Sorry - overwhelmed with work but I was in Court for Roger McConchie's submission on behalf of MLA John van Dongen and will post an article sometime Thursday, as well as comments from van Dongen.
ORIGINAL POST:
An application by BC Auditor General John Doyle for access to government records regarding the $6 million payment of legal fees for the defence in the Basi-Virk/BC Legislature Raid case continued to be heard today in BC Supreme Court.
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| Lawyer Roger McConchie and BC Conservative MLA John van Dongen outside BC Supreme Court hearing - Bill Tieleman photo |
That $1 billion privatization led to an unprecedented police raid on the BC Legislature and a lengthy pre-trial hearing that I covered extensively, followed by an abbreviated trial that ended after only two witnesses testified - when Basi and Virk suddenly pled guilty after years of declaring their innocence.
Zivot's 113-page affidavit is a lengthy examination of both the BC Auditor General Act and other Canadian legislation regarding the powers of auditors general and their ability to obtain the information necessary for audits.
"The Auditor General must be able to obtain such record as to be reasonably informed on these matters," Zivot argued before Chief Justice Robert Bauman.
Former BC Liberal Solicitor General John van Dongen - who quit the party to become the BC Conservatives only MLA - is attending the application and has intervenor status. His lawyer Roger McConchie - hired at van Dongen's personal expense - is expected to make his arguments on Wednesday morning.
Van Dongen said in an interview with me Monday that he is unhappy with the BC Liberal government's steadfast refusal to release documents sought by the Auditor General.
"It's very frustrating - That's one of the reason's why I applied for intervenor status," van Dongen said.
The hearing is expected to continue through Friday in courtroom 32.
5 comments:
Hopefully the court will agree with the auditor general so he can do the job he is paid to do.
"...the Auditor General says his office needs to examine the reasons why former BC Liberal ministerial aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk had their legal bills of $6 million over several years paid despite pleading guilty to breach of trust and fraud over leaking confidential documents to lobbyists for a bidder for BC Rail in 2003."
Isn't it obvious? The sharks, Bolton, Hatcher and McCollough are rewarded for all of their delay tactics while the unctuos power brokers and their political puppets escape public scrutiny and retribution.
"And how not one mainstream media outlet had anyone covering anything. Never mind the specifics of the court proceedings (which are always very dry), there wasn’t a soul looking at the issues raised. Although 24 hours’ Bill Tieleman was there Monday and CKNW’s Bob Mackin was there both days." AGT
And why has the MSM taken French leave?
Why has the MSM taken French leave? When you're complicit in the alleged coverup of course the best tactic is to ignore. We've been watching the MSM do this since 2001. What's new?
This is "not" what Taxpayers should be paying for. Obviously the "Government" also known as the Liberal party should not be lumped together, in this.
Using "taxpayer" resources to "prevent oversight" of "financial matters" by a serving government "appears" unethical and self serving,in my opinion.
The "reality" is that a serving government is made up up those that are employed by the province to work in government and those that are elected to the position or appointed by those in power.
The Auditor General is not being "allowed" to do his job by the "serving party" in power.
This goes against what "democracy" is supposed to be. The people have the right to know, how their money is spent or mis-spent. This is not an issue of internal government security, or national security. It is an issue of whether or not a "serving government" can prevent the oversight of an appointed Auditor, to look at how Taxpayer resources are handled.
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