ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER SCANDAL IN LOTUS LAND

What is it about the changing of the annual calendar that brings
scandal to our B.C. Liberal government? Twelve months ago, 2003 was
barely a couple of weeks old when Premier Gordon Campbell downed one
too many martinis and wound up in the drunk tank in Maui.

Shortly thereafter, our own John van Dongen had to step aside as
minister of agriculture, food and fisheries while the RCMP conducted a
criminal investigation into his handling of a file relating to fish
farms.

(Van Dongen was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, but he did admit
making the mistake of tipping off a fish farm company of a Ministry of
Environment investigation into said fish farm).

And how else would we ring in another year, but with the sight of cops
carting off boxes of evidence from the legislature in Victoria? The
police say the search warrants executed at the legislature and in
homes and businesses in the Vancouver and Victoria areas are connected
to what began 20 months ago as a cross-border drug smuggling
investigation.

That probe has apparently led to investigations of other crimes, and
is somehow connected to a police corruption probe within the Victoria
Police Department.

What is known is that the cops are interested in David Basi,
ministerial assistant to Finance Minister Gary Collins, and Bob Virk,
ministerial assistant to Transportation Minister Judith Reid.

There are questions that beg answers. Why was Basi fired and Virk
suspended? Why was Pilothouse Public Affairs, a consulting company
that lobbied on behalf of a company bidding for BC Rail, searched by
police? What, exactly, did the cops seize from the
legislature?

What is known is the latest intrigue in Victoria can not surprise even
the most casual observer of politics in this wacky province.