Bureau, and the Liberal Campaign Firm otherwise known as CanWest/Global, this has joined all other important issues in BC as being irrelevant and unmentioned, especially during election campaigns.

If anyone has any answers to any of the questions above, please tell me about them in the comments. One reason I numbered them (they were un-numbered in the Sun) was to make it easier for folks to respond to individual questions, if they so chose. More recently it seems to me someone came up with a list of eighty some questions regarding this affair, and those too seem to be mostly unanswered. I really think the citizens of British Columbia deserve better and it is long past time for the Campbell Crime Family to live up to its claims of transparency and co-operate with the courts in disclosing information and complying with court orders for disclosure. It would also be nice to try and stop destroying potential evidence in a criminal case, it should go without saying.

 
 
 
Click on image at left to see the complete front page with other articles and advertisements.

Good Bye and
Good Riddance

When it was announced, shortly after our imaginary/issue free election that Justice Elizabeth Bennett was to be elevated to the BC Court of Appeal and the Patrick Dohm was of the opinion that not only did she have to abandon the ongoing travesty of justice that has been the BC Rail Trial but that he already had her replacement all picked out, I thought it was just one more affront to the people of BC. It had all the earmarks of an election victory gift from Stevie Harper to his brother in the neo-con blood, Gordo the Greedy.

But after the second ruling in a row that makes Bennett appear to be representing the interests of Mr. Kinsella more than those of justice or the people of BC I find it hard to discount the notion that no new judge could do worse on this case. My only thought about incoming Justice MacKenzie is that with her background in family (not criminal) law, her talents might be better utilized in sorting out our dear leder's complex family matrix, than a complicated case involving alleged criminal acts and complex business dealings after five years of evidence accumulating in the fashion of Chinese Water Torture.

Patrick Kinsella - about 100 years ago
photo - probably originally black and white and colourized by hand

I find it fascinating how shadowy are certain major players in the ongoing crime spree that we refer to as the BC liaR administration. Searching online for pictures of people like Lara Dauphinee, Ken Dobell, (in)Justice Elizabeth Bennett and Patrick Kinsella yield little or nothing. I have only seen three pictures published of Mr. Kinsella and unless I go to court (Appeal Court now) I will never have any idea what Elizabeth Bennett looks like. Earlier this spring we all went batty trying to find a photo of the elusive, but influential, Lara Dauphinee, apparently the true first lady of BC, both politically and in the black heart of Herr DickTater Gord. For this post though, maybe the photo of Mr. Kinsella at Hastings Park racetrack would have been more appropriate as it would be symbolic of the perfect tri-fecta that seems to be Mr. Kinsella.

There appears to be no doubt that Mr. Kinsella has worked for the Liberal Party of BC and Gordo the Greedball, BC Rail AND CN. Indeed the only question is did he actually work for all three or two of the above at the same time? It is accepted and not even denied that he ran the Gord campaigns in 2001 and 2005, and there is little doublt that he received $6,000 per month for almost three years from BC Rail for ???? Then in documents that have been painfully extracted through the constipated process that is disclosure in this trial there are numerous references to a relationship between CN and Mr. Kinsella. It seems very likely that we have here a double-or-triple dipper and what would appear to be an extremely high probability of conflict of interest SOMEWHERE. It is virtually indisputable that there is reasonable perception possible of conflict of interest - the threshold for further investigation in jurisdictions that are not banana republics with tin-pot dictators.

So for Justice Bennett to say (as Keith Fraser points out in the Province)

.... that the defence had produced nothing to prove that Kinsella played a major, political role in the sale.

is patently absurd after she had previously denied the defence the right to cross examine him. What would be sufficient to justify making him answer questions or produce documentation (both of which would erase the cloud of suspicion surrounding him, if indeed it is not deserved)? Would it be necessary to catch him, red handed, cashing pay cheques from the Liberally Lying Pary of BC, BC Rail AND CN at the same time. It is pretty hard to prove anything if you can't see any evidence or ask any questions of anyone in a position to know any answers. Of course then there is the issue of whether an oath means anything at all to people at a certain level of entitlelment and privilege.

From even deeper in Alice's rabbit hole, (according to the CTV website)

In her ruling, Justice Elizabeth Bennett said, "a third party has no legal obligation to assist an accused."

In just eleven words Madame Justice Liz manages to obfuscate, mislead and I think turn reality and justice on its head in more ways than I have the time to even contemplate. For starters the trial of Basi, Virk and Basi is ALL ABOUT the BC Rail deal, no matter how much Gordon Campbell would like us to believe otherwise. Mr. Kinsella AT THE VERY LEAST was consulting (or something!) for BC Rail during the time under examination here and BC RAIL WAS A PUBLIC ASSET at that time. Justice and the court system though framed in an adversarial process is SUPPOSED to be about truth and justice, and aside from the fact that I think it is a stretch to refer to Mr. Kinsella as a "third party" in this case, to testify or produce documents that even Justice Bennett herself at one time considered "likely relevant" is hardly "assisting the accused" as much as an effort to get at the truth of what happened. If the truth happens to help the defendants so be it. Of course the "Special Prosecutor" is supposed to represent the interests of the people of BC, not just the Premier of BC. We have to pay for all of the highly paid lawyers in this pretend trial/pre-trial so far - it would certainly seem only fair if AT LEAST ONE of them represented the interests of the public.

As Robin Matthews, the only person often in the courthouse for these hearings with the interests of the people of BC at heart, recently stated at BC Mary's, after Madame (in)Justice Bennett denied the defence request to cross-examine Mr. Kinsella:

In this case she might say the highly active Liberal, the clearly involved cabinet policy associate, the person employed to advise B.C. Rail, the twice election campaign manager for the Gordon Campbell forces cannot be deemed a private citizen in ordinary terms. To name him that would be an absurdity that no reasonable Canadian could accept.

So Goodbye Lizzie, don't let the door.........you know how it goes!