LID REMAINS SHUT ON DRUG WARRANTS AT LEAST UNTIL APRIL

While the lid has been partially lifted on half of the search warrants tied
to December's police raids on the B.C. legislature, a court-imposed seal on
the other half remains tight.

The summary of seven non-drug warrants released last Tuesday linked an RCMP
breach-of-trust investigation to the government's $1-billion sale of B.C.
Rail. But seven other warrants dealing with a federal drug investigation
that is also tied to the legislature raids remain under wraps. The court
isn't expected to release any information on them until at least April 1,
when Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm resumes hearing a media
application to gain access to all the related search warrants as well as
the information used to obtain them.

Police have tied the Dec. 28 raids on the legislature to a 20-month
investigation into drugs, money-laundering and organized crime. According
to last week's summary, the breach-of-trust investigation resulted as a
spinoff from a proceeds of crime and corruption investigation targeting
David Basi, a former ministerial assistant to Finance Minister Gary Collins.

Dohm approved' the release of a summary prepared by provincial special
prosecutor Bill Berardino that shed some light into the breach-of-trust
investigation. But he refused to allow edited documents dealing with five
drug warrants prepared by federal Crown counsel Johannes Van Iperen to be
released.

Van Iperen said that the summary he had prepared before last week's hearing
basically amounted to an edited version of the search warrants and the
information to obtain them.

But Dohm wants an overview similar to the six-page document released on the
non-drug cases. He stipulated that names not be used in the summary and he
has instructed Van Iperen to circulate the summary well in advance to
lawyers of interested parties named in the warrants.

He has asked Van Iperen to prepare that summary by April 1. Van Iperen said
his office was meeting with police to obtain information needed to complete
that task.

In addition to the five drug warrants sealed by Dohm, there are also two
related drug warrants that were issued and sealed in last December by
Duncan provincial court judge Keith Bracken.

Those refer to searches on or about Dec. 9 at the home of Mandeep Sandhu on
Bremerton Street in Saanich and on or about Dec. 28 at the Shawnigan Lake
rental property of Basi.

The Times Colonist and CH Television have applied to open those warrants as
well. Bracken ruled last month that application would have to wait until
after Dohm's hearing last week.

Bracken has not set a court date to resume the hearing on those two warrants.

No charges have been laid against any individual in either the drug or
breach-of-trust investigations.

Last week's breach-of-trust investigation summary said "further review of
documents seized and further investigation may demonstrate no persons have
committed Criminal Code offences."