GROW-OP MAY MIRE LIBERALS IN MORE DIRT

Drug Charges Against Former Grit Lead To Questions Of Corruption

SHAWNIGAN LAKE, B.C. - Residents of this quiet cottage community near
Victoria were not surprised to learn that a shabby-looking house, just
four kilometres from the local RCMP detachment, had been used for
growing weed. Marijuana-growing operations are not exactly rare in
British Columbia; there are hundreds of them in cities and towns
across the province.

What did raise eyebrows is that David Basi owns the
house.

Mr. Basi is the former legislative assistant to B.C. Finance Minister
Gary Collins. He lost his job late last year after police raided his
office in Victoria. Sleuths were looking for evidence of an illicit
drug operation -- Operation Everywhichway, they called their drug
investigation.

Somehow, their work led them to Mr. Basi and to his little cottage,
where police discovered a number of pot plants growing in a
concrete-walled basement.

Police were also made aware of something else.

On Wednesday, Mr. Basi was formally charged with one count of
possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking
and with one count of production of a controlled substance. Seven
other men were charged with related offences, most of them involving
the sale and distribution of marijuana and cocaine.

The drug charges are serious, but they are the least of his worries.
Court documents made public last week reveal Mr. Basi is also
suspected of possible involvement in money laundering and, more
troubling still, of possible corruption inside federal and provincial
Liberal party circles.

The latter suspicions arose late last year during the final stages of
the separate drug investigation. A second police investigation was
launched and remained shrouded in secrecy until information contained
in documents filed to obtain a police search warrant were released
last week.

In the documents, police suggest Mr. Basi was overheard offering to
lobbyists and other political operatives confidential details of the
B.C. government's plan to sell pieces of provincially owned railways.

According to the search warrant application, Mr. Basi is believed to
have "offered, delivered or caused to have been delivered government
documents" to Bruce Clark. Mr. Clark is a federal Liberal fundraiser
who worked on Paul Martin's successful leadership campaign. He is also
the brother of a very prominent provincial Liberal politician,
Christie Clark.

This may all be very innocent. Mr. Basi may have been sharing with Mr.
Clark material that was not confidential. Or he may have shared
nothing with him at all. Charges of breach of trust are still being
contemplated, says a special prosecutor assigned to the second police
investigation.

But there has already been political fall-out. Yesterday, Christie
Clark abruptly resigned as B.C.'s deputy premier and as Minister of
Child and Family Services.

Ms. Clark claimed she quit her posts, and scrubbed plans to run in the
next provincial election, because she wanted to spend more time with
her family. Her decision to self-detonate what had been a sparkling
career had nothing to do with police suspicions about her brother's
dealings with Mr. Basi, she insisted.

That is hard to swallow. The sale of provincially owned B.C. Rail has
long been a burr in government's saddle. The police allegations
regarding Mr. Basi appear to support suggestions the process was
flawed and possibly corrupted by insider politics.

Earlier this year, the B.C. government was forced to cancel its scheme
to sell a much smaller rail system south of Vancouver. The reason?
RCMP investigators determined confidential information had been
forwarded to people with a personal interest in the bidding process.

Then there are police allegations that Mr. Basi and another
legislative executive, Bob Virk, stood to receive federal Liberal
party jobs in exchange for providing confidential details regarding
railway privatization to a Vancouver-based lobbyist working on behalf
of an American bidder.

Police suggest the lobbyist, Erik Bornman, passed along their names to
yet another Liberal party rainmaker, one Mark Marissen.

Mr. Marissen is a honcho. He ran Prime Minister Martin's leadership campaign
in B.C. He is also married to a very high-profile provincial Grit: Christie
Clark.

Is it all a big coincidence? Maybe. Do myriad Liberal ties to an
alleged marijuana producer and suspected influence peddler make for
bad optics? Definitely.

What's most remarkable is that this tangled web of political intrigue
might have never come to light had a police drug squad not raided Mr.
Basi's homely little cottage in December.

Mr. Basi claims he is innocent of the drug charges laid against him.
He says, through his lawyer, that the marijuana operation inside his
$194,000 cottage was the work of unscrupulous "tenants," and that he
was completely unaware of the activities going on inside the place.

Curiouser and curiouser. Neighbours say there was never any sign of
tenants after Mr. Basi and his wife bought the house in March, 2003.
The building always seemed empty.

Yesterday, three small dogs tethered to ropes leapt at me as I walked
across the backyard of the house. A light was on inside. I knocked at
the door. No one answered.