DEFENCE SEEKS DRUG INFORMANTS' REPORTS

Lawyers In Corruption Case Demand Documents

VANCOUVER - Defence lawyers representing three former government aides
accused of corruption want to get access to hundreds of reports
concerning 11 confidential informants who provided information to
police during a drug investigation.

The Vancouver Island drug investigation, codenamed Project
Everywhichway, targeted a criminal organization shipping kilograms of
cocaine to the Toronto area and sent back cash by courier.

Police learned during a wiretap operation that the alleged drug
ringleader was repeatedly calling Dave Basi in the summer of 2003.

At the time, Basi was the ministerial assistant to then-finance
minister Gary Collins. The man calling Basi was his cousin, court was
told earlier.

One of the confidential informants told police Basi was allegedly
laundering drug money for his cousin and was trying to get him a
government job.

Janet Winteringham, a member of the legal team prosecuting Basi and
co-accused Bob Virk, told the court Thursday there were 448 briefing
reports stemming from the 11 informants in the drug
investigation.

"It was three of those informants who provided information about Mr.
Basi," she explained.

The Crown has already disclosed to the defence 21 of the reports that
included information from the three informants, Winteringham said.

The remaining 427 reports weren't disclosed because they weren't
relevant, she said.

Police were also concerned disclosure of the remaining reports might
reveal the identity of the confidential informants and could
jeopardize active police investigations, Winteringham told the court.

The prosecution has already disclosed 70,000 pages of documents from
the police drug investigation, which led police to a spinoff
investigation involving the three former government aides now accused
of fraud, breach of trust and accepting benefits.

The Crown also disclosed 50,000 documents -- some containing 100 pages
- -- in the breach of trust investigation.

The hearing is dealing with a pre-trial defence application for more
Crown disclosure of documents related to the three accused.

The special prosecution team spent Thursday morning responding to a
variety of defence allegations made during 11 days of legal arguments
that began April 18.

One of the issues the defence has hammered away at is the immunity
from prosecution deal reached with Erik Bornmann, who is expected to
be the Crown's star witness.

Earlier this week, Winteringham told the judge that the special
prosecutor, Bill Berardino, could make a statement in court as to why
the deal with Bornmann was cancelled in 2004.

The prosecutor has said there was no signed deal with Bornmann, so
there was no document disclosed to the defence, so the terms of deal
haven't been disclosed.

But defence lawyer Kevin McCullough complained Thursday that he
doesn't know what Winteringham means when she said Berardino will come
to court and make a statement about the Bornmann deal.

"Is it something he's going to say to the court or is something in
writing?" the defence lawyer asked the judge.

"I understood he was prepared to come and answer questions about it,"
the judge replied.

"We're entitled to know what he's going to say," McCullough
argued.

Winteringham said she'll respond to a number of defence requests by
Tuesday, when the hearing will resume at 9:30 a.m. at the Vancouver
Law Courts. It will only sit Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

Dave Basi and Bob Virk are accused of accepting money in exchange for
confidential government documents related to the bidding process for
BC Rail.

Basi's cousin, Aneal Basi, a former government media analyst, is
accused of money laundering.