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
- What triggered this investigation?
- How closely linked is the drug investigation led by federal prosecutor Robert Prior to the investigation led by special prosecutor William Berardino?
- What if anything is the link between drugs, organized or commercial crime to staff in the B.C. legislature?
- To the federal Liberal party?
- Who are the nine people recently arrested and why have none of them been charged?
- What premises were searched on Sunday?
- Who was arrested Sunday and then released?
- Have other arrests been made?
- Were other search warrants executed prior to Sunday's action?
- Have any criminal charges been laid in either investigation?
- If so, when and against whom?
- Does the government know more than the public is being told?
- How is the suspension of Victoria police officer Ravinder Dosanjh linked to this investigation?
- 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"?
- Does the fact so many individuals have connections to the BC Rail deal mean anything?
- Has the investigation uncovered evidence that government policies or decisions may have been illegally or inappropriately affected?
- Were phones at the legislature or politicians' private phone lines tapped?
- Are there connections to Indo-Canadian gangs?
- Other criminal groups?
- 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?
- Why did a 20-month investigation come to a head on a Sunday between Christmas and New Year's?
- Why was Dave Basi fired and Bob Virk only suspended?
- Why would the government fire someone who has not been charged with any crime?
- Have the province's $28-billion operations been compromised?
- How long will this investigation cast a shadow over B.C.?
- With so many unanswered questions, can the citizens of this province be confident in the government's ability to function effectively?
- Will this affair adversely affect the province's economy and reputation?
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.
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!
Does the rigged auction of BC Rail count as commercial crime and how about members of the B. C. Legislature rather than staff?
People had been arrested already by Friday?
Let's see, wasn't it Mark Marissen/Christy Clark's? and maybe Pilot House, but who knows for sure
Was anybody? Who would have been at the office on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year's?
None of the appropriate people, so far!
As I recall there were, and also a couple of "polite requests" were made to "important" individuals, too special to serve search warrants on.
Eventually three minor fall guys were charged.
Basi, Basi and Virk, almost a year later
DUH!
I don't know, you tell me!
Maybe to divert attention from the real issues and actual (as yet un-indicted) criminals?
Again .......DUH!!!
It seems likely, but disclosure seems to be a foreign concept in the BC (in)Justice System
Basi's cell, at least...........
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).
Does the Gordon Campbell government count?
Nobody seems to want to go there (or anywhere, really)!
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!
This one always puzzled me, especially since Mr. CampBULL and his chief of staff knew NOTHING!
This is the same as 22, just worded differently, and I still don't know the answer.
The whole province has been compromised since the Campbelloids came to power, so yes!
Almost six years so far AND COUNTING!
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.
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.
posted by kootcoot at 8:30 AM
10 Comments:
Robert Prior, after 2006, had closer ties with his Federal Minister (Liberal during the raid on the Legislature). If there was a viable connection between the Basi Boys and the insider BC Rail info trading for plum federal jobs...... it sounds like Mr. Prior good intentions would have been snipped at the bud.
Source of quote: "Reform Brings about Changes Reform Brings about Changes" - http://www.icclr.law.ubc.ca/china_ccprcp/files/Presentations%20and%20Publications/40%20Reform%20Brings%20about%20Changes_English.pdf
"The PPSC is now independent of the Department of Justice."
"Mr. Prior said, “Crown counsels prosecute on behalf of the Minister of Justice/Attorney General. You can see how far we were from him in the old system. If we wanted to get his attention on a particular issue, we had to go through many levels, which more or less held up our efforts. Even if our request or report did eventually reach the minister, we might not be able to achieve the desired result since the minister is a political figure with limited office terms, and he or she may be influenced by the Cabinet. That was not good for the prosecution services.”"
Are my eyes tricking me, do I see each question labelled with Number 1?
The fact that Mark Marissen and Christy Clark's home was NOT searched is a matter of public record.
The RCMP came to see Marissen without a search warrant, but with a signed letter that said that he was not a subject of the investigation, and that he was simply the "innocent recipient" of documents.
See http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=6611281e-d916-4335-a77d-6ca1a05d2a55
Thanks, Koot, for memories of the day that changed our lives in B.C.
