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News (Media Awareness Project) - CN BC: Editorial: We're Still Waiting For Raid Answers
Title:CN BC: Editorial: We're Still Waiting For Raid Answers
Published On:2005-04-26
Source:Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Fetched On:2008-08-20 11:41:00
WE'RE STILL WAITING FOR RAID ANSWERS

B.C. voters will learn nothing more about the affair until months after we
go to the polls

British Columbia's voters will go to the polls in three weeks knowing more
than they probably care to about the sponsorship scandal in Quebec.

But they know far less about what could be an even greater scandal right
here in this province. And they should care about that, because it touches
not only officials of the national Liberal party, but the provincial party
as well -- the party asking for another four-year mandate May 17.

Since that dramatic police raid on the legislative buildings in December
2003, little information has been released. Search warrants and other
evidence are being kept secret under court orders. Intriguing charges have
been laid but court proceedings seem stalled.

Those charged with accepting a bribe, influence peddling, breach of trust
and fraud were sent directly to B.C. Supreme Court, meaning that there was
no preliminary hearing during which a few details of the cases might be made
available to the public.

Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm, sounding a trifle impatient, ordered
lawyers last month to give some "intelligent answers" as to when the trial
can begin and how long it might take. The Crown prosecutor has suggested it
might not be possible to begin until January or February -- eight or nine
months after the election.

Prime Minister Paul Martin has asked opposition parties to delay forcing an
election until after the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal has
completed its business so that voters will have all the facts of that
scandal before entering the polling booths.

No one has suggested that B.C. voters -- who are locked into four-year
elections in any case -- deserve to know the facts behind the police raid on
the legislative buildings before deciding whether to give the Liberal
government led by Gordon Campbell a second mandate. It seems that no public
inquiry will be ordered. Campbell has shrugged off this suggestion by saying
no elected officials are under investigation.

Maybe not, but those who have been interviewed by police have some pretty
impressive connections within the provincial or national Liberal parties, or
both.

In statements filed with the B.C. Supreme Court by RCMP Cpl. Andrew Cowan, a
lead investigator in the case, it's alleged that David Basi, when an aide
for former finance minister Gary Collins, and Bob Virk, an aide to former
transportation minister Judith Reid, gave out secret information about the
pending B.C. Rail sale in an effort to get jobs as chiefs-of-staff with
Liberal ministers in Ottawa.

Who could this secret information be valuable to? We don't know, but
presumably the feds weren't thinking of bidding on the sale.

The Basi and Virk resumes, according to Cowan's statements, were handled by
Erik Bornman, the operations manager for Martin's campaign in B.C., director
of communications for the national party on the West Coast, and sometime
aide to Martin when he was finance minister.

During the investigation the Mounties also interviewed Mark Marissen, who
ran Martin's leadership campaign in B.C., and was responsible for "the B.C.
hiring pool" for the transitional government, and Bruce Clark, a fundraiser
for Martin's leadership campaign and the party.

Basi, who has a reputation for membership recruitment with both the
provincial and national Liberals, has also been charged with marijuana
production and possession of pot for the purpose of trafficking.

Last year Conservative House leader John Reynolds asked the federal
government for assurances that drug money wasn't used to sign up new members
for Martin's leadership campaign -- 36,000 in B.C. He's still waiting for an
answer.

It's incredible -- a scandal in its own right -- that B.C. voters are being
asked to give the Campbell Liberals another four years in office before
knowing what might emerge from all this long after the polls have closed
again. It's sad, too, that no one seems to care.
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