Saturday, September 26, 2009

BASI-VIRK - BC Supreme Court session 9 a.m. Wednesday September 30, October 13 & more

An update for those who follow the Trial That Never Begins - also known as Basi-Virk, the BC Legislature Raid and Railgate.

Defence lawyers and Special Prosecutors will convene in open court on Wednesday September 30 at 9 a.m. for a pre-trial conference meeting with the new judge replacing Justice Elizabeth Bennett - Justice Anne MacKenzie.

The session will not likely last beyond one hour.

Then on Tuesday October 13 pre-trial motions resume at 10 a.m.

In other Basi-Virk news, Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason threw out a few unsourced tid-bits of some interest on Thursday.

Most potentially interesting, Mason says: "Apparently, there are former government officials willing to testify that Mr. Kinsella was working for CN Rail at the same time he was working for BC Rail."

Mason also reports that: "The court now has a document that suggests Pilothouse officials received detailed information about the BC Rail sale from a cabinet meeting, which was not attended by Mr. Basi or Mr. Virk. We may soon learn the identity of the cabinet minister suspected to be the source of that information."


Lastly, Mason says that Forests Minister Pat Bell and Petroleum Resources Minister Blair Lekstrom will both be a focus in pre-trial hearings because they were in contact as backbench MLAs with Pilothouse Public Affairs during the BC Rail bid process.


Pilothouse lobbyists Erik Bornmann and Brian Kieran are both Crown witnesses against David Basi and Bob Virk, who they are alleged to have provided benefits in exchange for confidential government information. Only Basi and Virk face corruption charges.


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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bill the most interesting part of that story was the reference to Pilothouse documents that were read in court. These documents were referenced by Justice Bennett when she ordered the government to disclose emails from key cabinet ministers and MLAs.

To quote Mason, "The court now has a document that suggests Pilothouse officials received detailed information about the BC Rail sale from a cabinet meeting..."

I wonder if the government will pursue any action against a past cabinet minister to find out if someone was indeed leaking information to Kieran and Bornmann.

The coverup er, trial continues.

Ron said...

The Campbell Liberals are responsible for more cover-ups than a mosquito in a nudist's colony.

I think that December 28, 2009 should be declared Fiberal Cover-Up Day as we will be celebrating the 6th anniversary of the only police raid on a legislature in the history of the British parliamentary system.

A Festival of Fiberal Lies, Half-Truths and Cover-Ups could be held in the front of the legislature that day to launch the SEVENTH year of deceit.

B.C.'s favourite rock group, "Gordon Campbell and the Deceivers", could headline the event.

Following the advice of our brilliant Education minister that high school athletes could walk or dance in the park rather than participate in high school regional or provincial competitions, I am designing Morris Dancer costumes for El Gordo, Rich Coleman, Kevin Falcon and Kash Heed.

Imagine the impact on student athletes as they see these role models - with their flowing handkerchiefs and tinkling bells as they dance around a Maypole - show how much more exciting Morris Dancing is than participating in athletic competitions.

Perhaps this Morris Dance group could also display their skills at the Fiberal Festival?

Brendan said...

During the ongoing Budget Debate at the Legislature, Minister of Citizens' Services (Ben Stewart) faced a number of questions from Doug Routley. He mistakenly referred to the Document Disposal Act as the Document Destruction Act and was corrected by Routley. You'd think Stewart would know this.

I noticed it and wondered what Vaughn Palmer had to say about it in his column the next day. I hadn't noticed but Palmer reported that after being corrected Stewart still got it wrong. 6 times? Was the Minister just too used to secretive references to the destroyed, I mean disposed e-mails?

Skookum1 said...

Funding for Morris dancing was cut with other cultural funding, LONG before cuts were made to athletic funding.... maybe corporate sponsorship would help? "The Accenture-Maximus-CN Gordon Campbell Morris Dancing Troupe"? Oh wait, we've got that already....

So let me get this straight - "Pilothouse officials" got amnesty from prosecution for fingering Basi, Virk and Basi alone despite their own collusion with a cabinet minister that had nothing to do with these guys? Isn't bearing false witness some kind of crime? "Well, we did all this bad stuff with a bunch of people, but the only three/four your should investigate are the fall guys" ..... "And by the way, can we get off the hook if we claim that only these guys were guilty of all the stuff we pulled??"

They got blanket amnesty right? Or only for the things the cops already know they did? What about stuff found out since (like this)?

DPL said...

Since we are well off the subject I'll go farther. seems the new on line gambling set up is very slanted against the gambler. So our benevelent government has cut funding from the troubled gambler program. Heck they get to clean out their bank account, sell the car, the condo, and Gordo and crew collect more profit.

Anonymous said...

Bill: Was that Bornmann character successful in his case to become an Ontario lawyer with good character? Now there's an oxymoron if I ever did hear one.