FIVE YEARS AND COUNTING; IT'LL BE WORTH THE WAIT

VANCOUVER -- Not long after RCMP investigators began bugging the
phones of suspected drug dealers in Victoria in 2003, they opened a
file named Project Everywhichway, to reflect the bewildering number of
leads they were uncovering. Had they known the work they performed on
that file would still be before the courts five years later, they
might have named it Project Neverending.

The prosecution of two key suspects that emerged from that
investigation has been dragging on for so long that people have
started to wonder whether it will ever go to trial. It will - although
unfortunately the trial, which involves charges of political
corruption, likely won't begin until after the provincial election in
May.

The latest delay in the case was made last week when the Supreme Court
of Canada agreed to hear an appeal by special prosecutor William Berardino.

Mr. Berardino had sought leave to appeal a decision made by the trial
judge, Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett of the Supreme Court of British
Columbia, that might have exposed the identity of a secret police informant.

Instead of starting in March, the case will now be delayed until the
Supreme Court of Canada has ruled on the secret-informant issue. That
could take a few months, or a year, depending on how quickly the top
court moves on the matter.

Despite the delay, and the seemingly endless legal wrangling that has
gone on throughout the pretrial period, the prosecution of Dave Basi
and Bobby Virk still looks as though it will proceed.

Eventually the public will learn, through testimony in open court,
just what the police discovered when the suspected drug dealers they
were tracking led them to Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk.

And then to the doors of the provincial legislature, which was raided
in December of 2003.

The two former Liberal ministerial aides are accused of corruption,
fraud, breach of trust and money laundering, related to the alleged
selling of government information tied to the $1-billion sale of B.C.
Rail. Aneal Basi, a former government communications officer and Dave
Basi's cousin, faces charges of money laundering.

The defence strategy, which is to portray the accused as mere pawns of
the government, not maverick, ministerial aides who acted on their
own, will give the public an unprecedented look into the inner
workings of the Liberal Party.

Already the defence has obtained about 4,000 documents, totalling more
than 300,000 pages, which include cabinet records, internal e-mails
and wiretap transcripts.

Mr. Basi and Mr. Virk, it should be remembered, were two of the
hottest political operatives in the provincial capital at the time.
They talked to everybody who was anybody in government, in the media
and within the Liberal Party. They chatted daily to lobbyists,
political strategists and top people in Premier Gordon Campbell's office.

And sooner or later, all of that stuff is going to be revealed in
court as lawyers dissect the B.C. Rail privatization deal.

It's going to be a long wait, but it will be worth
it.

Of course the accused could plead guilty at any moment, or could
succeed in a motion claiming their rights have been violated by
inadequate disclosure. Or the Crown could abandon the prosecution in
order to protect the secret police informant.

But those scenarios just don't seem likely. What is most probable is
that Judge Bennett, an unflappable magistrate who seems to have a
complete grasp of this case, will keep things plodding steadily
onward, until it reaches a just conclusion.

The case is moving slowly. But it is moving - and one day Project
Everywhichway will get the full exposure it deserves.