RAIDS ON LEGISLATURE STILL HAVE US GUESSING

No charges have been laid and few details have been provided by the
RCMP

VICTORIA -- Today marks six months since British Columbians awoke to
the startling news of a police raid at the provincial legislature.
More than 30 boxes of documents were seized from two legislative
offices that day, and close to 100 CDs' worth of information taken
from a government computer server.

RCMP said suspicions of drug-trafficking and influence-peddling
triggered the raid -- but little has been said since.

As the first TV crews rushed to the legislature on that quiet Sunday
three days after Christmas, seven other search warrants were executed
at the homes and offices of prominent organizers in the federal
Liberal party. A fevered media, left to come up with their own answers
amid veiled comments from the RCMP about the reach of organized crime,
would spend the coming weeks turning over every rock for the smallest
clue of what was going on.

Tens of thousands of words would be written on the raids in the days
that followed. But no one ever turned up much. Today the raids remain
largely unexplained. And with any criminal charges still months away,
the mystery continues.

Meanwhile, the men targeted in the raids have carried on with their
lives. Dave Basi, a former ministerial aide whose office was raided at
the legislature, is picking up a little work in construction. Bob
Virk, another aide whose office was searched, has been spotted working
at his family's corner store, with his life on hold but still
collecting his $5,250-a-month government pay cheque.

Victoria police Const. Ravinder Dosanjh has been suspended with pay
for months now. Elsewhere in Victoria and Vancouver, other men wait
for news: Bruce Clark, a government consultant; Erik Bornmann, also a
consultant; Victoria businessman Mandeep Sandhu; and one other unnamed
Victoria businessman.

"Obviously, Mr. Basi would like to have his name cleared," says lawyer
Chris Considine, who represents the aide and Liberal organizer who was
fired from his $67,000-a-year job without explanation the day after
the raid. "He's been left in limbo, and it has been very difficult on
his family. But we have to wait."

The saga started more than two years ago when police in Vancouver,
Victoria and Toronto began investigating drug rings allegedly selling
cocaine and marijuana between B.C. and Ontario. The legislature raid
was part of the broader investigation, which to date has involved the
execution of more than 20 search warrants and the seizure of "large
amounts" of cash and drugs. Police were back in court this month
seeking more warrants.

All that is known for certain is that police learned something during
the course of their drug investigation that got them interested first
in Sandhu-- whose house was searched and computer hard drive seized
Dec. 9 -- and then Dosanjh, suspended from the Victoria police force
with pay Dec. 15 for undisclosed reasons. Dosanjh and Sandhu owned
property together.

Something connected to that brought police to the legislative offices
of Basi and Virk, who at the time worked as ministerial assistants to
Finance Minister Gary Collins and then-transportation minister Judith
Reid, respectively. While tapping the two men's phones in search of
evidence of drug involvement, police picked up a conversation about
the B.C. Rail privatization deal that sounded to them like
influence-peddling and taking favours.

That led to raids at the home offices of government consultants Clark
and Bornmann, as well as a Victoria accounting office, a consulting
firm and a heating-supply store. Federal Liberal organizer Mark
Marissen, whose wife Christy Clark is B.C.'s deputy premier, also
handed over documents.

Vancouver RCMP Sgt. John Ward said last week that nothing about that
chronology is official. It's simply the story the media pieced
together. Police have released only the sketchiest details.

Until the police investigation wraps up in August, prosecutors won't
know whether there's enough evidence to lay charges.

The Liberal Party of Canada got caught in the media tornado for a
while when it was discovered that many of those whose offices were
raided were also key Liberal recruiters and devotees of Prime Minister
Paul Martin. But stories about rigged nomination meetings and tainted
membership lists died away and were all but forgotten by the time
Martin called the federal election.

The B.C. Liberals have withered in the glare of unwanted media
attention. But as cabinet ministers have repeatedly pointed out,
police have made clear that drug trafficking did not go on at the
legislature, nor has any elected official been implicated.