BASI-VIRK: Wrangling over vetting and hints of techniques the RCMP wants kept secret

Slow plodding at vetting process in BC Legislature Raid case, with just a glimpses of something interesting that the RCMP wants hidden

There is not a lot to report from BC Supreme Court Tuesday or Wednesday as lawyers, prosecutors and Justice Elizabeth Bennett work through disclosure of evidence issues surrounding primarily RCMP documents that discuss their investigation and techniques.

But Wednesday morning W.P. Riley, a prosecutor representing the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, dropped a few hints of what the media and public are not allowed to see in this pre-trial hearing that will determine what evidence can be used to prosecute or defend three BC Liberal government aides charged with corruption regarding the $1 billion privatization of BC Rail.

Riley represents the interests of the RCMP in the court and was explaining to Bennett why the force wants to assert privilege over one of about 304 different documents.

"They are Crown assets - I can't say any more about it," Riley said.

"These are common techniques that anyone in the system knows of," Bennett replied.

"I'm not sure how common some of them are," Riley responded.

Riley added shortly afterwards that document "599" ferers to the technique itself and said he would discuss it with defence lawyers personally.

"I can explain it to my friend," he said, referring to Aneal Basi's lawyer Joe Doyle in the common language used for their fellow lawyers while in court.

"I just don't want to do it in open court," Riley concluded, which is, of course, where it can be reported unless a publication ban is in place.

There has been considerable controversy in a number of high profile murder cases about the use of so-called "Mr. Big" techniques where a suspected killer is befriended by RCMP officers posing as top crime bosses to gain the trust of the suspect. Those include the Burns-Rafay murder case,

There has not, however, been any suggestion that a "Mr. Big" was one of the RCMP techniques used in Project EveryWhichWay, as the investigation into David Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi was titled.

In Tuesday's session, which I was unfortunately absent for, I am reliably informed that there was a major battle over Riley's efforts to discuss the "relevance" of some RCMP documents, with defence lawyers strongly arguing that his role is limited to exerting "privilege" but not "relevance".

The always engaging Robin Mathews was present for the Tuesday morning session and his report can be found as usual at BC Mary's The Legislature Raids - a must-read, one-stop shop for the latest on Basi-Virk.