Monday, June 18, 2012

BASI-VIRK: Auditor-General application to obtain government documents for inquiry into $6 million legal indemnity granted despite guilty pleas put off to September 10 in BC Supreme Court

Bill Tieleman interviews Dave Basi outside BC Supreme Court
An application by BC Auditor-General John Doyle to obtain government documents requested to complete his inquiry into $6 million legal indemnity granted to ex-government aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk has been put off to September 10 in BC Supreme Court.

Doyle is trying to determine why Basi and Virk - former BC Liberal government ministerial aides closely involved in the 2003 BC Rail privatization who made surprise guilty pleas in October 2010 shortly after their trial on breach of trust charges had begun - were still given an indemnity for their legal fees.

The BC government has refused to turn over some documents requested by Doyle, which led to his court application.

The Basi-Virk/BC Rail scandal erupted after an unprecedented police raid on the BC Legislature on December 28, 2003 - just a month after the $1 billion sale of BC Rail to CN Rail. 

Basi and Virk protested their innocence through a multi-year pre-trial hearing plagued by difficulties for the defence to gain access to evidence against the pair but ultimately both pled guilty on October 18, 2010 after just two witnesses had testified - and with both former and current cabinet ministers expected to take the witness stand in a lengthy trial.

Most recently BC Conservative Party MLA John van Dongen - a former BC Liberal Solicitor-General who quit the party in March - successfully filed an application for intervenor status at the upcoming hearing. 

Van Dongen is personally paying for his lawyer Roger McConchie to represent him at the hearing, to be held by BC Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman.

Van Dongen says his role as a former cabinet minister will allow him to give a different perspective to the court than that of the Auditor-General - who is an independent officer of the BC Legislature.

"My involvement as an intervener will be to present a perspective that is a little bit different from the auditor-general in that I'm a legislator representing the interest of British Columbians," van Dongen said outside court on June 1.

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26 comments:

Anonymous said...

why ?

RossK said...

Was a reason/rationale provided for the further 'putting-off' of the decision?

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Bill Tieleman said...

The "amicus curiae" or friend of the court - Michael Frey - has asked for more time to review the application.

Frey is in court for "unrepresented interests" and opposed John van Dongen's intervener status application.d

The delay received the consent of all parties, as I understand it.

DPL said...

The public have waited for quite a long time and another delay is a bit of a pain. So this fall the taxpayers may find out why the policy was changed for those two guys.The closer it gets to the next election the worse it will be for Ms. Clark and her friends

RossK said...

Thanks Bill.

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Ron1 said...

Van Dongen - as a cabinet minister - was complicit in the BC Fiberal BC Rail Basi-Verk scandal cover-up.

I wonder if there will be further delays so that the truth the Auditor General is seeking is hidden up to and over provincial election time?

Ron S. said...

The LIbERalS are of course delaying and by doing so, make themselves appear more guilty. Shakespears "The lady doth protest too much" is applicable in this case.

Keep up delaying Crusty, it's not much longer until your history anyway.

gbinvictoria said...

Disgusting. Court challenges, delays and FOI blackouts are synonymous with the Liberal brand for the past decade. When Karma has its way there surely will be a cleansing of this bunch.

Isn't John Doyle's re-appointment term coming near? Hopefully, it is not until the NDP get in who will surely retain him.

Can John Van Dongen bring forward some information in the meantime before September?

Anonymous said...

The LIbERalS are of course delaying and by doing so, make themselves appear more guilty. Shakespears "The lady doth protest too much" is applicable in this case.

What makes you think it is soely the Liberals a opposed to legal procedure as Bill as noted?

You obviously didn't read Bill's line:

"The delay received the consent of all parties, as I understand it."


Read Bill's blog for an overview and left wing whining and perpetual
crying and bawling over waiting for the NDP to arrive.

Read Tsakumis for the detail and right wing analysis and agreement to what has been found so far on this sordid disgusting story while they wait for the NDP to start the inquiry

Anonymous said...

It is criminal and scandelous that the people of this great province have to be subjected to this dog and pony show by Christy and gang of thieves. Read what Warren Kinsella has to say about her. Finally the MSM has seen through this phony baloney. The people were way ahead of them we knew what she was about long ago. Time to clean house.

Anonymous said...

The BC Liberal Ministers, didn't lift a finger to stop Campbell's theft and sale of the BCR. And the theft and sale of the priceless Real Estate that went with it. Even though Campbell's election lie of him promising, the BCR wasn't for sale. The Minister all backed Campbell to the nth degree.

The tax payer's $6 million, is paltry compared to the theft of, an entire railroad and the Real Estate. Basi/Virk said, if they kept their mouths shut, they would be taken care of, and indeed they were, with our money. We want our thieved BCR back.

We want Campbell's second election lie, returned to us as well. We don't forget Harper's part in the BC HST scam either.

kootcoot said...

The BeeCee Liberal motto:

Delay, Deny and Despoil (the province)!

Anonymous said...

That should be lie,deny and act surprised when caught.
The fist thing on the NDP agenda is to make sure all and any political Liebrel maleficence is punished to the max.
CGHZD

Anonymous said...

Delay, Deny and Despoil (the province)!

Not bad.

NDP motto:

"What we wish for ourselves, we wish for all"

WOnder if that applies to those who can actually join Crown Corporation boards on the basis of their academic and business backgrounds rather than their NDP background.

Probably not. The level of NDP involvement will be 80% of the pass or fail grade.

Anonymous said...

Want another reason to extinguish the B.C. Liberal Party?
CLBC or Community Living B.C. It's so damn corrupt that even Global B.C. had to expose it.
Cutting back on helping these disabled, then offering serious pay increases after Crispy said she'd look into it.
Scum.
Yet another reason to kick all Lib Mla's to the curb.
Mr. Tielman, you need to investigate this.

