David Basi, centre, Aneal Basi, right & Bob Virk, farther right, face media after their trial suddenly ended with a plea bargain - Bill Tieleman photo RCMP officer denies force wanted Basi-Virk material destroyed
Exclusive interview with 24 hours newspaper
By BILL TIELEMAN
24 hours Vancouver/QMI AGENCY
A lead RCMP investigator in the political corruption trial of two ex-B.C. Liberal government ministerial aides strongly denies claims the force wants material disclosed to the defence destroyed to frustrate a possible public inquiry.
Superintendent Kevin deBruyckere said in an exclusive interview with 24 hours that allegations the RCMP wants to get back information disclosed to lawyers for David Basi and Bob Virk in order to make it disappear are totally false.
“It’s nonsense. It’s just ridiculous,” de Bruyckere said. “The Crown discloses material and at the end of the trial recovers that material.”
Basi friend Mike Geoghegan claimed last week police were pressuring Basi to cooperate with what he said is their intention to regain trial materials in his possession and destroy it.
But deBruyckere flatly rejects that.
“There’s lots of material given through disclosure to these guys that they have no right to have,” he said.
If a public inquiry is called, the over one million pages of government and police documents disclosed will still be available, deBruyckere said.
“The disclosure material stays on our file for the legislated retention period, which in this case is at least 10 to 12 years, before any consideration is given to destruction of records,” he said.
A veteran Vancouver lawyer agrees that returning disclosure material is standard practice.
“On a general basis, the defence sometimes provides an express undertaking to return disclosure materials at the conclusion of a criminal matter,” said David Layton. “This sort of undertaking is not unusual in cases involving sensitive material.”
Basi and Virk made a surprise guilty plea bargain last month, admitting to fraud and breach of trust charges and receiving two year less a day house arrest sentences for leaking confidential government documents in the $1 billion sale of B.C. Rail to lobbyists for a bidder.
The government also agreed to pay their $6 million defence fees charged since the investigation became public in December 2003 with an unprecedented police raid on the B.C. Legislature.
Basi’s lawyer Michael Bolton declined comment on the issue.
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14 comments:
The cbc has still disabled comments on all stories. Has anyone heard why yet?
This was one of the few democratic places to exchange ideas available to Canadians. It would be a blow to democracy if Harper and Company shut it down.
Strange case continues with the request for return of documents.
With the wiretap calls with former cabinet ministers, the RCMP investigation into Media Monitoring contracts from the BC Liberal party and documents relating to possible leadership contenders for the BC Liberals I can understand who the RCMP wants to protect.
As an aside, I wonder who Kevin Debruyckere's brother in law, Kelly Reichert, will be supporting?
cbc is back...
'This was one of the few democratic places to exchange ideas available to Canadians. It would be a blow to democracy if Harper and Company shut it down."
It would be more amazing if the poster would make an appointment to find a remediation for his or her paranoia.
“It’s nonsense. It’s just ridiculous,” de Bruyckere said. Is he referring to the "Do Not Disclose" memo that involves his brother inlaw Kelly Reichart? The memo that details the chat Reichart had with Campbell about the investigation?
What a joke!! This de Bruyckere is so full of it he doesn't even know the truth anymore. When you had him on the phone Bill you should have asked him about the reliability of the rcmp's document storage policy. Isn't this the same rcmp that was severely chastized by Justice Bennett and forced to disclose millions of pages of information that they swore they had already disclosed? Thank God for the "Do Not Disclose" memo. If we didn't have that we would have to rely on the honest upstanding rcmp!!
Sorry folks.
Nobody stepped up to try for intervenor status - all bets are off on what happens to those disclosed materials now.
"It would be more amazing if the poster would make an appointment to find a remediation for his or her paranoia."
...because the Feds would never try to influence the CBC...never.
It's nice to see the documents won't be destroyed. It's alarming to see how much of the documents is vetted by the government. Why vetted? It's our money and we own it. All of it should be available to those who want to see it. How can the sale of public assets be harmful? Unless they mean the people who made the decisions. Then it should be available so we can make them defende their decisions. As I previoiusly stated, they were our assests and we have a right to see how and why they were sold off.