The Van. Sun article on Bruce Clark, mentioned in the banner headline at the top of the famous page of 27 questions. Haven't found it yet but noted this bit, from some CBC background info:
Dec. 28, 2003 - RCMP and Victoria police execute nine search warrants at seven locations across the province, including two offices in the B.C. legislature.
The locations include:
Dave Basi's office in the legislature and his home in Victoria.
The legislature office of Bob Virk.
The offices of Erik Bornman and Brian Kieran, of the Pilothouse Public Affairs Group, which has close Liberal connections.
The Vancouver home office of Bruce Clark, Prime Minister Paul Martin's chief fundraiser on the West Coast
Police also visit the offices in Port Moody of Mark Marissen, Martin's campaign manager in B.C. Police say Marissen might be the "innocent recipient" of key documents.
At about the same time the rental house in Shawingan Lake is raided, police say it was a marijuana grow-op.
Anon at 9:26, if you see each question numbered with a 1, it is probably your browser tricking you. But since you seem to be using I.E 8, I'm not surprised. The bolded questions are marked up in HTML as an ordered list which defaults to numbers in order. The default can be over ridden by calling for various types of bullet points or even starting on a different number and/or counting by twos, or tens or whatever.
But Bill Gates puts out some pretty retarded software - and different browsers display the same tags differently - My older I.E., new and old FireFox, current Opera and Chrome all display the numbers in order on the bolded questions 1-27. You could ask BC Mary if Safari can read an ordered list properly. Maybe the newest Internet Explorer doesn't like to display numbers larger than the number of fingers and toes its users have.
For the Mr. Christy Clark defender (anon at 11:29), I would like to point out that "......RCMP visited Marissen in 2003," and they were interested in some documents that he may have received. I'm pretty certain I even pointed out that he WAS NOT served with a search warrant.
My point was and is that certain people were "cleared" for no fathomable reason, the RCMP trip to Hawaii to interview Ferret Collins and CEO Campbell was squelched by someone - and did anyone ever interview Judith Reid, the soon to also resign Minister of Transport at the time? - Ms. Reid appears to have taken up being the invisible woman these days.
It seems to me that some people decided who was guilty and who was clean, with no facts to support their choices and with a government, special prosecutor and RCMP hell-bent on hiding and/or destroying evidence it is somewhat lacking in class to accuse anyone of uttering false statements. With no evidence one can only speculate, and of course people with nothing to hide, usually DON'T HIDE STUFF!
One day Gary "ferret" Collins is the subject of massive surveillance at dinner in Vancouver. Then a few days after the raid on his offices no one can be bothered to fly to Maui to ask him a question or two even though the trip had been arranged. Then Sgt. Ward can somehow state that unequivocally no elected member is involved - I think he meant "WE WONT'T EVEN CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY THAT AN ELECTED OFFICIAL COULD BE INVOLVED. In other words, the Campbell Crime Family all hold "get out of jail free" cards from community chest!
21. Why did a 20-month investigation come to a head on a Sunday between Christmas and New Year's?
I think, yes, partly because "somebody thought nobody would notice" but also because somebody knew somebody would be out of the country for sure at that time....and that same somebody knew somebody wanted to create a sense of "distance" from "the main event". Just guessing but it was probably the same somebody that told Sgt. Ward to say there was no elected members of government involved when nobody could possibly have known if that was true or not in those early days of the errrr....."investigation".
lynn, re: question 21 - your suggestions seem pretty reasonable to me - perhaps someone could share any information that would prove otherwise. Of course that would disturb the cone of silence and obfuscation.
An awful, awful lot of questions cluster around the timing ... like,
the raid wasn't a surprise to the government. It may have shocked the bejapers out of British Columbians but it was known to the Campbell gang to be on the horizon for almost a month before 28 Dec. 2003.
I've often wondered if Basi or Virk knew ... somehow, I don't think so.
But certainly the government knew. And that throws a whole new colour onto the question of so many difficulties with missing documents.
And shouldn't somebody request a Missing Person investigation of former Minister of Transportation Judith Reid?
.
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.
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