Anonymous said...

"Want another reason to extinguish the B.C. Liberal Party?"

Not really, there's enough reasons out there already. Don't really need another one. Jsut another log on top of burning logs on the fire.

CLBC or Community Living B.C. It's so damn corrupt that even Global B.C. had to expose it.
Cutting back on helping these disabled, then offering serious pay increases after Crispy said she'd look into it.
Scum.
Yet another reason to kick all Lib Mla's to the curb.

Well that's been around since last year. You're a bit late for that.

Mr. Tielman, you need to investigate this.

What for? Investigation by a left wing blog left wing blog owner isn't going to add anything of value to the premise to remove the Liberals from office. That's already a given.

Besides as bad as it is, it's probably linked back to the contracts that were signed.

The NDP will be bound by employment contracts once they receive the keys to the Premier's Office.

The big difference is that assuming they are smart and will not go for huge severance payouts, go for performance based raises, and not write out lucrative contract deals for their friends and insiders.

I wouldn't bet a Canucks Pre-Season ticket on that happening.

Grant G said...

Bill T..It`s unfortunate that you allow this troll to ruin comment threads.

It`s annoying, even worse it`s childish, the troll is angry..

Yes there will be NDP friends appointed, what new Government would leave failed appointments to stay on.

Bill, if that Troll cut n pasted once per thread, ok, but over and over again..

Guess I`ll stick to just reading the articles.

And you can bet he`ll cut n paste this comment and prove once again that babyboys are allowed access to the library computer.

Good Day

Anonymous said...

Wondering why it is okay for NDP friends to be appointed rather than let's say let's forget about appointing NDP friends and appoint on the basis of academic or occupational merit?

Seems that Grant G is headed quickly to hypocrisy.

There is a need for M.A's the Premier Office and E.A's to Caucus people to be political, but beyond that and into Crown Corporations and others such as BC Ferries, appointing for purely political reasons is un-nessesary.

And let's make sure that paid appointments are not given plush contracts with over the top severance pay outs.

Let's see if the New Democrats can be New in government.

Also in regards to Grant G, his condescending attitude towards contrary opinions is comical.

This blog would be boring if it was just "I love the NDP" commentary all the time.

Grant G said...

That`s where you are wrong, I love debate, good debate that is..

Not cut n pasters who soul(sole) purpose is to annoy while adding nothing in the way of original thought.

And yes, 200 members of PAB need to be removed and replaced with 20 new writers(yes 20, not 200)


Mr. Troll, agree, disagree, just don`t annoy by cutting and plastering(pasting)...

Heck, you can even remind us of memo-gate, fast ferries, anything, we can take it..

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Grant, you wouldn't know good debate if you saw it.

As far as PAB goes, it's not needed clean it out, take it out to the waters off Metchosin and dump it.

Contract the PAB to something like Now Commuications if the NDP wants to pork out to its supporters. If the NDP is going to pork out to its supporters, sheesh, borrow a page from the federal Liberals and get it right.

and no need to remind about memo-gate etc. etc.

There's the little matter of Geoff Meggs, and Constance Barns (if she - a convicted drunk driver -) wins the nomination.

Both will set off expensive civic by-elections if they win expectedly in the 2013 election.

Thik they will offset that cost? Wouldn't bet a free two hour dinner with Premier Adrian Dix with John Horgan as a side disk on that one.

Heck in this blog its rare you read any original thought. It's usually the same thing on different tangents. The easiest example is [ name of contentious issue here ] means election now.

Big deal. It's wearing thin. It's just another log to put on the fire burning in the BC Liberal Caucus.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Hi Bill...its amazing that this gong show continues, from one episode to another. The obvious breach of trust, criminal intent, lack of respect for the public not to mention coverups, obstruction and delays of "process". We have to allow the "public" to know how and where their money is spent. Not to mention, who really benefits from this government's largess...it sure is "not" the public. The BC Liberals have racked up the biggest deficit, in BC history!

As for the "friends of the court" comment...the "public", should demand intervenor status! We have the right, to know and the right to prosecute and jail, those who seek to subvert our democracy, for their own ends.

This crap ends here with the BC Libs, fill the jails if you have to. The public has had enough, of this corrupt "regime".

Anonymous said...

http://2010goldrush.blogspot.ca/2012/06/liquorleaks-curious-about-george.html

Anonymous said...

Enough of this corrupt regime. Agree.

Wait until the next one arrives.

Be here when it does.

kootcoot said...

I usually try to avoid feeding trolls but couldn't ignore this:

"There's the little matter of Geoff Meggs, and Constance Barns (if she - a convicted drunk driver -) wins the nomination."

I assume the troll means that Constance is overqualified to be an MLA and should be premier instead!

Anonymous said...

She would be far more qualified than your friend Gordon Campbell was koot in regards to drunk driving. Her little "accident" caused property damage.

Plus also consider if she does win the election next year, she will set off an expensive by-election.

She (and the NDP) will not compensate the City of Vancouver for that.

Care to defend that? She could have waited it out (she was elected in the civic elections last year) and saved Vancouver taxpayers the expense. Same for Geoff Meggs who has the genius idea that people will bike to work in cold November rains.

Yep, a real good candidate for Premier.

Much worse than an old radio talk show host.

plasterer sutton said...

plasterer sutton
I`m not worried about it, it came too me last night, the people, families, seniors, students, they are silently terrified of the BC Liberals...

They know the Christy Gordon Campbell Clark Liberals must be removed from power, the HST referendum will be won easy...If we lose it will be through fraud..

The biggest risk for the BC Liberals is they win the referendum.