Basi-Virk Special Prosecutor Janet Winteringham gave BC Supreme Court Justice Anne MacKenzie the Crown's list of 44 witnesses it intends to call in the corruption trial of three former BC Liberal government aides on Wednesday.
David Basi, Bob Virk and Aneal Basi all face trial beginning May 17 in connection with the $1 billion privatization of BC Rail in 2003. A police raid on the BC Legislature on December 28, 2003 was the first sign to the public of the major political scandal.
Former BC Liberal Finance Minister Gary Collins and former Transportation Minister Judith Reid, the current Chief of Staff to Premier Gordon Campbell - Martyn Brown, former BC Rail Chair John McLernon, federal Liberal Party operative Mark Marissen, former BC Liberal government deputy ministers Ken Dobell and Brenda Eaton, and former railway company executives among others.
The Crown's key witnesses, former BC lobbyists Erik Bornmann and Brian Kieran, are also listed.
The Globe and Mail's Rod Mickleburgh has a good report on the jury selection and witness list.
A publication ban continues on reporting any pre-trial hearings or evidence given in the absence of the jury, which has now been chosen.
The Province's Keith Fraser reports that MacKenzie said the trial should last six weeks but may go an extra two weeks into mid-July if necessary.
I am travelling this week and was unable to attend the jury selection process.
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10 comments:
Bill,
Sorry you missed the action in court.
Can you find out why the complete list of witnesses has not been made public?
Make it easier on the Crown and the Court officers just use the entire Liberal Party of Canada in BC executive list from 1997-2004 that should give you a fine collection of expert testimony.
Only problem will be 50% of them will quickly move to a Central American country that does not have an extradition treaty with Canada.
The GREAT SATAN
And finally, as Special Prosecutor reports go, the former Solicitor General John Les will have his name cleared of any wrong doing simply because there was far too much land being stolen from the Agricultural Land Reserve at the same time, to now have the Agriculture Land Commission single out any one individual being more complicit than any other except for city hall employees in Abbotsford and Chilliwack.
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/More+than+Chilliwack+properties+improperly+subdivided+probe+finds/2964935/story.html
Vancouver Sun Jonathan Fowlie
"More than 60 Chilliwack properties improperly subdivided, probe finds
Land co-owned by former mayor John Les among parcels singled out by report"
Speaking of... John Les...
More than 60 Chilliwack properties improperly subdivided
Land co-owned by former mayor John Les among parcels singled out by report
By Jonathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun - April 29, 2010.
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/More+than+Chilliwack+properties+improperly+subdivided/2966259/story.html
A question please Bill... If gordon the impaler is found guilty of involvment with the BC Rail fiasco, can he still rule from a jailcell? I suspect not.
Is it acceptable to you, Bill, to have such a nonsensical post (2:12 PDT) about the federal Liberal Party executive?
Although it must have been put there somewhat in jest, there hasn't been a single member of that executive named on the witness list that we know of - it appears that the list centers around provincial officials, other than Mark Marrissen who was the federal Liberal campaign chairman.
So what GREAT SATAN is doing is not just jesting, but smearing a group of people.
In the interests of proper and correct discussion, I think you should remove it.
Regarding 'The List' which was, based on Mr. Mickleburgh's report, read in open court with the jury present (and thus is not subject to the pre-trial publication ban) I have started to assemble the known knowns at my place, here....
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to ANON 3:27pm
So you don't like what I have to say about the LPC/BC Exec well . . .
Actually I know more on this subject than you think or you certainly could ever have known.
And Bill knows exactly what I speak of.
Not all of LPC/BC was dirty in those years but a lot of good Grits closed their eyes and ears to the Martinite abuses, frequently out of fear or the desire for patronage.
So either way a lot of things Gritty were witnessed that should come out and not be hidden away.
So my answer to ANON 3:27 is . . . "ONLY THE GUILTY KNOW FEAR" !
The GREAT SATAN
I attended court on during the jury selection and will post a comment regarding the over 40 witness called by the Special Prosecutor.
To Anon 3:27PDT - you are being presumptious in your comment. how do you know what witnesses the Defence will be calling.....?
I understand that Bruce Clark is also named as a witness by the Special Prosecutor and he also was a member of the Federal Liberal executive during the period the GREAT SATAN writes.
One of the things you missed was the crown objecting to any Indo-Cdn potential jurors. Apparently you can't racially profile at the airport but you can in court.
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