Booorrrinng. Returning materials from disclosure is standard practice, huh? I wasn't aware of that but you did confirm that with someone from the legal profession, right? Materials from not only trials but all legal discussions are kept on file for varying amounts of time depending on the nature of the correspondence and/or litigation. That is also standard practice. So if everything is happening the way it always does, what's your beef? Did you just want to whine about your precious case you've "been following" or are you actually concerned about our legal system? Given your desire to seek positive change, my bet is on whining.
Zoozie 5:12 p.m.
I am glad that Bill took the trouble to contact the RCMP to check out "the usual procedure" in cases that may be almost as sensitive as this case is.This is the PUBLIC BUSINESS of the people of B.C.especially when the trial was terminated so quickly and the terms were so odd.
In regard to this sale of B.C. Rail that was doing really, really well for the benefit of the population of B.C., you know...contributing to the gross provincial revenues that provide services to the general population, like health and education and the well being of those who are vulnerable;I believe this was a travesty of justice to the children of B.C.,let alone the adult citizens of this province to sell this railroad. Is it because it was sacrificed for the benefit of those who will use and benefit from "Gateway" to open up the heartland of our country to Asia-Pacific need for energy resources?
I myself contacted the RCMP by phone to ask them about what would happen to trial files of investigations they supplied to the Basi Virk court case once such were returned to them.
I was told that the procedure is to archive material like this.
I would encourage you too, Zoozie to ask more questions of those who are handling matters and our resources that are important to the people of this province! It is our right and responsibility to ask questions. This is a democracy in which those whose salaries are paid by the public taxpayer have a responsibility to provide transparency about their handling of our resources under the rule of Canadian Law.
The RCMP officer I spoke with was quite personable and carefully explained the general,usual procedure of handling such documents.
The "force" may not want to destroy them, really they have no reason to. It's not like there aren't worse issues to pick them apart on, so this isn't the worst on their list of "oops!"
But,nowhere does it state that they wouldn't destroy them on behalf of Campbell, whose orders they're very attentive to. And we all know Campbell would just like this whole issue to disappear from the history books, evidence and all. If Christy Clark takes over, I'd bet they're gone.
Sorry, I still do NOT trust that these documents will be held for future public inquiry. Legally held, or otherwise.
Am I on a different planet? There is nothing unusual going on but Bill and now Anon 6:33 seem to be getting freaked out about some conspiracy. Good on both of you for finding out what will happen to the trial material. But it isn't going to disappear so what's the problem? The only question I've got is why the defense is not permitted to have a copy of disclosed material for their file also, which will also be archived for a while unless there is further litigation. I suspect they are allowed to make a copy, which would render the question irrelevant, and that it's just a case of Bill's typical journalistic style of misleading his readers with his original story.
Zoozie sez:
"it's just a case of Bill's typical journalistic style of misleading his readers with his original story."
Which begs the question of why Zoozie hangs out here, to be misled? Perhaps you would feel less mislead at Rubbish without a Pause or that weinie Ezra Levant's blog.......(don't comment at either place unless you are suitably fawning to the proprietor)!
The RCMP had been asked, to further investigate, Campbell's corrupt sale of the BCR, they refused to do so. The RCMP wasn't on the best footing with the BC people then. The mistrust of the RCMP is their own doings. The same way Campbell isn't trusted nor believed. Citizens can only take so much, of lies, deceit, corruption and miscarriages of justice, such as De Jongs methods of handling, Campbell's corrupt sale of the BCR. There is no trust or faith in, the BC Liberals, nor, the RCMP. Campbell's corrupt sale of the BCR, was held in a corrupt court, presided over, by a corrupt judge. The out come of all of this garbage, was also corrupt. People aren't that stupid, not to see that. De Jong as premier, not on your Nelly, will he ever be trusted, by the BC citizens. He has been badly tainted by, Campbell's corrupt dirty tactics, else he wouldn't have done what he did, regarding the BCR fiasco.
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